The city wants to enlarge its crown
More leaves, more shade, a cooler climate: the city council is presenting measures with which it intends to expand and protect the tree population – including on private property.
Rare commodity in Zurich: Trees are important for the microclimate in the city. The city council wants to protect them better.
Photo: Keystone / Ennio Leanza
The number of trees in the city of Zurich is constantly decreasing. More is being built than planted – and above all on private land. This is illustrated by the data from the so-called laser scanning of the surface (lidar) of the federal government, which can be used to calculate the areas of tree crowns.
These have shown that in the city of Zurich half of the shaded crown areas in private gardens grow on private land. And there, too, most of the crown area disappears in the series of measurements from 2014 and 2018. Here, however, the city has little room for maneuver in relation to tree protection.
–Not just planting, but tending: City employees trimming the trees on Bürkliplatz in Zurich.
Photo: TA
Not only are fewer trees bad for the city’s climate because the cooling effect from shade and evaporation is reduced, but habitat for animals is also lost. With the new specialist planning for urban trees, which the city council presented on Thursday, it wants to counteract this development.
More shaded areas in the city
The aim is to increase the crown area across the entire city from around 17 percent (as of 2018) to 25 percent. In some urban districts – for example in Zurich West – twice as many trees as today are needed. In other areas, such as on the Zürichberg, it is important to preserve the stock, according to a statement.
The measures are to be implemented by 2029. They range from an extension of the tree protection in the settlement area to the adjustment of building standards to funding opportunities for private individuals to ensure more greenery on private property. Because while the specifications of the specialist planning are binding for the authorities, they are only a recommendation for private individuals.
–Expansive treetops: like here on the barracks area, vital trees are to be protected and cared for all over the city of Zurich.
Photo: Anna-Tia Buss
When implementing new projects in public open spaces, care is already being taken to plant more trees than in the past. In the case of new residential and commercial buildings, the requirements of the specialist planning of urban trees are also taken into account in the planning phase.
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