'Mobile Forests' Can Help Reduce Effects Of Pollution And Global Warming In Cities


Planting trees is one of the most effective ways to combat air pollution and global warming. Or well, until we have oceans of artificial trees anyway.

But a number of European cities are trying a new method that involves trees they can move around. 

mobile forest

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The idea is that cities are worse affected by climate change than rural areas, mostly because of the lesser amount of greenery. Of course, planting more trees in cities can help that. But as Horizon Magazine points out space is limited, so European cities are also trialing other measure like rooftop gardens to imbue the urban sprawls with more greenery. But they're also trying out mobile forests.

'We know nature-based solutions are really good at helping cities,' says Dr Laura Wendling, the technical coordinator of UNaLab which is researching how best to incorporate green initiatives in cities. "We don't have a really good handle on how to best place nature-based solutions to get the greatest benefit."

The mobile forests they propose consist of trees planted in large pots, that can be moved around a city. The idea is that these trees can be shifted to hotspots in a city as and when needed, in order to help clean the air and provide shade. This project is conducting pilot projects in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Tampere in Finland and Genova in Italy. They hope to show it's possible to use nature to improve the cities' resilience to warmer temperatures.

mobile forest


Aside from that, the team is also researching the use of other green measures. These include the likes of cycling paths that direct cyclists through areas with plant life in order to minimize their exposure to pollution, as well as rooftop gardens that can purify the air, block heat from the sun getting into a building and can even help save water and electricity. Another measure proposed is specially designed pavements that can harvest rainwater that can be reused.

"Ultimately we need to have cities that are more liveable, more resilient to environment and social perturbations and nature-based solutions provide us that buffering capacity," says Dr Wendling.

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