Heather Pearl kindly shares the following resources:
Statistics Canada measures of urban greenness:
STC the Daily: Urban green losses, 2001, 2011, 2019: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/16-002-x/2021001/article/00002-eng.htm
STC the Daily: Urban green losses Nov 17, 2022: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221117/dq221117e-eng.htm
STC the Daily: Urban green losses, Nov 15, 2023: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/231115/dq231115c-eng.htm
Excerpt from the Daily, Nov. 15, 2023:
Urban greenness has declined since the beginning of the millennium
Overall, the long-term trend in urban greenness in Canada decreased from 2000 to 2023. This trend is partly attributable to the ongoing growth of settled areas on the periphery of Canadian towns and cities.
Comparing the most recent five-year period (2019 to 2023) with the baseline period (2000 to 2004) shows that average urban greenness has fallen by 7.8 percentage points nationally.
Urban greenness declined in every province and every major urban area over this period, with the largest drops being in Canada’s large urban population centres (-10.2 percentage points from the 2000 to 2004 average to the current five-year average).
Ethnocultural and socioeconomic disparities in exposure to residential greenness within urban Canada, May 19, 2021 (modified March 22, 2022): https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2021005/article/00001-eng.htm
The study defined green space to include parks, street trees, lawns, gardens and roadside plantings.
Also:
Commentary – Climate change, health and green space co-benefits: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/health-promotion-chronic-disease-prevention-canada-research-policy-practice/vol-39-no-4-2019/climate-change-health-green-space-co-benefits.html. Many good studies are published here!
What could citizens and governments in Ottawa do?
+ Engage local communities in a targeted approach that prioritizes reducing inequities.
+ Re-green the city at the block / hyperlocal / local neighbourhood level.
+ Develop and implement a program focused on supporting communities with limited green space. Should include outreach and education, financial and physical support for trees on private property, and zoning for front and rear yard space for trees.
+ As summers get hotter, and drier or stormier (or both!) as a result of climate change, engaging community members to help maintain trees and public green spaces will become increasingly important.
Some related items elsewhere in the GA Readings section include:
Mental Health Benefits of the Outdoors (29 January 2020)
Urban greenness and mortality in Canada’s largest cities: a national cohort study (Oct 2017)
Street trees and health in Toronto, and other tales (21 September 2016)
Green spaces and health: References (2008; 2013; 2015; 2019)
More green space makes for healthier babies (July 2014 article)