Our city’s urban areas are made of hard surfaces such as roads, footpaths and buildings. These absorb and reflect heat, making hotter, unpleasant spaces. Preserving or planting trees and other vegetation in these urban areas is proven to reduce temperatures and brings a multitude of benefits for people and the environment.
Urban greening is an important part of creating a resilient and liveable city. The urban forest, urban corridors, and greening within public and private realms make up what we refer to as urban greening. Council’s Urban Greening Plan includes measures for increasing greening in our parks and open space, waterways and wetlands, and urban corridors across Ipswich suburbs.
Benefits of Urban Greening for our neighbourhoods include:
- mitigating the impacts and effects of climate change
- reducing urban heat island effect
- providing shade and cooling
- providing habitat for urban plants and animals
- carbon sequestration (storing carbon) and absorbing air pollutants
- filtering stormwater
- mental and physical health benefits
- increased aesthetic and character values.
Council’s goal is to increase the quality and quantity of beneficial vegetation cover across Ipswich’s urban footprint. The Urban Greening Plan sets an informed and evidence-based direction.
This provides a strategic approach on prioritising areas to best achieve the multiple benefits of urban greening.
This includes:
- assessing and improving current conditions (such as canopy cover and connectivity)
- implementing greening projects to be planned and delivered in a collaboration with key stakeholders.
The Plan provides a road map for council and the community to improve urban conservation and biodiversity while increasing greening benefits. In order to develop this, Ipswich City Council will:
- Review current conditions
- Review level of canopy cover in each suburb (within the urban footprint)
- Fill knowledge gaps
- Strategically plan for future climates
- Develop implementation plans, measurement and reporting mechanisms.
More Information
Urban Greening Plan 2022–2042 (PDF, 4.2 MB)
Urban Greening Putting the Plan into Action 2022 (PDF, 2.1 MB)