Project to make Edinburgh most livable city in Europe launches
An initiative aiming to make Edinburgh the best city in Europe to live in by 2050 has been launched by green groups alongside City of Edinburgh Council.
Edinburgh Living Landscape hopes to create a city fit for the future with healthy and vibrant areas, resilient to climate change, as well as being highly valued and accessible to the city’s citizens.
A partnership project between the Scottish Wildlife Trust, City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust and theRoyal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, it aims to bring "transformational change" to the city’s urban environment.
Simple measures will be promoted, such as the use of window boxes, increasing the number of wildflower meadows and planting more street trees but more innovative urban design such as green roofs and walls will also be considered.
This will mean more biodiversity and better ‘natural services’, such as cleaner water, increased pollination, improved footpaths and cycle paths, to benefit the city’s residents.
Children will also be beneficiaries of the initiative, with areas to play, explore and learn increasing around Edinburgh.
This project aims to offer both practical and imaginative solutions for urban dwellers
One of the exciting initiatives already being undertaken for the Edinburgh Living Landscape is the Urban Pollinator Project - a collaboration between the council and the University of Edinburgh. By converting patches of grassland to wildflower meadows, the project aims to boost numbers of bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects within the city.
This will benefit local beekeepers, food growers and gardeners while increasing the beauty of Edinburgh’s many parks.
Chairman of the Edinburgh Living Landscape, Nick Gardner, said: “The Edinburgh Living Landscape examines how nature and humanity need each other, how they can share the stone and steel realms in which we live, and how we can share those spaces for our mutual good.
“This project aims to offer both practical and imaginative solutions for urban dwellers to live and love the natural world by inspiring, even sometimes to provoke people of all ages and viewpoints to look afresh at the spaces around us, for our future.”
Minister for local government and planning, Derek Mackay MSP, added: “Green networks can help create attractive, sustainable cities, towns and neighbourhoods where people want to live and bring up their children, and it is for this reason that I commend the vision that has been put forward by Edinburgh Living Landscape.
“Their ambition to make Edinburgh the best city to live by 2050 is testament to the determination of all involved to enhance the Capital’s urban environment for the benefit of future generations.”
