Urban green spaces

NATURGREEN:

NATive Urban Green Spaces for climate, pollinators, and human health

Urban planners employ green spaces as a strategic solution to address land cover challenges and counter environmental issues. Previous research has highlighted that increased greenery in neighborhoods correlates with reduced heat waves, enhanced air quality, and greater outdoor community engagement.

This pilot project focused on assessing the impact of integrating native plants within urban green spaces across Denver. Objectives were studying the presence of pollinators, enhancing human health, and potentially lowering human mortality rates in urban environments.

Through an analysis of plant nativity, hybridization, pollinator interactions, and other biological traits, the project offered specific plant recommendations to aid city planners in promoting both human and pollinator well-being within urban areas. Research on the project determined that if 30% of the study area in Denver was converted to native plants, 88 premature annual deaths would be prevented with a combined projected economic value of $339.2 million.

Who was the Research Team?

College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

David Rojas

Michael Garber, Postdoc

College of Agricultural Sciences

Jennifer Bousselot

Michael Guidi, Grad Student

What did they do?

Researchers on the NATURGREEN project investigated the potential health impacts of different plant policy scenarios in Denver by conducting interviews with local expert stakeholders. The team developed four different plans for utilizing native plants to reduce human mortality and improve health in Denver: 

  1. Making 30% of all city areas as green as places with native plants
  2. Putting 200-foot native-plant buffers along the edges of rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies
  3. Constructing large water retention ponds landscaped with native plants
  4. Adding native plant greenergy to parking lots

What did they find?

Upon review of the implementation of each plant policy scenario, the research team determined: 

  1. Native plant introduction into city planning can reduce premature human mortality in urban areas
  2. City-wide implementation of native plant introduction and maintenance can have significant health benefits for residents, pollinators, and biodiversity 
  3. Making 30% of neighborhoods green with native plants has the potential to stop 88 premature deaths annually (range: 20 to 128)
  4. Covering 30% of parking lots with native plants has the potential to stop around 14 premature deaths annually (range: 7 to 18)
  5. Adding green areas around rivers may stop about 13 premature deaths annually (range: 2 to 20)
  6. Adding water collection ponds may not stop any human deaths annually. 

Success as a Result of Pilot Efforts