Climate change and damaged ecosystems are making urban heat waves more intense, research shows, while air and noise pollution continues to be a problem across the continent. Increasing the number of trees and green spaces in cities could significantly reduce these pressures, however.
Europe is a long way away from fully implementing the so-called “3-30-300 principle,” a common guideline used in urban planning which establishes that people should be able to see at least three mature trees from their house, that tree canopies should cover 30 percent of all neighborhoods, and that all urban dwellers should live within 300 meters of green spaces like parks, forests or public gardens.
But people with a higher disposable income are more likely to live in urban areas with significantly better access to nature compared to low income households, the study finds. And cities in the richer, northwestern corners of Europe were found to be twice as likely to meet the 3-30-300 standards than those in southern and eastern Europe.
Helsinki, Munich and Krakow boast a much higher rate of total population living with good access to green spaces compared to southern cities like Athens, Perpignan in France or Cordoba in Spain, for example.
Under EU law, EU countries are meant to prevent the net loss of urban green space and urban tree canopy cover until 2030, and start gradually increasing the number of green spaces in cities afterwards.