How many big trees can you count from your window? We ask you this simple question to map access to nature in Belgium. Because it is not equally distributed. Belgium is one of the European countries with the least green space, and it is often socio-economically vulnerable communities that live in the middle of the concrete. We want to change that by collecting data about access to nature in Belgium, and thus contribute to nature protection and greening at a local level. In this article we explain why!
We count trees to see if we meet the 3-30-300 rule. According to that rule, everyone should be able to see 3 trees from their home, every neighborhood should be 30% covered with foliage, and everyone should live 300 meters from a public green space of at least 1 hectare. This rule of thumb was devised by Cecil Konijnendijk, a Dutch professor of urban forests, based on scientific research on the impact of trees and nature on health and climate resilience. The strength of the rule is its simplicity: you don’t have to be an expert to count trees from your window. And yet there is a strong scientific basis behind it.
Trees as preventive health care
After all, access to nature does wonders for your health. Patients who look out on trees during their recovery after surgery stay in the hospital for a shorter time and take fewer painkillers than patients who look out on concrete. People in a street with large trees also use fewer antidepressants and medicines for cardiovascular diseases. In the Netherlands, a study showed that 10% more greenery in the living environment can save 400 million euros annually on the costs of care and absenteeism due to illness. And trees purify the air, which is highly polluted in Flanders and Brussels. People who live closer to a public green space are happier and visit the doctor less often.
Trees and green space in the neighborhood are also important for cooling during the increasingly hot summers. In heavily paved areas, a heat island effect occurs during hot periods, which drives temperatures further upwards. For example, in the summer in the center of Brussels it is on average 3°C warmer than outside the city. This heat is dangerous: in the summer of 2022, more than 60,000 heat deaths occurred in Europe, especially among the oldest and youngest among us. Trees also act like a sponge during extreme rainfall and open space helps water infiltrate so it does not overflow our sewers and rivers.
Well-connected urban nature is of course also important for biodiversity. Since nature in cities does not have to suffer the same environmental impact of industrial agriculture, breeding grounds of biodiversity usually form in urban wild nature. Just think of the Josaphat site in Brussels – a 25-hectare meadow that has been home to some 1,200 species over the years, including more than a hundred species of birds, as well as wild bees and rare dragonflies.
Nature: unevenly distributed
Both the visible and nearby presence of nature in the living environment are therefore very important for health and to make our cities more robust against the impact of climate disruption and biodiversity crisis. Therein lies an important inequality. For example, more than one fifth of Brussels residents have insufficient access to public green space, and the poorest communities in particular have the least access to high-quality green space. If access to nature is unevenly distributed, this also means that the health benefits and mitigating effects of extreme weather conditions are unevenly distributed.
To tackle this injustice, we want to map access to nature in Belgium together with the Datalab collective. We do this via the 3-30-300 rule, based on an analysis and a survey in which people can make the calculation for themselves. With this information we can work with you to provide solutions to the local government. The map will make it clear where trees need to be planted and where we absolutely need to protect existing green space.
Will you help us map access to nature? Take the survey!
I share on Facebook
I share on Twitter
I share on WhatsApp
