Our city is getting hotter. We need to invest in tree canopy coverage now, to secure a cooler future.
The City of Adelaide is committed to ensuring our city is resilient and climate conscious, ensuring it is liveable for future generations.
As the council of the capital city of South Australia, City of Adelaide has a pivotal role to play in shaping the future of our state and ensuring our city environment is resilient, protected and sustainable.
That's why we are planting more trees and increasing our tree canopy.
We are working towards being a leading green city in a park, by advancing our green infrastructure and increasing our biodiversity and sustainability.
Together with our community, we are working towards making our city more resilient to climate change and planning for the future.
As part of this commitment, City of Adelaide is undertaking an investigation of street tree planting opportunities as part of its road renewal designs. This aligns with its strategic goal of increasing tree canopy and creating a climate conscious and resilient city.
As part of concept development for road renewal designs, opportunities for trees on streets were investigated. This was then reviewed internally as part of a workshop with key stakeholders including the Traffic and Transport, Parklands Strategy, City Operations, and Sustainability Teams to determine the suitability of including street trees in the detailed designs.
The following streets were identified as good opportunities for the road renewal designs to include street trees:
- Blyth Street
- Strangways Terrace
- Worsnop Avenue (Frome Road to dead end)
- James Street (Angus Street to dead end)
- Devonshire Place (Tam-O-shanter Place to Pirie Street)
- Gawler Place (Flinders Street to Wakefield Street)
- Barton Terrace East (O’Connell Street to Lefevre Terrace)
As part of our commitment to our environment, we are adding more trees to these streets.
Trees on streets are necessary to meet the targets within our Strategic Plan 2024-2028 and Integrated Climate Strategy 2030.
Street trees will help reach our priorities of a cool city with no urban heat island effect.
To respond to this strategic target, all simple road renewals undergoing design in 2023/24 were investigated for opportunities to plant trees.
By investigating street trees through the road renewals design process, significant optimisations are achieved which would require additional work if the planting of street trees was undertaken in isolation.
During the design phase we will consider various factors, including:
- Locations of driveways
- Sightlines
- Underground services
- Traffic lane widths
- On-street parking
The final location of the trees will be subject to the location of existing services. The location of existing underground services will occur during the design process to ensure we can place these new trees.
This investigation will confirm locations for detailed designs moving forward.
What is council doing about climate change and the future liveability of our city?
Through the Integrated Climate Change Strategy, Strategic Plan 2024 -28 and Draft City Plan, City of Adelaide has set the following targets:
- 40% canopy cover by 2035
- 40% of street trees (5,143) have water sensitive urban design (WSUD) passive watering by 2030 and 60% by 2035
We will shade and cool areas where people move around and use the city, such as footpaths, outdoor dining, events, sports, main streets and retail destinations. Using our heating mapping we know where hot spots are located throughout the city and will target these areas for cooling. We will create cooler, greener streets by establishing a green grid for the city, connected by shaded pedestrian paths and active transport. Green corridors will connect the Adelaide Park Lands and Squares creating a continuous tree canopy that contributes to cooling, climate resilience, urban biodiversity and comfort to the users of the city.
Why do we need street trees and additional planting?
The City of Adelaide’s Strategic Plan 2024 – 2028 includes the target of a net increase in street trees; increasing tree canopy cover and creating a climate conscious and resilient city. Streets have been identified as lacking trees and greening.
What is water sensitive urban design (WSUD) passive watering?
Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is a set of principles that can be applied to sustainably manage water within urban areas and support healthy ecosystems. The natural water cycle in towns and cities has been disrupted by buildings, roads, and stormwater drainage pipes, which prevents rainfall from soaking into the ground and recharging local waterways and groundwater, instead the runoff is sent straight into the nearest creek. WSUD aims to slow the flow, prevent pollution and enable water to once again naturally support plants and trees.
The WSUD in these areas will allow for the water runoff to provide ongoing water supply to the trees.
Will the planting result in parking loss?
During the design phase of the project several elements have been considered to inform the positioning of street trees including locations of driveways, sightlines, underground services, traffic lane widths and on-street parking. Many of these constraints have legal requirements such as traffic lane widths and intersection sightlines which need to be adhered to and as such, the space in which trees can be planted is restricted.
We have aimed to strike a balance between minimising the impact on on-street parking spaces and maximising tree planting opportunities and believe that these proposals will result in multiple benefits for the street.
As a result of the new tree planting and greening, some car parking spaces may be affected.
Will there be an impact to Pedestrian or vehicle movement during construction?
City of Adelaide are focused on minimising any disruption to residents, businesses or public movement when undertaking construction works within the city. Stakeholders and residents will be notified prior to works commencing.
