Tree Care, Monday, December 5, 2022
Green As A Service (GAES) deployed at two Hague squares
In the beautiful city behind the dunes, a growing number of residents of some neighbourhoods are creeping into a feeling of insecurity. The municipality of The Hague is also struggling with heat stress in summer and the disappearance of biodiversity. To tackle these problems, the municipality decided to enter into a partnership with GAES, a company that measures the performance of urban green space and translates this into optimisation and adjustments of outdoor space.
Author: Jeroen Poldermans
The redesign of Goeverneurplein in the Laak district served as a pilot project. The ecosystem services (see paragraph GAES) in this project focused on heat stress reduction, water capture, adding biodiversity and managing local climate regulation. After this successful pilot, the municipality and GAES continued their cooperation through the Oltmansplein approach. At this location, in addition to the climatic ecosystem services, the focus was on the social function of greenery, as this location is known as a multi-problem neighbourhood, according to Jacco Schuurkamp, policy officer of the city management department and former leader of the policy plan Agenda Green for the City. Schuurkamp calls himself an evangelist of natural capital.
