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