Abu Dhabi City Municipality (ADM) celebrated this year’s Earth Day, themed ‘Trees for the Earth’, with more green achievements by expanding landscaped areas, planting more trees, and building more parks, recreational facilities, and road landscaping projects, among other greenery works covering all municipal assets and public utilities.

Observing this global event reaffirms the commitment of the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport - Abu Dhabi City Municipality to ensuring the standards of sustainability & environment preservation, raising community awareness about the importance of safeguarding natural resources and reducing pollution in order to nurture a secure, stable and healthy environment.

It also echoes the Municipality’s commitment to preserve environment, and address climate change by paying greater attention to agricultural wealth.

The Municipality is going ahead with its green drive by expanding green spaces, redoubling the number of trees, increasing landscaping projects for streets and squares, and growing more domestic flora.

Green spaces in Abu Dhabi span an area of 837,164,264 square meters, including 477,635 trees, 141,128 palm trees. An area of 12,973,621 square meters has been covered with flowers, and the length of existing hedges was extended to reach 33,076,693 meters. Land covering plants and shrubs cover an area of 310,555,654 square meters; and now Abu Dhabi & suburbs contain more than 588,763 trees including palm trees and ornamental trees.

The above statistics are related to Abu Dhabi City Municipality and affiliated centers namely, Al Bateen, Mussafah, Al Wathba and A Shahama municipal centres.

According to last year’s statistics, Abu Dhabi City (Abu Dhabi Island and the Mainland) now boast of 83 parks, while Mainland, Khalifa bin Zayed City, Mohammed Bin Zayed City, and Shakhboot City now witness more development projects in order to keep pace with the development drive seen by Abu Dhabi Island. Abu Dhabi Island now includes 34 parks and 39 playing areas, with 7 additional parks and 23 playing areas to be completed in residential neighborhoods by the end of this year. The Mainland now has 13 parks and playing areas, excluding Khalifa bin Zayed City, Mohammed Bin Zayed City, and Shakhboot City; and as many as 20 parks and 8 playing areas will be constructed in the forthcoming years.

In coordination with Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council, preparation plans are now been drafted by Abu Dhabi City Municipality to carry out more landscaping projects to cope up with the current rapid urban expansion and ensure performance excellence as envisioned in Abu Dhabi 2030 Strategy Plan. From this standpoint, the Municipality is currently undertaking a number of landscaping projects highlighted by charting out a plan for 130 parks in different parts of Abu Dhabi Island and the Mainland from 2014 to 2017, in accordance with the proposed plans.

Earlier this year, the Municipality opened one park in Mohammed bin Zayed City, bringing the total number of parks opened this year to 7. The Municipality has made strenuous efforts to introduce local flora as per the approved landscaping projects guide issued by the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport in mid-2013.

The Municipality has placed this drive at the top of its environmental strategy 2014 - 2020 as regards adopting proposed mechanisms to introduce domestic plants in landscaping projects.

The Landscaping Projects Guide provides for introducing native plants in landscaping projects in order to reduce irrigation water, and cut operation & maintenance expenses. Other benefits include conserving plant species threatened by urban expansion, protecting wildlife, strengthening identity of national parks, boosting the capabilities of Drought Impacts and Climate Change Management.

Source :WAM