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Description
City of Ostrava has been undergoing a process of industrial transformation since the 90s to become a city of European level fulfilling all areas of quality of life. More than 20,000 stakeholders participated in development of Strategic Plan in 2016, the superior document to Adaptation Strategy. One of its 3 priorities is the Healthy City. Because Ostrava has the lowest percentage (6.1%) of fully permeable surfaces in all the regional capitals, we focus on removing impermeable surfaces and increasing green areas. Project will be implemented in the densest city district Ostrava-Jih (103,843 inhab.) characterised by highest percentage of impermeable areas, highest susceptibility to heat and poor public greenery. Due to the above-named issues and according to the heatmap the neighbourhoods in the district face increased temperatures. The district is one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change. The aim is to remove non-functional paved areas and fragments of urban furniture and to replace them by greenery. The greenery of the transport structures suffers from insufficient spatial structure, therefore the public transport terminus (approx. 16 000 passengers/day) located near the residential complexes will be greened, in this regard, 1 686 m2 of perennial beds, 524 shrubs, 134 m2 of grass and perennials and 4,329 m2 of flower meadows will be created. Activities designed in the project lead to the mitigation of the effects of climate change, water infiltration, lowering the ambient temperature and improving the quality of public space. The target group is the residents and passengers travelling through the terminus. The partner of the project is Technical Services Ostrava-Jih, contributory organisation, whose main duty is the maintenance of the public space.
Summary of project results
With the project REPLACE - Greenery instead of concrete in Ostrava we have focused on the problem of unused concrete areas in the Ostrava-South district. Concrete areas in cities are not only an aesthetic problem, but also have a negative impact on the environment and the quality of life of the inhabitants. Especially on hot summer days they become the centre of a problem called the "urban heat island" effect. This causes urban areas to be significantly hotter than rural settlements. This is due to the concrete surfaces that release the absorbed heat into the environment. This has a negative impact on the health of the inhabitants, their comfort of life and the overall sustainability of the city. The aim of the project was thus to remove a large number of these old unused areas and turn them into green spaces that have the ability to regulate the ambient temperature, improve air quality and create a more pleasant living environment for citizens and visitors to the city.
The main activity was the removal of impermeable surfaces and non-functional fragments of construction objects and housing estate amenities such as playground and road surfaces, sandboxes, carpet knockers, clothes dryers, benches, walls, etc. in the housing estates of the Ostrava-South district. The project also included the planting of greenery and improvements to the Dubina transport terminal in the same district. These areas were visually and functionally degrading the public space, reducing its safe use, preventing rainwater drainage and increasing dust and temperature in the local microclimate.The main environmental benefits are: 1) improving the infiltration of rainwater by creating completely permeable surfaces, 2) reducing the temperature in the local microclimate and positively influencing the temperature of the surrounding buildings by establishing new residential greenery, 3) reducing dust by trapping dust particles with the proposed greenery, 4) promoting a better spatial structure of vegetation, 5) promoting biodiversity by choosing a wider range of green elements (perennials, flowering meadows and shrubs).
The target group was the inhabitants of the most populous and highly urbanized urban district of Ostrava-South (more than 1/3 of the population of Ostrava). By implementing the project, we helped to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants in this area (more friendly, functional and safer public space of the housing estates) and we also helped with adaptation to the climate change (new housing greenery, better infiltration of rainwater). There were no major complications during implementation, the only problem was that some of the locations had a larger amount of concrete than was expected and its removal and replacement with soil increased the financial costs.
The project achieved the following specific results:
- Shrubs: 524 pcs.
- Perennials: 14 403 pcs
- Flowering meadows: 4 477,00 m2
- Plants bulbs: 27 127,00 pcs
- Grasses: 530 pcs
- Grassland: 21 984,11 m2