Can Our Parks Make Us More Resilient to Climate Change

what do public spaces do for you

when you think about spending time

outside in a park at an outdoor market

or on the street what do those places

really do for you

do they give you time to people watch be

in nature

shop with local entrepreneurs when

they’re well-designed and well-managed

public spaces like these

provide the social infrastructure that

keep our cities alive and make our

communities feel like home

at their best they give us a chance to

meet our neighbors provide space for

demonstrations

boost health embrace and foster equity

and offer us peace of mind and fresh air

but what if they could do more now i’m

not an urban planner

my background is in climate change

specifically how it impacts people and

policy

so a few years ago when i started a job

at a nonprofit called project for public

spaces

it was a bit of a change for me to go

from working on urban sustainability

to thinking about things like design

details in public parks

this transition was one that would make

me think differently about the way

people live in and move through their

communities

i would learn a lot about how a process

called place making helps communities to

make their vision for their public

spaces a reality

and about how tightly these things can

be linked to our changing climate

if you look closely enough suddenly i

was frustrated at all the missed

opportunities i saw in public spaces

everywhere i went parks that weren’t

accessible

or didn’t really serve the communities

that needed them most

my eyes were suddenly opened to the ways

that depending on how they’re managed

used or built our parks and our streets

can either support us in solving shared

problems or worsen them

as i learn more about the crucial

importance of public spaces in the

fabric of today’s cities

i begin to see how important even our

smallest parks are

in solving larger societal problems like

climate change

an example of this that really drove the

point home to me was hurricane harvey

when houston’s baker ripley community

center was mobilized in disaster

recovery

precisely because it is such a hub of

community services in normal times

it made it possible for people to

coordinate volunteer and emergency

service efforts

when the city was flooded by the

hurricane after learning about this

example i started to think about where

climate and the public realm could

intersect of course

many people are already talking about

the ways that our urban environment can

be adapted to climate change

but these conversations are all too

often dominated by ideas like

sea walls or flood prevention and other

sorts of physical resilience building

efforts

these so-called prevent and predict

approaches all too often leave

real people to the wayside but on our

worst days

we all know that it’s people who help

each other to recover

we’ve seen this time and again when

people brave flooded streets to evacuate

their neighbors during a hurricane

or help each other to rebuild homes

after a natural disaster strikes

this means that we’re missing a link

here social resilience

social resilience is widely considered

to be our ability to respond to a

challenge

it’s based on social cohesion which has

a lot to do with attachment to a place

connections with other people and shared

values

all things that a good public space can

support

so why can’t we do both wrap physical

and social resilience all into one place

i’d argue that public spaces are

uniquely positioned to lay the

foundation for both

physical and social resilience we can

certainly design them

to absorb excess rain water or provide

shade but we can also make sure that

they’re the places that we go to meet

our neighbors and build up our social

safety net of trusted folks

the question is how to balance the two

how to create a space that absorbs or

resists the physical hazards of climate

that’s also a fun and welcoming place

that supports social cohesion

how do we avoid wasting the opportunity

that our parks streets and plazas

provide

to not only physically weather the

shocks of the climate crisis

but to do so in ways that build off of

strong social ties

first i think we can look to places like

rotterdam a city that’s doing climate

adaptation a little differently

in rotterdam a concept called a water

square has been made into official

policy

under rotterdam’s water plan 2.

