Nature is an ally to clean our cities

Green infrastructure can clear the air and filter pollution

Nature can help us tackle urban environmental challenges, including climate change impacts. Stormwater management and urban trees reduce pollution and provide climate resiliency. By using natural features such as native plants to filter our region’s increasing rains, we are capturing harmful pollutants before they enter our waterways.

The world is undergoing a tremendous surge of urban population growth, with more than half of all people now living in towns and cities. While nature may seem far from the urban environment, research increasingly shows that it plays a critical role in the lives of city dwellers.

It turns out that interactions with nature have some very tangible health benefits. Nearby nature provides a positive emotional experience that has been shown to speed up recovery time for hospitalized patients, motivate healthy behaviors such as exercise and provide therapeutic benefits to people living with mental disorders.

To accomplish these big tasks in our growing cities, we need to work at scale across industries. City Habitats is a cross-sector coalition that is building a movement around increasing nature in cities and towns. We’re using nature to solve big challenges in smart, innovative ways to support our human habitats and help Puget Sound communities thrive.