Story
Urban Greening for Heat Resilient Neighbourhoods

Greenspace in Govan
The challenge
Extreme heat is a major concern for public health and wellbeing under a changing climate, especially in cities where large volumes of concrete can contribute to an ‘urban heat island’ effect of high temperatures.
Trees and greenery have been proposed as a low-cost measure to help cities and people adapt to hot weather by providing shade and cooling the urban environment. However, planning and maintenance of urban greenspaces rarely takes into consideration that not everyone is at equal risk from or has the capacity to adapt to extreme heat. Evidence also suggests that trees and parks can disproportionately accrue to wealthier areas while disadvantaged neighbourhoods have less access to cooling greenery thus increasing vulnerability to health risks caused by extreme heat. It is therefore vitally important that community voices are heard when developing urban heat strategies and placemaking to avoid entrenching inequalities.
The research
In 2022-2024, Verture (then Sniffer) collaborated with the Open University on a research project to understand how communities in Glasgow, and Taipei in Taiwan, currently experience and cope with hot weather and the role neighbourhood trees and greenspace play in helping people adapt to extreme heat.
The aim was to develop an approach that empowers heat vulnerable communities to gather their own knowledge and lived experience of coping with hot weather in their local area so they can communicate their needs to decisionmakers.
In the Glasgow City Region, the Climate Ready Clyde — climate risk and opportunity assessment has identified that summer heatwaves are projected to be more frequent and extreme as the climate changes. Using the Glasgow City Region Climate Ready Clyde Vulnerability Map, Pollok and Govan were identified as neighbourhoods in Glasgow particularly vulnerable to heat risk due to climate change but each with different greenspace provision so the role of urban greenery as an option for coping with heat could be explored. Pollok has lots of trees and several large, open greenspaces whereas Govan has smaller and more widely distributed green areas.
The Project Team worked with The Village Storytelling Centre in Pollok and Impact Arts in Govan who have strong connections and relationships within the neighbourhoods and could help to recruit and support the community researchers. These creative anchor organisations created innovate ways of engaging people and presenting gathered information that the communities could use to raise awareness of the risks of hot weather and kickstart discussions with greenspace planning decision-makers.
Over a 6-month period, community researchers carried out ‘walk and talk’ surveys and creative workshops with a wide cross section of the community. They gathered a wealth of information about how local people behave during hot weather and the measures they took to cool down including their use and opinions of their local greenspace.
The project culminated in celebration events in both communities to present the findings and link local people with greenspace improvement and climate change professionals to help take forward their ideas.
The impact
The research showed that Glasgow residents are already experiencing the negative impacts of hot weather and adopting measures to adapt such as staying indoors, shutting curtains or going out/walking their dogs in the evenings. Trees and greenspaces provide day-time shade for some people but many felt that their neighbourhood didn’t have enough cooling greenery or easily accessible and attractive spaces.
The stories gathered add a human dimension to heat risk conversation and data. Understanding how urban residents experience and cope with hot weather is essential to ensure that outdoor spaces are designed to help people adapt to our changing climate in a fair and equitable manner.
Graphic cartoon posters produced in Pollok and zines in Govan based on views expressed by residents have provided a fun and accessible way of communicating the findings and helping a wide range of people understand heat risk and practical things they can do to adapt. Each community has been given copies of the posters/zines to distribute to schools, community groups and public spaces so the knowledge gathered stays with the community.
The community researchers now have skills they can use to have conversations with people in their neighbourhood about other issues.
On a regional level, the project helps supports delivery of Flagship Action 2 of the Glasgow City Region Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan, empowering and enabling communities to have conversations with decisionmakers to help shape climate-ready places. Links have already been made with greenspace improvement planners and delivery organisations so community voices and needs are fed into decision-making.

Greenspace in Pollok
The outputs
Outputs include:
- 7 people trained as community researchers
- 4 community workshops and 2 celebration events
- 126 people engaged in climate change conversations
- 4 graphic posters produced to illustrate community views in Pollok and 2 zines to illustrate community views in Govan
- 2 technical reports
The funder
The project was funded by the British Academy. Complimentary research with communities in Taipei, Taiwan is currently underway by Taipei GR Lab at National Taiwan University.
Urban Greening for Heat Resilient Neighbourhoods is a research project delivered by Verture and Open University in collaboration with local people to understand how communities in Glasgow currently experience and cope with hot weather and the role urban trees and greenspace play in helping people adapt to extreme heat.
“When it’s hot, I’ll stay in the house. I can shut the curtains over and keep the heat out. I don’t think it’s too hot, but I’m quite lucky as well. I’ve got a tree in the back garden that shades part of the house and a bit of the garden that keeps it cooler, and I’ve also got two trees out in the front, which shades the sun for getting to the house.” Pollok resident