Climate change and damaged ecosystems are making urban heat waves more intense, research shows, while air and noise pollution continues to be a problem across the continent. Increasing the number of trees and green spaces in cities could significantly reduce these pressures, however.
Europe is a long way away from fully implementing the “3-30-300 principle,” a common guideline used in urban planning that says people should be able to see at least three mature trees from their houses, while tree canopies should cover 30 percent of all neighborhoods, and all urban dwellers should live within 300 meters of green spaces like parks, forests or public gardens.
But people with higher disposable incomes are more likely to live in urban areas with significantly better access to nature compared to low income households, the study found. And cities in the richer northwest of Europe were found to be twice as likely to meet the 3-30-300 standards than those in Southern and Eastern Europe.
People in Helsinki, Munich and Krakow are far more likely to have good access to green spaces than residents of southern cities like Athens, Perpignan in France or Cordoba in Spain.
Under EU law, EU countries should prevent the net loss of urban green space and urban tree canopy cover until 2030, and start gradually increasing the number of green spaces in cities after that date.