2023-05-21 03:00:23
published
BernThis should soon be “the greenest street in Switzerland”.
For cities to remain attractive while managing climate change and biodiversity loss, they need to become greener. The University of Bern is now daring an experiment.
Residents had the opportunity to plant seedlings and green the Postgasse individually. Pots, soil and plants were provided, which now adorn the arcades and window sills.
Matthias Erb, University of Bern
The University of Bern hopes to collect valuable data on the effects of greening on temperature, biodiversity, water balance and quality of life.
Matthias Erb, University of Bern
That’s what it’s regarding:
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The University of Bern wants to green Postgasse in a pilot project and then measure the effect of this greening.
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Residents were able to plant seedlings that were recently made available and thus individually green the Postgasse.
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In a further step, the plants are to be cared for by the residents themselves.
Around half of the entire world population lives in urban areas. In addition to many advantages, cities also have a number of disadvantages: They heat up much more than the surrounding areas, offer hardly any habitat for plants and animals in the core cities and the quality of life is often lower than desired. Greening is difficult because of the existing structures. The University of Bern is now daring an experiment.
Postgasse in a green robe
The aim of the pilot project sounds ambitious: the Berner Postgasse, which is a listed building, is to become the “greenest alley in Switzerland”, as the university website says. The starting signal has already been given: On May 6th, residents and interested parties were invited to a planting day. Using the pots, soil and plants provided, they were encouraged to green their windowsills and outdoor areas.
“Throughout the day, many cheerful residents came by, planted their own pots and greened their own windowsills,” says Matthias Erb from the Institute of Plant Sciences to 20 minutes. In addition, the arcades of the Postgasse were provided with trees in large pots. The effects of the more than 300 vegetable, herb and flower seedlings as well as the trees and shrubs that are now thriving in Postgasse are now being researched in relation to temperature, biodiversity, water balance and quality of life.
take on personal responsibility
According to Erb, the Postgasse “has already gained some greenery”. The residents made good use of the planting day and showed great interest in the project. Now it is interesting to see how the project will develop further and to what extent the residents will continue to green their streets themselves. “It takes a lot of plants and a lot of cooperation from local residents to green an alley – the planting day was a first step in this direction,” says the initiator of the project. It is planned that the care of the plants will be done by the residents themselves.
“Uncomplicated upgrading of urban living space”
According to Erb, the planting day has already provided a first important insight. It has been shown that “in the cooperation between residents, research and business, an upgrade of the urban living space is possible very quickly and easily”. The positive and optimistic mood during the planting day also confirmed that the plants “might directly contribute to a more positive world view and better quality of life for people”. “It is still unclear to what extent the measures taken are sufficient to produce further visible environmental effects. The more intensive the greening, the higher the chances of producing measurable effects on the climate and biodiversity,” says Erb.
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