Title: Meeting the Post-Paris Climate Challenge from a Sustainable Land-Use perspective: Urban Greening Corridors as Co-benefit Infrastructure for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mitigation and Adaptation

Biography:

Dorottya Bekesi is a graduating landscape architect master student. She has completed her BSc. studies at the Corvinus University of Budapest. Her research into the New National Excellence Program was published in 2017 which is the underline of her master thesis.

Abstract

The 2017 Paris Climate Accord (Paris Agreement) sets measurable benchmarks for avoiding unsustainable climate catastrophe. This is an international challenge, but actions take root locally. California is a worldwide leader in aggressive GHG-reduction policies steering billions of dollars for “Climate Investment” projects. From a local perspective, there is a challenge of developing projects that create a sufficient impact in GHG mitigation commensurate with global goals. Planners struggle between the interests of “business-as-usual” economics versus transformative actions. We highlight, distinct from typical energy-efficiency approaches, an approach of establishing inter-connected urban greening corridors along utility infrastructure rights-of-way. These corridors are often outside the domain of private development but are strategically woven throughout the urban fabric. These corridors can function as critical GHG sinks and as a foundation for alternative active transit. The recently funded San Leandro Creek Urban Greening Project (in Oakland, California) will sequester 1082,79 MtCO2e of GHG via a dense corridor of trees, vegetated swales and green spaces along a one-mile creek-side zone and reduce 60,82 MtCO2e of GHG by establishing a new bicycle/pedestrian route off-setting 7859 Average Annual Auto VMT. This project is a template for developing an urban-wide corridor system. Our research demonstrates that 8-10 greening corridors will enable Oakland to meet its climate action goals by 2030 in alignment with the Paris agreements.