Unique green map for Liverpool

A unique green map of Liverpool was presented to the Leader and Chief Executive of Liverpool City Council today (23 March) by CABE, the government’s advisors on urban design.

The beautiful image gives a clear sense of the quantity and distribution of the city’s green assets: public parks, allotments, back gardens, street trees, green roofs, cemeteries and woodlands. It questions the very basis on which cities are usually mapped.

The map was donated as part of CABE’s ‘Grey to Green’ campaign, which calls for a better balance between the resources absorbed by grey infrastructure, like roads, and those given to green infrastructure.

It shows the city has an extraordinary reserve which could put it at the vanguard of creating one of England’s greenest cities in every sense - beautiful and healthy, and resilient to the effects of climate change.

The map was presented by CABE Commissioner Richard Cass (a Liverpool-based landscape architect), who commented:
‘We need maps of grey infrastructure to help us navigate, but they encourage us to think of our cities as made of concrete and tarmac with some green punctuation. What is startling is that when you suck away the grey and look at the green, you understand the city differently.’

The map was created from aerial photography; the Mersey Forest Team employed a digital process to select the green elements.

It was presented during an event attended by senior decision makers in Liverpool who discussed the best ways of designing and managing Liverpool’s green infrastructure for the 2010 Year of Health and Wellbeing and beyond.

Notes to editors

• Photo caption: CABE Commissioner Richard Cass presented Cllr Warren Bradley, Leader, Liverpool City Council and Colin Heaton, Chief executive of Liverpool City Council with a unique map of the city that reveals the network of green spaces which define Liverpool.
• If you would like to receive a copy of the maps being handed over please contact dbird@cabe.org.uk or ring 020 7070 6772.
• CABE launched its Grey to Green campaign in November 2009 and called for a shift in investment from grey projects like road building and heavy engineering projects to green schemes like street trees, parks, green roofs and waterways. To find out more, visit www.cabe.org.uk/grey-to-green.
• The map is part of a series of three commissioned for CABE’s Grey to Green campaign. It was created using high resolution aerial photography of Liverpool supplied by Getmapping. Mersey Forest, together with artist Morag Myersough, used a combination of computer technology and painstaking hand rendering to select only the green elements from the photographs.
• CABE is the government’s advisor on architecture, urban design and public space. As a public body, we encourage policymakers to create places that work for people. We help local planners apply national design policy and offer expert advice to developers and architects. We show public sector clients how to commission buildings that meet the needs of their users. And we seek to inspire the public to demand more from their buildings and spaces. Advising, influencing and inspiring, we work to create well-designed, welcoming places. www.cabe.org.uk