Urban greeners' resource hub

From growing vertical gardens to planting trees and creating pocket parks, many of Melbourne's laneways have enormous potential to become the city’s backyard. There are over two hundred lanes in the central city, making up an area of almost nine hectares. City of Melbourne's (CoM) Green Your Laneway program helps transform the city’s laneways into leafy, green and useable spaces for everyone to enjoy. As part of the program, CoM developed a world-first interactive map to show laneways that could go green, based on the amount of sunlight they receive, exposure to wind and physical characteristics.

Victoria Case studies Link Read less

Greening the West is a collaborative regional initiative that’s about enriching communities in Melbourne’s west through the development of green spaces.

Victoria Case studies Link Read less

These guidelines will help to develop an understanding of the technology and build knowledge about the benefits and methods of green roof/wall/facade design, construction and maintenance for all sectors of the industry. Green roofs and walls provide a wide range of environmental, economic and social benefits, both public and private. They can reduce urban heat loadings and stormwater run-off, increase the energy efficiency and liveability of buildings, provide a range of habitat outcomes and even produce food.

Victoria Implementation tools Link Read less

This Guide is a Treasury Policy and Guidelines paper that sets out how to undertake cost-benefit analysis (CBA) for NSW government initiatives. It also describes the role of CBA in supporting evidence-informed decision making and provides guidance for practitioners.

New South Wales Additional resources Strategies and plans Urban greening benefits Link Read less

This comprehensive document assists in understanding and quantifying the liveability associated health benefits of water industry investments in order to better inform investment decisions.

Victoria Urban greening benefits Link Read less

Queensland Health has developed the shade tree planting guidance resources to support state agency, local councils, developers and industry partners use an evidence informed approach to optimise shade provision and UVR protection along footpaths. The resources - including key messages, social media assets and content for EDMs - aim to optimise the planning and planting of street trees along footpaths to maximise shade provision and protection from UV exposure.

Queensland Stakeholder engagement State-specific Link Read less

The Nature Conservancy's Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities (HTHC) app will help you take actions to improve the quality of life in your community through the planting, care, and stewardship of trees in your yard, neighborhood, and community. This easy to use app will cover the necessary steps to properly plant and care for trees, both new and mature.

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The Hort Frontiers Green Cities Fund brings together a range of partners to research and demonstrate the benefits of increased urban greening. With the Australian urban population increasing, and the health benefits of green space becoming clearer, urban developers and governments are becoming increasingly interested in creating greener communities. However, the impact of green space on a range of aspects (for example, perinatal health outcomes and hospital admissions) needs further research. The Green Cities Fund aims to help uncover science-based answers to these questions, helping inform urban development business decisions.

National Additional resources Link Read less

Every urban area needs an urban forest. They’re good for cooling, good for water management and good for exercising, relaxing or reading a book. So how do you create more? Designed for councils, this guide is based on a decade of work by the City of Melbourne. It makes it easy to navigate the process from idea to planting.

National Strategies and plans Link Read less

Findings of a field-based survey of nursery tree production throughout Australia reveal a large natural variation in root to shoot balance across the wide range of containerised trees sold in Australian nurseries. This rich data set, specific to nursery grown trees in Australia, provides insights into potential improvements in quality assessment criteria and standards for nursery-grown tree stock for landscape use.

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Through research, technology, and education, the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) promotes the professional practice of arboriculture and fosters a greater worldwide awareness of the benefits of trees.

International Additional resources Link Read less

iTree Eco is one of the suite of tools that provides quantification of the functional services provided by urban trees. Arboriculture Australia with the support of industry partners worked with the U.S. Forest Service to customise iTree Eco for use in Australia.

National Reporting, Measurement & Tracking Link Read less