,
City population:
Duration: 2016 – ongoing
Implementation status: In piloting stage
Scale: Sub-microscale: Street scale (including buildings)
Project area: unknown
Type of area: Residential, Other
Last updated: October 2021

The City of Melbourne, through its Urban Forest Strategy, has a comprehensive plan for greening major streets and precincts, but not the smaller laneways. Across the municipality, laneways occupy a ground area of 60 hectares, with a further 150 hectares of space on the walls in these laneways (3). "The City of Melbourne has established the GYL program in 2016 with the vision to help transform the city’s smaller laneways into leafy, green and better usable spaces for the residents and other visitors to enjoy while addressing the city’s sustainability challenges." (1 p27). So far, a pilot project has been carried our including the transformation of 4 laneways: Coromandel Place, Guildford Lane, Meyers Place and Katherine Place (1,3). The intervention included an intensive planning process with the involvement of stakeholders from the private and public sectors and the creation of an interactive map of laneways ideal for greening. (1,2). The GYL program aims to address the issues of urban heat islands, climate change impacts of flood mitigation while also improving local aesthetics, amenity and creating opportunities for recreation (1).

Green Laneway, Melbourne
Source: https://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/greenlaneways/laneway-visions

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Nature on buildings (external)
  • Green walls or facades
  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • Alley or street trees and other street vegetation
  • Green parking lots
  • Parks and urban forests
  • Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces
  • Green areas for water management
  • Rain gardens

Key challenges

  • Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
  • Climate change adaptation
  • Water management (SDG 6)
  • Flood protection
  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Environmental quality
  • Air quality improvement
  • Regeneration, land-use and urban development
  • Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Inclusive and effective governance (SDG 16)
  • Inclusive governance
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation

Focus

Creation of new green areas, Strategy, plan or policy development

Project objectives

- Enhancement of the sustainability of Melbourne City’s laneways, and area that hasn't been addressed in other initiatives and programs of comprehensive municipal greening strategy (1) - To make them more efficient at cooling the city, intercepting and cleaning stormwater and improving air quality and ambience (Mayor Doyle reported in CBD, 2016, 21 December)" - Addressing urban heating by providing shading and local cooling - Improvement permeability for flood mitigation - Improvement of aesthetics for public - Creation of amenities for recreation and relaxation (1)

Implementation activities

1. Development of an interactive map to identify laneways ideal to the GYL greening program. The assessment included solar analysis, wind exposure, drainage, and transport characteristics (1) 2. Consultation and selection process from the submitted proposals (1) 3. Design process including public engagement organisation, stakeholder and experts mapping and invitation (1) 4. Greening measures: creation of vertical gardens, tree planting, grey infrastructure enhancement, improvement of pedestrian and seating areas, green art installation (1)

Climate-focused activities

Climate change adaptation:

  • Increase or improve urban vegetation cover to help reduce outdoor temperature
  • Implement green walls or roofs to lower indoor temperature and provide insulation
  • Create or improve outdoor spaces to help people escape from urban heat

Main beneficiaries

  • Private sector/Corporate/Company
  • Citizens or community groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Local government/municipality

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Co-planning (e.g. stakeholder workshops, focus groups, participatory mapping)
  • Dissemination of information and education
  • Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)
  • Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

"The City of Melbourne has established the Green Your Laneway (GYL) program in 2016" (1 p27). However, the implementation of the project "required complex institutional arrangements since it has to deal with many different stakeholders and difficult legal settings regarding private and public land ownership" (1 p29). The pilot project included a diverse set of stakeholders from private sector actors, to experts and citizens. (1)

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? No
... a national policy or strategy? No
... a local policy or strategy? Yes (The City of Melbourne, through the Urban Forest Strategy, has a comprehensive plan for greening major streets and precincts, but not the smaller laneways (3). The Green Your Laneway Program with its complementary projects aims to address this gap in the city greening initiative. )

Financing

Total cost

€500,000 - €2,000,000

Source(s) of funding

  • Public local authority budget

Type of funding

  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)

Non-financial contribution

No

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Climate change
  • Lowered local temperature
  • Reduced emissions
  • Environmental quality
  • Improved air quality
  • Reduced noise exposure
  • Water management and blue areas
  • Improved stormwater management
  • Green space and habitat
  • Promotion of naturalistic styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Increased green space area

Economic impacts

  • Increased property prices
  • Other

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Safety
  • Decreased crime rates
  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Improved social cohesion
  • Improved liveability
  • Improved access to urban green space
  • Increased opportunities for social interaction
  • Increased involvement of locals in the management of green spaces
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Improved mental health
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Increased appreciation for natural spaces

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Yes

Presence of indicators used in reporting

Yes

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No

References

1) Kiss, B., McCormick, K., and Wamsler, C. 2018. NATURVATION - Case Study Working Paper: Melbourne, Australia
2) City of Melbourne. (n.a.). Green Your Laneway: Transforming the city’s laneways into leafy, green and usable spaces for everyone to Source link City of Melbourne. Accessed on 17th March, 2021. Source link
3) Participate Melbourne. (n.a.). Laneway visions. City of Melbourne. Accessed on 17th March 2021. Source link
Green Laneway, Melbourne
Source: https://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/greenlaneways/laneway-visions