HOPE
Responding to Heatwaves in the Older People Ecosystem
Macro
Main result
Urban transformation initiative
Title
“Corredores verdes”: Medellín green corridors
Date 2016 - ongoing
Objectives
The “Green corridors” project aims at transforming the public spaces of the City of Medellín to make it more resilient to climate change and to make it more livable for its residents. While aiming at decreasing the heat island effect in the urban areas of the city, it has developed a network of interconnected green spaces, roads, gardens, parks and hills.
Location /geographical coverage
Alcaldía de Medellín, Colombia
Organisation responsible for good practice
The Municipality of Medellín is responsible for the implementation of the “Green corridors” project through its Secretary for the Environment.
Stakeholders and partners
Τhe main beneficiaries of “Green Corridors” project are residents of the City of Medellín.
Short summary
The Municipality of Medellín started this project in 2016, in a time when the expansion and further urbanization of the city together with the increase in private transportation use had been producing an urban heat island effect and a preoccupying increase in air pollution levels, that were worsening the quality of life of the residents. It was estimated that the death toll related to pollution in Medellín area amounted to 1,971 casualties in 2016. To fight the consequences of these phenomena, the project was proposed as an urban transformation initiative aimed at exploiting an efficient and effective use of nature-based solutions within public spaces. This led to the creation of over 30 green corridors, composed of “newly-greened road verges, vertical gardens, streams, parks and nearby hills”. According to the data reported by the Municipality, the green corridors created contribute to decreasing the temperature by 2°C, absorbing pollutants, isolating noise and capturing carbon dioxide. Consequently, such corridors help regenerate biodiversity and produce oxygen. In 2016, when the project was first launched, it envisioned the plantation of around 120,000 plants and 12,500 trees, which soon increased to 2.5 million and 880,000 respectively by 2021. Overall, the Municipality invested around 13.2€ million to kick-start the project, and kept spending 504,000€ yearly to maintain it. Yet, the direction of the spending has always been co-decided by the Municipality with community members through a municipal participatory budget. This latter allows residents to choose support specific initiatives. In addition, residents also helped maintain the urban greenery created as a consequence of the project, by fostering new job opportunities especially for socially vulnerable people.
Impact
The project has proved to be successful under many perspectives and has succeeded in generating strong positive response among the residents and the community as a whole. Pre- and post-measurements of the temperature in the areas affected by the project have been key to confirm the average decrease by 2°C, which in some areas almost -4°C. The increased greenery has also given a strong contribution to the restoration of the local biodiversity, in particular lizards, birds, frogs, and bats. Compared to the initial plans, the numbers of the plants and trees planted have continued to increase exponentially.
Innovation
“Green corridors” can be seen as pioneering project that has successfully managed to respond to the increasing and worrying air pollution levels and to the declining quality of life for urban residents by offering an efficient and low-cost nature-based solution. As a matter of fact, it has integrated a wise study of the most efficient plants and trees to use for the scope in subject with a strong popular support. Residents recognize the improved quality of life and have kept supporting many other green initiatives through the municipal participatory budget. Lat but not least, “Green corridors” stands out for having combined environmental and climate actions with social actions, by engaging socially vulnerable people in the maintenance of the urban greenery connected to the project.
Lessons learned
The project sets a good example of how climate adaptation measures can be low-cost, effective, efficient, and broadly supported whenever such measures are implemented consistently and timely. The launch of the project came in a moment of great attention towards the impact of particulates and other air pollutants in urban areas and represents a strong public response against this problem. The results reported to far are promising and this has led to an even higher resonance and replication of green corridors in other cities around the world. Even if the network of green corridors is helping residents in the city to better cope with urban temperatures, the poorest areas on the hills surrounding Medellín haven’t been affected by the project yet, which means that they are still exposed to high temperatures and heat island effects.
Sustainability
“Green corridors” has wisely responded to the need and urgency to combine social, economic and environmental sustainability principles in response to the poor air quality in the urban area of Medellín. The project has contributed to make the city more resilient and adaptive by studying which kind of plant species could have best responded to the need to absorb air pollutants and to decrease temperatures. In addition, it strongly improved and regenerated the local biodiversity. Similarly, the practice has proven to be economically sustainable, by requiring low spending compared to the effectiveness of the solutions implemented. The maintenance of the results of the project has been itself connected to the need to make this practice socially sustainable, by engaging socially vulnerable people.
Replicability and/or up-scaling
“Green corridors” is having a great resonance worldwide and has been awarded multiple times. In 2019, the Municipality was awarded the Ashden Award related to transformative climate solutions. The solutions adopted in Medellín are being currently tested and implemented in other cities such as Bogotá and Barranquilla. In São Paulo, they are also expanding previously created green corridors.
Contact details
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Related Web
Related resources that have been developed
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230922-how-medellin-is-beating-the-heat-with-green-corridors
https://acimedellin.org/corredores-verdes-corredores-de-vida-en-medellin/
