2023 NZPI CONFERENCE PRESENTATION


Are we building hotter harder cities?

The vital importance of urban green spaces


PRESENTER: Andrew McCarthy



Green spaces provide a range of benefits to city dwellers. They represent a place to socialise or exercise, or simply just escape the day-to-day sights and sounds of urban life. They also provide a range of environmental services: stormwater management, temperature regulation, air filtration, carbon sequestration and habitat for biodiversity.

These benefits – recreational, visual, environmental – will become more sought after in a denser future subject to more extreme heat and rainfall events. That raises a question: what is the current state of green space in our cities and how is it changing? Drawing on recent research undertaken by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, this talk will provide insights into those questions.