But across the cities we studied, many struggled with the same three issues, even as some delivered strong results: not enough staff, no clear processes for actually delivering the greening, and risk-averse organisational culture that made doing new things difficult.
When we spoke to staff in these cities about their results, they often already knew these were barriers, but they didn’t have the power to really resolve them. The issues tend to be well above the pay grade of officers in greening teams.
Greening depends on leaders
These findings highlight the reforms required to get urban greening out of the starting blocks, at least in the cities we studied.
Many local governments are likely already familiar with the issues we observed, but our study suggested that, in addition to some of the big headline problems we listed above, individual cities will each face their own particular challenges.
Fixing these problems largely depends on getting executive and political leaders with clout involved to assign resources, streamline processes and modernise attitudes to risk. It’ll be a hard sell — these fiddly organisational reforms aren’t as fun as giving bold speeches or cutting ribbons.
Still, if these powerful leaders can roll up their sleeves and ensure their organisations have all the success factors in place, the rewards are clear.
Delivering urban greening at large scale will leave our cities not only more pleasant and attractive, but also healthier, and more resilient to heatwaves and flooding.
Story: Thami Croeser, Research Officer, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University; Professor Sarah Bekessey Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT University; Dr Georgia Garrard, Senior lecturer, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.