In our 18th LandLabs session on 16 November. Alasdair Gray and Émilie Leclerc discussed climate resilient streets and integrated sustainable water management.
Two thirds of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is CO2; this is largely the product of burning fossil fuels. While the target for managing carbon emissions is 2.5 tonnes of CO2 per UK resident per year, the built environment controls 290 Mt of CO2 per year. As landscape architects and designers we can have a huge impact on the built environment.
Problems we are facing today in cities include lack of biodiversity, poor air quality, water management, and temperature extremes. Making streets attractive with green infrastructure has major benefits. Trees remove pollution, reduce air temperature, reduce flooding, reduce water pollution and increase biodiversity.
Alasdair is an Associate Director at Civic Engineers, where he leads the detail design and implementation of green infrastructure and streetscape projects. At a former practice he worked on Elephant Park with some of the Gillespies team. Civic Engineers has worked with Gillespies on a number of projects, including Mayfield Park.
