Living Heritage Sites and Climate Change - The Reactions of Parks and Gardens within the European Garden Heritage Network

CHRISTIAN GRUESSEN
European Garden Heritage Network, Germany

Climate change influences parks and gardens (heritage and contemporary, private and public) very directly. Dry periods, flooding, violent sunlight, higher temperatures etc. affect single plants as well as major structures and the enjoyment and wellbeing of visitors. Therefore modified management, designs, facilities and services are required. However, parks and gardens as vivid heritage sites and as “landscapes” of condensed high quality features are committed to turn forthcoming challenges into new opportunities. The creative use of the existing toolkit (plants, designs, buildings etc.) and the development of new solutions (e.g. flexible sun shelters) can add to the attractiveness of a park or garden. This can also enable each site to attract more visitors (both local and tourists), to act as showcases for comparable measures, and to raise public awareness for both climate change and the benefits of smart actions.

This positive outlook is supported by the fact that the skills of horticulturists, gardeners, designers and architects have always allowed to create “specific environments”, e.g. to host plants from other climatic zones or to provide shelter for users (e.g. pergolas or loggias) while adding to the attractiveness of a site.

The parks and gardens, local and regional authorities from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Sweden working together in the European Garden Heritage Network EGHN are committed to pool their knowledge and best practice and to work together on creative and sustainable innovations to the above, e.g. the inclusion of renewable energies in the design of a park or the use of intelligent textile architectures to provide shelter. This will also relate to regional economies and tourism.

The paper will highlight some of the experiences already made and summarize the ideas, objectives and future activities of some partners within EGHN.