Are trees in the city a luxury?

Studies conducted over the past few decades around the world show an undeniable link between the amount of green space, especially wooded areas, and the quality and length of human life. Despite this, cities continue to see a decline in the number of trees. With the challenges of climate change and increasing urbanization, it is essential to base city planning projects on green growth.

Benefits for people

The beneficial effects of trees on a city’s environment also translate into the health of its residents. It is trees, known as tall greenery, that perform the most important function in shaping the local microclimate. They improve air quality and humidity, provide oxygen, reduce noise, protect against excessive sunlight and make the landscape more attractive. Their presence in cities has a positive impact on public health – translating into fewer illnesses and deaths related to air pollution and heat waves. Trees improve the condition as well as the well-being of people, positively affecting both physical and mental health. Plants have been shown to increase concentration and productivity levels, reduce stress, the risk of depression, and even foster better relationships between people and communities.

Tree management

Trees bring with them a variety of services that they provide to people and the city. By improving air quality, they reduce medical costs, taking care of our health. They regulate the urban climate, reducing the risk of costly damage from extreme weather events. They lower the air temperature, reducing the energy costs we would spend on cooling our rooms. They reduce surface runoff of rainwater and help store water, resulting in lower expenditures on municipal sewers. Currently, studies on the economic value of tree services are among the strongest arguments for their protection in the city.

A wake-up call

Valuable reports proclaiming the imminent end of civilization as we know it are becoming increasingly common. According to scientists, factors affecting ecosystems, such as climate and temperature, the disruption of which could irreversibly damage the environment, have already exceeded the safety limits. We are experiencing the sixth mass extinction, which means the loss of about 75% of all species on the planet in a short geological time. In 2020, for the first time in history, the total amount of man-made materials, such as concrete, asphalt, metals, plastics, will exceed the biomass of living organisms on Earth. Currently, the amount of plastics has exceeded twice the weight of all land and sea animals combined, and for every square meter of the planet’s surface, including the oceans, there is about 1 kg of concrete. Moreover, the mass of buildings and infrastructure is already greater than the biomass of the planet’s trees and shrubs. Unfortunately, despite the abundance of information on the benefits of trees and greenery in general, they are still an underrated element of the urban landscape, increasingly giving way to new developments.

What can be done?

Although sometimes it seems that small gestures are meaningless, their sum can already change a lot. That’s why, as the Łódź Art Center Foundation, the organizer of the Łódź Design Festival, we are signatories to the “Culture for Climate” declaration and in our daily work we try to implement its assumptions. We support Łódź entrepreneurs and cooperate with local artists. We implement green installations, such as rain gardens or a floating island, as well as solutions to improve the quality of urban space (ceramic city bench at the Łódź Fabryczna train station or renovation of craft store windows).

You can read more about ŁDF’s activities here.
Learn more about our “green” publications:
Floating islands
Rain gardens