While there are a number of good reasons to increase urban densities, this BBC News article serves as a reminder that even reduced sprawl carries risks. Underused spaces in the urban fabric are often the first to be used for infill programmes to increase density because they are the easiest to develop. But even if they are not the most attractive parts of a city, they may still offer benefits similar to better-protected green lungs, which are important for social and recreational activity, biodiversity, storing carbon, reducing urban heat build-up, and for managing stormwater.
Just another example showing that as urban challenges intensify, our planning responses need to be more sophisticated and able to weigh up the tradeoffs inherent in decisions about how we shape our cities. If we don't bring together the parks managers, the road designers, the urban planners and a host of other decision-makers, we'll never get this right.
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