Draft Urban Forest Cooling Strategy

The draft QPRC Urban Forest Cooling Strategy has been developed to support us continue providing housing and infrastructure, for our growing population. It will also ensure our urban centres are healthy and attractive environments for residents and wildlife. The draft Strategy follows on from the results of the QPRC Surface Heat Mapping Study. This found that over 85% of urban land in the region fell within an urban heat island (2 degrees hotter than surrounding natural areas).

It provides us with coordinated, local, and practical actions to manage the urban forest and educate and inform the community. The Strategy’s vision is ‘Council, businesses and the community value and actively care for an urban forest that is resilient and fairly distributed, and provides a cooler, healthier environment for people and wildlife’. There are five goals and it is supported by the principles established in the Government Architect NSW Greener Places Framework. The goals are:

• A resilient urban forest
• A fairly distributed urban forest
• A cooler, greener urban environment
• Increased biodiversity and tree canopy
• An actively managed urban forest

To achieve the Strategy’s vision and goals, 32 actions have been grouped into five key strategies, including:

• Strategy 1: Build awareness and encourage participation in urban greening.
• Strategy 2: Expand data collection and monitoring of the urban forest.
• Strategy 3: Coordinate tree and vegetation planting and management.
• Strategy 4: Review planning policy and development controls.
• Strategy 5: Increase Council capacity in urban forest management.

An implementation plan has also been developed to support Council and the community manage and implement this Strategy.