Recent collaboration between Bangor University and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) has shown that most people want more nature like trees and wildflowers in their towns and cities.
The team worked in partnership with Denbighshire County Council to assess the community’s perceptions of environmental changes happening in the coastal town of Rhyl in North Wales, and also conducted a survey of 1,866 people across the UK to gather their views about tree planting and establishing wildflower meadows. The results showed that 73% of people wanted more trees, and 75% wanted more wildflower meadows.
Thora Tenbrink, Professor of Linguistics at Bangor University said, “We did not expect such a clear positive result. People are normally resistant to changes to their neighbourhood, and it is heartening to see that there is so much support for greenspace in cities and towns. Our results will help both councils and residents with better future design of local green spaces.”
As part of its Climate and Ecological Change Strategy, Denbighshire County Council is delivering urban green infrastructure interventions including tree planting and establishing wildflower meadows. This Rhyl case study enabled the research teams to quantify and compare the benefits of two planned and four existing intervention schemes and calculate the values based on data for noise, carbon and air pollution.
Interviews with 28 residents of Rhyl revealed that:
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Posted On: 20/10/2023