Planting a network: PARKS takes root across Europe
Take a look outside your window. What do you see – the urban landscape, a green space with people chatting on a bench? How about the street – a dull asphalt desert or one shaded by lush plane trees? What’s your favourite park nearby – the green square around the corner or the park down by the river?
A model for the quality of urban green is the 3+30+300 principle. It is used to measure visual access to greenery (3 mature trees from every home, school or workplace), the availability of urban trees (30 % tree cover in the neighbourhood) and physical access to green space (within 300 m). Are you lucky to live in such an environment?
Cities around Europe struggle to come close to these numbers and to counter the adverse effects of a heating climate and extreme weather events. Urban trees, parks and other green infrastructure can help to mitigate the heat waves like the ones under which Europe ached in summer 2026, and they also bring ecological, social and aesthetic value to cities.
