City dwellers are demanding more nature in the city. In Paris this takes the form of offering more varied parks and gardens, increasing and developing greening on buildings and in public spaces. Today, the planted heritage stands at 106,000 trees along Parisian streets. 647 km of road have trees planted i.e. 38% of the 1,700 km of roads within Paris proper. Increasing the place of vegetation further in public spaces could address the need for coolness, comfort, biodiversity and attractiveness.
Greening the city embellishes it and improves the living environment. It is also essential for developing biodiversity and contributes at a local level to cooling (shade, evapotranspiration…), rainwater management (infiltration) and improving air quality (fixing dust, CO² and certain pollutants).
Like many municipalities, the City of Paris has for 20 years been committed to offering its inhabitants more nature, by opening new parks and gardens and encouraging the widespread greening of buildings. The City has also fixed the objective of rendering 40% of the territory permeable and greened by 2040 and increasing by 2% the proportion of tree top canopy by 2030.
This study, carried out during the first semester of 2020, deals with identifying public space that could be greened in accord with criteria linked to:
- the morphology and history, particularly the heritage of Alphand walks,
- the development and improvement of urban biodiversity corridors,
- thermal comfort and the reduction of the heat island effect,
- the reduction of areas lacking vegetation,
- opportunities offered by projects underway at the city gateways - Portes de Paris -, the Boulevard Périphérique and the green belt, the River Seine embankments, cycle paths and underground infrastructures.
These developments will durably transform practices and that development of public space in Paris, and this study could be the common basis for nourishing exchanges and the future choices to be made.
