by Shane Sody
If you Love Your Park Lands, like we do, you might occasionally hear criticism from people who have latched onto a Park Lands myth.
Maybe they just don’t get the value of Open Green Public space. Or maybe they are just reciting one or more talking points, or fake beliefs that they’ve heard from others
MYTH: So much of the Park Lands is degraded - dry, dusty not landscaped.
TRUTH: This myth is usually repeated by those who have never visited (perhaps not even heard of) Park Lands areas such as these:
But of course, there are parts of your Park Lands that are not irrigated, and so the seasonal grass dries off in summer.
So what?
The Adelaide Park Lands Management Strategy (endorsed by both the City Council and the State Government) does not envisage every part of your Park Lands being landscaped like an English countryside.
It would be prohibitively expensive to do that, and it would be nonsensical in the driest State in the driest continent to pretend that all vegetation stays verdant during heat waves.
If the patches seem a little ad hoc, that’s because they are. The Park Lands don’t have a cohesive irrigation strategy. The system has evolved opportunistically over time, implemented Park by Park as usage of each Park has changed.
Source: City of Adelaide
Whether they are lush and green, or dry and yellow (for some parts of the year) your Park Lands are large enough to effectively lower the temperature in the CBD (1) and also reduce electricity consumption in CBD buildings, especially those located close to your Park Lands (2). Seasonal dryness is no argument for limiting their size.
Read more about irrigation in the Park Lands:
See the other Park Lands Myth Busters https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/myth-busters
References:
(1) Guan et al et al "Effective surface areas for optimal correlations between surface brightness and air temperatures in an urban environment" Journal of Applied Remote Sensing Vol. 9, 2015
(2) Guan et al "Response of office building electricity consumption to urban weather in Adelaide, South Australia" (2014) Urban Climate 10 (2014) pp 42-55
