Canada biggest cities have lost their green spaces at staggering rates over the past two decades, new data from Statistics Canada has revealed.
Canada biggest cities have lost their green spaces at staggering rates over the past two decades, new data from Statistics Canada suggests.
Lose those trees and green spaces, and a city looses an important buffer against extreme heat and cold. On average, the bigger the urban area, the less area was classed as green. In large urban areas, greenness averaged 65 per cent, while 73 per cent of medium-sized cities and 86 per cent of small population centres were deemed green.
The overall decline in urban greenness concerns people like Alex Boston, who as the executive director of Renewable Cities at Simon Fraser University, was on the panel that produced a BC Coroners' report into the deadly 2021 heat dome. As Canada’s fastest growing city, he says Kelowna has done a good job at growing green spaces as it denisifies its core.
“Reversing urban tree canopy loss and reversing the loss of vegetation is absolutely critical requirement for every local government,” added Boston. “It’s basically showing you how much live vegetation there is,” said Amelia Needoba, senior urban forester at Diamond Head Consulting, a remote sensing firm in Vancouver.
“There's a mix of signals in the data. It’s not just showing loss,” said Needoba. “I don’t think [Statistics Canada] has done a good job of explaining the variability.”
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