Green Your Laneway Program - Melbourne

Alleyway in Melbourne @P. Whelen on Unsplash

In 2016, the city of Melbourne in Australia published the Green Your Laneway (GYL) Program to increase urban greenery in the city's smaller laneways as a means to address challenges such as urban heat island effects and flood management and to improve the health and well-being of local residents. Complementing the city's Urban Forest Strategy for greening major streets, the program foresees (1) green laneways which feature vertical gardens, trees, or planter boxes, (2) the enhancement of grey infrastructure, and (3) the creation of pedestrian and seating areas. Until now, a pilot project has been implemented to transform four laneways. Local communities can suggest laneways in their neighborhood that they would like to see transformed. To facilitate this and ensure ownership and involvement of local citizens, the City of Melbourne together with social innovation agency Today and international design, engineering and business consultancy Arup developed a step-by-step guidance for greening the city's laneways available on a dedicated website ( https://www.greenlaneways.org/ ). The city administration has also set up an interactive tool that includes a map to show laneways that could go green, based on the amount of sunlight they receive, exposure to wind and physical characteristics. The tool also provides information on different nature-based solutions that can be implemented in these laneways.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Knowledge, communication and innovation instruments›Knowledge and/or innovation

Challenges addressed

Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Heat stress and heat island effect
Nature appropriation / stewardship
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The major objective of the Green Your Laneway program and its associated tools is to enhance the sustainability of Melbourne's laneways, which have not been targeted in other municipal initiatives and programs. Green laneways can comprise vertical gardens, trees, planter boxes and urban public spaces. On a dedicated website, the City of Melbourne highlights that green laneways can deliver environmental, social and economic benefits such as providing shading and local cooling during hot days, intercepting and cleaning stormwater through improved permeability and improving air quality and ambience. In addition, green laneways can improve human health, comfort and well-being by creating spaces for recreation and relaxation. They can also reduce heating and cooling costs (due to improved building insulation) and extend the life expectancy of impervious surfaces. The program foresees that these solutions are co-owned or contributed to by members of the local community and create livable and attractive social spaces. No concrete qualitative goals have been set so far, however, a first pilot project has been implemented in four laneways.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

External building greens

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Support multifunctional NBS

Locally appropriate

Potential to be replicated / upscaled

Innovative

Inclusivity

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Melbourne City Council

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The City of Melbourne established the Green Your Laneway program in 2016. Due to the variety of stakeholders to which the instrument pertains, complex institutional arrangements had to be set up to cater for difficult legal settings in terms of private and public land ownership. The online step-by-step guide for interested communities was created through a global research partnership between three distinct collaborators. The Melbourne-based social innovation agency Today worked closely with the City of Melbourne and Arup – an international design, engineering and business consultancy. The implementation of pilot interventions also comprised a comprehensive stakeholder involvement process (see below).

Involvement of non-governmental actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private sector, corporate, business

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Type of actor involvement:

Co-planning or co-design of instrument (e.g. boards, advisory role)

Civil society consultation through e.g. workshops, surveys

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

It is foreseen that the green laneways are largely co-produced or contributed to by local citizens. For the pilot project, four laneways were selected out of 800 submissions based on an interactive map that highlights potential laneways as well as voting processes with the relevant communities. After the selection, workshops were held to develop community visions in each pilot laneway. Along the implementation process, a diverse set of stakeholders were involved, including local businesses, residents and experts.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Citizen councils or consultation for co-planning (e.g. workshops, surveys)

Co-design of NBS, implemented by government

Implementation of NBS (e.g. with government funds)

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Researchers, university

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public local authority’s budget

Budget:

Unknown

Details about instrument financing:

Funding is provided by the City of Melbourne.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Did an evaluation take place?:

Yes

Each pilot intervention was evaluated after completion. The outcome of this evaluation informed the further development of the Green Your Laneways Program.

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

Until now, pilot interventions have been carried out to transform four laneways: Guildford Lane, Meyers Place, Katherine Place and Coromandel Place. Along Guilford Lane, a variety of plant species have been planted in 70 plant pots, planter boxes and a compact green roof above a small garage. In addition, eight drain gardens have been installed to intercept down pipe water to filter out pollution that has settled on the roof, reduce stormwater volumes and use the captured water to nourish climbing vines. Along Meyers Place, trees, vertical gardens, climbing vines and a green gallery were planted in cooperation with the Urban Forest Fund initiative. Katherine Place has been transformed into a green laneway with trees newly planted and pot plants added to create shade and a pleasant atmosphere for restaurant and café-goers. In Coromandel Place, existing bluestone curbing and asphalt was removed and soil replenished to allow for the installation of a new irrigation system for the laneway's newly planted plants. Where greening was not possible due to underground services and traffic requirements, murals have been incorporated.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The Green Your Laneways Program provides a good example of a city-wide government-led initiative to enhance urban green infrastructure while closely involving local communities and incentivizing them to take ownership of their own nature-based solutions. The interactive map of laneways and the online step-by-step guide are helpful tools to kickstart local community action. The underlying collaboration between the city, a social innovation agency and an international design, engineering and business consultancy is an interesting approach that can be potentially replicated in other cities worldwide. While the first four pilot interventions show promising results, scaling up the initiative will depend on ensuring continuous interest of local communities to get involved.

Sources and further information

References

List of references:

City of Melbourne (2022). Greening laneways. Available at: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/community/greening-the-city/green-infrastructure/Pages/greening-laneways.aspx (Accessed: 4 October 2022)

Urban Nature Atlas (2021). Green Your Laneway Program (GYL). Available at: https://una.city/nbs/melbourne/green-your-laneway-program-gyl (Accessed: 4 October 2022)

Today (2022). Green Laneways. Available at: https://www.greenlaneways.org/ (Accessed: 4 October 2022)

City of Melbourne (2022). Green your laneway case study: Guilford Lane. Available at: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/green-your-laneway-case-study-guildford-lane.pdf (Accessed: 4 October 2022)

City of Melbourne (2022). Green your laneway case study: Meyers Place. Available at: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/green-your-laneway-case-study-meyers-place.pdf (Accessed: 4 October 2022)

City of Melbourne (2022). Green your laneway case study: Katherine Place. Available at: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/green-your-laneway-case-study-katherine-place.pdf (Accessed: 4 October 2022)

City of Melbourne (2022). Green your laneway case study: Coromandel Place. Available at: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/green-your-laneway-case-study-coromandel.pdf (Accessed: 4 October 2022)

Further documents

Weblinks:

https://youtu.be/RBtAUUzH7Uo

Photos

@P. Whelen auf Unsplash