now what is a water square the water

square concept was developed by local

architects at the urban eastern and it’s

basically a public space that serves a

second function as a stormwater

management feature

designed to flood and collect water on

days of heavy precipitation

water plant bentham pine is one of such

water squares

the bentham klein water square has three

large basins

and a series of gutters and drainage

features embedded into the plaza

but beyond collecting rainwater

waterline bentham klein is designed for

multiple social uses

one basin is great for skateboarding

another is designed for basketball or

other team sports

and the third serves the surrounding

schools fitness centers and churches

as a gathering space this summer i

studied the square

and eventually visited sitting there for

hours to observe

not only how the space looks and

functions physically but also how it

performs on a social scale

i watched how people moved through the

space whether they stopped

and lingered or just passed through i

watched how different age groups

navigated the park

and heard their dislikes and likes about

the space

i also spoke to the folks who designed

the square as well as those who clean

and maintain it on a daily basis

and the city officials who wrote the

local adaptation policies that made it

possible

the bentham plan water square is a

gathering place

primarily used by students and people

visiting the institutions that surround

it

over the course of my visits i noticed

that it was often used

as a through space for people walking or

cycling

particularly people visiting the fitness

center

skaters also used the space but found it

limited and how many obstacles it had

for them

to grind their skateboards on and they

complained about things like broken

glass and garbage

nonetheless the space offers lots of

different types

of places to sit to gather or to

exercise

here’s what i think communities from

around the world can learn from this

water square

first off you don’t have to completely

redesign a space

or go fully high tech though the water

square

model relies on many mechanical systems

that helped it to manage

stormwater runoff climate adaptation

doesn’t always have to look that way

volunteer events to depave a space or

the addition of greenery on your street

these are also a climate adaptation to

that end

the city of rotterdam supports locals

with supplies and innovative grants to

do things like turn paved areas into

green spaces

secondly adaptation at the expense of

accessibility

is an adaptation don’t let

climate-proofing features make a space

inaccessible

just like in any other public space if

it doesn’t work well for everyone it

doesn’t work

period sometimes physical features like

rain gutters or steps

can make access difficult for

differently abled people

a resilient space is first and foremost

a public space

so making sure that foundational values

like accessibility for everyone

are kept in mind is the most important

starting point

next resilient public spaces mean

creating a new type of management plan

the water square is a unique maintenance

strategy it’s got a different cleaning

schedule than other squares

and maintenance teams who work there on

a daily basis have adapted their

techniques and tools to fit the square

and its technical specifications

another takeaway is that true resilience

requires iteration

and learning a learning oriented and

evolving approach is a surefire sign of

a project that cultivates social

resilience

the water plan bentham flying was a

pilot project and as i’ve mentioned it

has a lot of mechanical features to pump

surface water

but since its construction the city has

continued to learn from the square

now new water squares are built

differently relying less on mechanical

features

and more on gravity to move captured

water

it’s also easy to get too narrowly

focused when it comes to climate hazards

but we really do have to address

multiple issues at once

it’s easy to miss less visible things

like heat stress or access to shade

for example the water square design was

almost entirely based on water

management priorities

and risks like heat were not a

particular area of focus

but now heat is coming to be a larger

part of rotterdam’s adaptation plans

which leads me to my next point

resilience planning requires

collaboration across disciplines and

across teams

rotterdam is currently working on a heat

plan championed mostly by the public

health department

but also heavily involving folks in the

city management team

who work on climate adaptation strategy

another thing to consider is that it’s

often more effective to nest resilience

goals with other broader city level

goals perhaps because rotterdam faces so

many hydrological risks

climate adaptations in rotterdam are

housed within the water department

but beyond that rotterdam’s resilience

and adaptation goals

are combined with things like tourism

attraction of talent

greening and beautification and now even

covid recovery

in early 2020 a set of seven public

space projects aimed at greening and

coveted sensitive social distancing

adjustments were announced

another thing to remember is that it’s

important to make sure that community

engagement

happens meaningfully from the outset and

continues

long after the project is finished true

place making

as noted by experts like fred kent draws

out the expertise that the community

already has

not just filling in the gaps on a

preconceived design or function

rather getting in touch with the

community’s vision from the start

it’s also key to partner wisely and fund

non-profit programs that truly know

what’s happening at the street level

non-profits can often be better at

building up grassroots initiatives to

get projects implemented

than municipalities are collaborating

with non-profits not only as

implementers

but as people who can shape policy and

design is key

all of these recommendations are to say

that taking people into account

means that we have a more comprehensive

view of what resilience

really means if we keep that in mind

we’ll be better prepared as our cities

and communities continue to come face to

face with the climate crisis

not only in terms of public space but

generally

now rotterdam is by no means the only

city working on combining resilience and

public space

cities like bangkok new york city and

toronto among many others are taking

this approach as well

now is our chance to learn from these

innovators in the realm of resilient

public spaces

so whether you’re a city maker urban

planner public space enthusiast or even

just someone who sometimes goes to the

park

i hope you can see just how much our

public spaces can do for us

in an era of climate change

you