South Belfast to see unique robot 'city tree' experiment

A city tree in Glasgow
-Credit:Glasgow City Council/Wikepedia


Belfast is to undergo an important environmental trial involving analysis of 44 normal trees compared to a special 'city tree'.

City trees, also known as Robot Trees and Moss Walls, are large structures that increase air quality in cities using moss and plants.

They capture dust and nitrogen dioxide from the air, reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and can help to reduce urban heat, and the impact of heavy rainfall.

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Belfast is one of 11 pilot cities across Europe chosen for the Horizon Europe’s Urban Planning 2030 (UP2030) scheme, a three year programme that aims “to guide cities through the transitions required to meet their climate neutrality ambitions”.

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Belfast City Council was successful in a bid of €204,250/£176,024 funding to further an integrated approach between urban planning, achieving net zero and aspects of resilience.

The focus of the project is on the development of a net zero neighbourhood framework around three thematic areas: active travel, greening and retrofit. The geographic area of the UP2030 pilot was agreed in March 2023 and covers the Linen Quarter and surrounding city centre communities of Barrack Street, Sandy Row, Donegall Pass and the Market.

The programme started work on the ground last year with its school “walking buses,” and will start this month on retrofitting by engaging with communities in the pilot area to “codesign approaches for net zero delivery”.

The third part of the programme involves a cost benefit exercise on the planting and maintenance of 44 trees in the air quality management area of Cromac Street in comparison to the installation of a city tree.

At the January meeting of the Belfast City Council Climate and City Resilience Committee, an officer explained: “Because we have a request to solve climate change through technological solutions versus nature based solutions, we had a request to look at what a city tree could do.

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“They say it has the equivalent of the absorption of 44 trees. Trees do other things besides absorb carbon dioxide, they create environment, biodiversity, habitat etc. But it is (connected) to our thinking about how to improve air quality in an area, and what it takes to actually plant 44 trees in an urban setting.

“How do we manage and maintain green infrastructure going forward for Belfast? How do we build it into our public realm and who pays for that? These are bigger questions we are digging into. It will be a cost benefit analysis of a city tree versus 44 trees, (asking) what is the maintenance and lifetime cost (of both).”

All work from Belfast City Council is to be returned to the UP2030 consortium at the end of the three year period this November.

Green Councillor Anthony Flynn said at the Climate and City Resilience Committee: “I am aware of the technology of city trees, but there is a bigger discussion - that is around doing something like the city trees and actually planting trees where they are needed.

“We have a tree strategy, and tree equity is a big part of that. My fear is we will do this instead of actually giving people trees in those areas where they don’t have them. Working class areas for example.

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“So I will be very interested to see what you come up with. I do think there is a need for (city trees), this technology could be very useful in certain parts of the city. But obviously it shouldn’t take away from giving people green spaces.”

The council officer said: “We are working with the tree establishment survey, and looking at that tree equity. Because climate justice is social justice. We look at equity as underpinning what we do.

“We are in an urban environment, and that is a huge challenge, and they are the very conversations we need to grapple with. But city trees are quite costly, and you have to manage and maintain the moss inside of it, and work out what is the lifespan of that versus the right tree in the right place.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityTrees#/media/File:CityTree_phytoremediation,_Glasgow_City_Centre,_Scotland._Installed_by_Glasgow_City_Council.jpg

Pic from wikipedia. Caption by Michael Kenwood: A city tree in Glasgow

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