Community environmental planning projects
Destruction of forests creates numerous environmental catastrophes, including altering local rainfall patterns, accelerating soil erosion, causing the flooding of rivers, and threatening millions of species of plants, animals and insects with extinction.
As human health and environmental conditions worsen, and the aging City of Toronto is in need of repair, the best time for environmental planning initiatives was yesterday.
In the Davenport west area of Toronto, there is 77% less green space than the average Toronto neighbourhood. Trees provide much needed cool, shaded green spaces, which help mitigate the effects of escalating temperatures in the city caused by the urban heat island effect and global climate change. Trees also have the ability to filter air-borne pollutants and sequester one of the key greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide. In Toronto, researchers have concluded that air pollution is the cause of up to 822 deaths each year (Toronto Public Health, 2005).
Besides the health benefits, planting new trees and increasing the survival rate of existing trees provides cost-effective environmental benefits. These include source water protection, drought and flood protection, moderating climate change, providing habitat for birds, insects and other urban wildlife, and reducing energy consumption in homes and buildings, which also reduces the amount of greenhouse gases.
CEPP aims to address key environmental disadvantages through the following greening and reforestation processes.
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I.Park Audit and Redesign Process provides communities with tools to evaluate parks in the area and determine needed improvements for enhanced park safety, accessibility, use and improved local green spaces;
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II.Schoolyard Audit and Redesign Process aims to reduce the number of all-asphalt play areas for children. Removing asphalt from schoolyards and adding trees will protect children from overexposure to UV radiation and the accompanying heat stress of shadeless playgrounds. In addition, the areas are transformed into alternate green recreational spaces for the community.
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III.Public Consultation Process for Green Streetscape Improvements organizes public meetings to discuss the range of greening improvements available through City development levies, and road reconstruction/ resurfacing projects.
GreenHere’s Community Environmental Planning Project (CEPP) addresses environmental and social justice issues using a bottom-up community-based approach to environmental planning, community stewardship, reforestation, and citizen engagement.
