Creating Greener Cities: Research, Policy and Law.

7 hours ago

3 min read

Group photo of presenters and panel members — Paul Maginn, Joe Hurley, Claire Doll, Emma Scaife, Chris Hossen, Bryan Boruff.

The CEEP urban greening event went really well. Many hands made light work, with CEEP folk happy to help we had everything ready in no time. Flyers were on seats, water and soft drinks ready on arrival, name badges laid out in alphabetical order and a book poster stand together with a sample copy of the book. It was a lovely afternoon with the sun shining and the river beautiful and calm.

There was excellent attendance, my guess is about 55 guests, maybe 95% of registrations. With so many people milling around in the foyer, it was great that Claire had brought her bell - a nice way to indicate the event was about to commence! It was a full house with a few standing at the edges.

Abbie Rogers began the presentations and did a great job of explaining CEEP and the purpose of the event. Then Paul Maginn took over and explained how the afternoon would work. He got people laughing as well. The mood was good.

Between the speakers and the panel, we covered a wide range of research topics, looking at urban greening from an interesting array of perspectives. The research presenters, Bryan Boruff, Claire Doll and Emma Scaife, talked about mapping canopy cover across Australia, the slightly scary links between urban heat and redevelopment, the social norms that underpin the way private landowners approach shaping their gardens and verges, and the wide range of regulatory mechanisms that have impacted urban canopy over in Australia over time.

Emma Scaife presents her research and promotes her new book

As part of Emma Scaife's talk, the book was promoted as a great resource to be used as a foundation for anyone working on policy or law in urban greening, with a particular focus on private land. Guests were taking many photos of the slides along the way - a good sign of engagement. The panellists gave excellent insights into the policy and legal frameworks surrounding this topic.

Joe Hurley offered the Victorian perspective on urban greening and the way Australian research in this area has changed over time.

Carmen Lawrence provides her reflections on the presentations

Chris Hossen talked about the importance of remembering that not all LGAs are alike in either social norms or existing canopy cover levels, and Stephen Willey reiterated the usefulness of understanding how all the regulatory mechanisms work.

Carmen Lawrence gave a compelling speech on the importance of clearly delivering the 'why' to politicians - such as health impacts and the benefits to children. She explained that the 'how' alone is not enough when there are competing political drivers.

The audience were very engaged and came up with excellent questions, some showing frustration in their roles at how urban greening policies are not always implemented in optimal ways, nor as quickly as one might hope. We heard from urban planners, local government staff, policy-makers from state and local governments - and even one developer.

The audience listens to Bryan Boruff's presentation

At the end of the presentations the door prize (a copy of the book) was announced and it went to the first guest to arrive - Ingrid from Perth NRM. Ingrid was very pleased to win the prize!

The networking afterwards was very useful and it seemed many people found value in making new connections in this area. Some enjoyed a beer or a glass of wine and with the doors open people were chatting out in the courtyard and enjoying the river views.

The afternoon wrapped up as the sun set, a success all round. A few comments about the event were noted, including: