Few Antwerp residents have access to greenery, according to a new report examining 862 cities in Europe.
Researchers studied how closely 862 cities follow the “3-30-300 rule”, a guideline for making urban areas greener. It calls for every home, school and workplace to have a view of at least three trees, 30% neighborhood canopy cover and a park within 300 metres.
Only 1% of Antwerp residents live in full accordance with these criteria.
The guideline was proposed in 2021 by Dutchman Cecil Konijnendijk as a straightforward measure of urban greenery. Antwerp ranked among the weakest performers. Mechelen in Flanders also recorded a very low score.
Brussels performed well across all three measures and placed in the top half of the cities assessed.
Leuven, Liège and Verviers were around the European average, while the other Belgian cities studied remained well below it, Gazet van Antwerpen reports.
In Europe
Other major port cities, including Hamburg and Rotterdam, scored higher than Antwerp. Northern European cities were generally greener than those in southern Europe, while several eastern European capitals, including Warsaw, Bucharest and Sofia, were among the strongest performers.
The study found substantial differences within most cities, with higher-income neighbourhoods generally having more greenery and parks.
Only two of the more than 800 cities had over half their residents meeting all three benchmarks: Varese in northern Italy and Espoo in Finland.
The reporting notes that it is unclear whether Antwerp’s large port area was included in the calculation, which may have negatively affected its result. The overall score therefore does not necessarily show how green individual residential districts are.
Future plans
Antwerp has previously received a City of Trees Award from the European Arboricultural Council for its long-term tree strategy.
The plan includes a citywide tree inventory and a focus on planting trees for the future, in other words trees that would live for more than a hundred years, develop deep roots and provide plenty of shade.
Antwerp city officials told Gazet van Antwerpen that the 3-30-300 rule was included in Antwerp’s governing agreement and guided its greening policy.
Councillor Ken Casier, responsible for green spaces, said the city had added 3,057 trees in three years, bringing the total to 64,494, adding that Antwerp plans to add hundreds of hectares of green space by 2030.
