The Role of Green Infrastructure in Biodiversity

Wetland adjacent to houses

Biodiversity is essential to thriving communities, yet, we are losing biodiversity at alarming rates. Green infrastructure is a way to protect, maintain and increase the biodiversity in our urban landscapes and is one which requires a considered planning and design approach.  We wrote about green infrastructure here, but as we shared, there’s no real clear definition. The description most aligned to the Orterra philosophy is this one created by the European Commission: “Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services such as water […]

Plants Amazing Impact On The Urban Heat Island Effect

The urban heat island effect is a result of densely populated cities and urban spaces where there are many people, transport, buildings and infrastructure in the same space – without planting producing shade and landscape to counter this effect. With climate change high on people’s agenda, communities around the world are now asking how we can improve the design of our cities so we can reduce the impacts on our climate. If we don’t change our urban areas, it is estimated that the heat island affect will mean our communities are up to 4 degrees Celsius hotter by the end […]