Just a little note about things we all know but are worth remembering.
In Mediterranean climates like ours in the south of the country and specifically in the Algarve, there is a fundamental element to help modify the urban microclimate for the better: trees.
If people and authorities really believe that climate change is there and will worsen, with more and more extreme phenomena of drought and excessive rainfall, there is a lot that they should be demanding and taking measures to minimize its effects .
If heavy rains can still have some shelter in the existing dams, although much of the water is lost with the excessive torrentiality of the drainage lines, the prolonged droughts and high temperatures for a good part of the year cause serious problems of discomfort and public health.
The excellence of urban life requires that the city's green structure be able to provide its inhabitants with healthy living conditions, high air quality and open air spaces where they can practice sports.
The area of urban green spaces, learned in the specialized school, must cover 30 square meters per inhabitant; anything more will never be too much…
And for urban green space, one should not immediately think of gardens and lawns, which, in our climatic conditions, are expensive to maintain, namely because they require a lot of irrigation – water is a limiting factor, as mentioned above.
In temperate European zones, such as central Europe or Great Britain, the maintenance of gardens is facilitated by the abundance of rain precisely in the warmer months, which are those when the vegetation grows the most – hence, the vast greens golf courses are a natural element of its landscapes.
In our latitudes, when the months are warmer, and much warmer than to the north, it is when it rains less – hence the evergreen gardens and lawns are not characteristic of our landscapes. Around here, we will have dryland meadows, which, as long as they are well preserved, are also beautiful – and they are ours. these are true Lapalianas...
But the grove can and should be implemented with abundance, because, as long as trees that are characteristic of our ecology are used, they are less demanding in terms of water. Shade is a key factor in improving urban comfort.
In cities like Faro, even enjoying the proximity of the sea and its refreshing breezes, there are prolonged periods of drought when there is a lack of shade and its effects on the propagation of oxygen and interior breezes.
And, in the inland Algarve villages, especially in those with greater built-up expression, such as Loulé, S. Brás de Alportel, etc., this need is accentuated.
I have already talked about the need for more urban forests in Faro, and they answer me that they are foreseen… but the years go by and the predictions are not fulfilled.
In the old structures of the old villages, the rural world – the countryside – penetrated to the center of the building, and inside the cities there were farms, vegetable gardens, convent fences, which performed the main functions of the green spaces.
All of this disappeared with the practiced speculative urbanism, and the proposals that, since the XNUMXth century, several architects have tried to promote in European and North American cities, where industrialization was most felt, were of no avail.
Around here too.
Piece by piece, all the green core of the villages was being eaten. And today, with the knowledge that one has of all these essential issues for a good quality of urban life, central, regional and local authorities should not be forgiven for forgetting, but rather demanding of them, to correct the defects of the structures. urban areas – while there are still a few crumbs of land that can be transformed into urban forests.
Author Fernando Santos Pessoa is a forestry engineer and landscape architect…and writes with the spelling he learned at school.
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