Welcome to the Atlas

In 2019 at the Gullele Botanical Garden in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian government launched a historic tree planting campaign. Over 350 million trees were planted in an ambitious move to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change. The Gullele Botanical Garden was selected as one of the 1000 sites all over the country involved in the Green Legacy Initiative, a national campaign against the effects of climate change. The United Nations estimates that Ethiopia’s forest coverage has declined drastically to a low of just 4 per cent in the 2000s from 35 per cent a century earlier. (1,2) The Botanical Garden was not selected aleatory as it is Ethiopia's only botanical garden and it is a nursery for various indigenous plant species. Its mission is to conserve and promote the Ethiopian diverse plants and tree population and it is a conservation initiative located at the northwestern tip of the Addis Ababa City Administration. The site covers an area of 1000 ha which is representative of the central plateau of Ethiopia. (3)

Agora Budapest is a large scale urban redevelopment project initiated by private investors. Besides implementing five high-quality office buildings, the investors aim at creating green public spaces the size of 7000 square metres in order to provide a healthy and vivid working environment. The green surface involves green roofs, parks and tree lines, all which will be irrigated using collected rainwater. The solar panels on the roofs of the buildings are also part of the sustainability plans of the investors. (Ref 1. and Ref 4.)

The Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat is located in the floodplains of the delta and lower valley of the river Llobregat, in the Catalan county of Baix Llobregat, in a central position within the metropolitan area of Barcelona. The territory of the park (nearly 3500 hectares), includes a rich traditional agricultural activity and comprises fourteen municipalities totaling about 818,000 residents. It is protected by a specific planning instrument and managed by the Barcelona Provincial Council (Diputació de Barcelona) (Ref. 1 and 9). The park acts as a green lung for the metropolitan area of Barcelona and at the same time as a pantry for Mercabarna, the large wholesale market that provides food and drink to the inhabitants of Barcelona and surrounding towns, although there is also production that is exported (Ref. 10). The Agrarian Park is the only one in the world so close to a large city and it promotes specific programs to preserve the productive values of the agricultural space and promotes quality local products and local consumption. (Ref. 10)

The green area which surrounds the famous museum has been renewed in the last years. It is an interesting site of botanic interest, as there are more than 400 species of plants living there, and more than 150.000 trees. In particular, the company Slow Food Campania cultivated a small vegetable garden. Is a project of small- scale agriculture, in order to enhance a variety of cultivation and biodiversity conservation. The company Slow Food has been supported by the company Lande srl, specialized in the revitalization of historical green areas at the urban level (Ref.1).
The interventions include the restoration and re-functionalization of 10 areas: the Garden and Casamento Torre, the Giardino della Fruttiera di basso, the Fagianeria, the Capraia, the Porta di Mezzo, the Cisternone, the Cellaio, the Vallone di San Gennaro, the ex Eremo dei Cappuccini (Ref.1).

The agriparc of the Mas Nouguier is an agricultural reserve entirely maintained by the city of Montpellier. Conducted in organic agriculture, the estate contributes to the preservation of the identity of the territory and to the valorization of the living environment. Accessible to all, it offers a beautiful walk in the middle of the vineyards. Apiaries are used to develop educational workshops and to collect honey with school children. Olive trees, centennial pines and a large meadow come to embellish this little bit of countryside in town (Ref. 1).

The didactic park Salvatore Buglione links its agricultural tradition and presence of plants and trees with social and cultural innovation (namely a playground for kids, a didactical botanical garden and an organized reading lab). A specialized lab aims at promoting civic and eco-functions, in line with the overall project of the city of Naples to allocate 2 million euros to regenerate the green areas of the city. The project “Orti Sociali” of the park represents an attempt to reach social inclusion and environmental awareness, underlying the crucial function of public parks in terms of environmental and social services (Ref.1.)

The Air Pollution Garden (APG) in the UK has been established at Sheffield Botanical Gardens through a collaboration between the three White Rose universities of Leeds, York and Sheffield. Typically an (APG) size is 6x8m and contains plants that are particularly sensitive to damage by pollutants like nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) present in the air. The project owners hope to raise public awareness of air pollution effects in a tangible manner and change people’s behaviours (ref1).
In 2017, the city council hosted AirFest to push this initiative further (ref 8), a ‘Phyto-sensor’ toolkit was created by the Citizen Sense research group at the University of London to help identify the best locations for Air Quality Gardens (ref 6) and published the Air Quality Annual Status report (ref 7). In 2020 the project is considered as completed, although there are several different other projects in planning.

This project started as a grassroots movement by Hunter’s Bar Infant School (HBIS) in Sheffield when they were seeking to actively help to protect children from air pollution. HBIS led a fundraising campaign that, in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, provided the base to create a green barrier in their playground. The NBS is part of a bigger study called BREATHE that provides the science behind the project, which involves the design of the green barrier, the assessment of its impacts and a feasibility evaluation for installing green barriers in other schools in Sheffield and in Buenos Aires. (1)

The rehabilitation of the main road Alameda Principal seeks to invert the previous distribution of use of space that saw 70% of it devoted to car usage and 30% to pedestrian use, after the intervention the situation should be 75% civilian and pedestrian space and 25% for cars. (Ref. 4,5) More public spaces, green areas, walks, bike lanes and leisure facilities will characterize this action, which also prioritizes highlighting the identity of this area of the city and value its architectural elements, patrimonial, wooded vault and cultural links. (Ref. 4)

This is one of the most innovative and environmentally sustainable hospitals in the world, wherein more than 50% of its energy is generated on-site. It is covered with green roofs and has play decks for children. Farm Urban designed and installed three state-of-the-art aquaponic systems on the play decks. The systems enrich both the environment and diet of the children, as the food grown here is used in the ward meals. (ref 6) The hospital was designed by a team of architects and is located in Springfield Park, Liverpool featuring a highly striking external design, bordered by extensive greenery (Ref. 2).
The project was part of the ACORN consortium with John Laing Social Infrastructure and Interserve Facilities Management. The hospital was completed within 130 weeks and was opened in October 2015 (Ref. 1).