climate adaptation– tag –

Japan’s irrigation ponds have supported rice farming, wildlife, and rural communities for centuries. Today, aging infrastructure, fewer managers, and heavier rainfall are turning these familiar waterscapes into growing disaster risks.

Cities do not have to keep storing heat. Shade, mature trees, water-retentive ground, wind corridors, efficient buildings, and cooling shelters can help create safer urban environments designed around everyday life.

Urban heat is not experienced equally. Children, older people, outdoor workers, and residents of neighborhoods without trees or cooling spaces often bear the greatest burden. The urban heat island effect reveals not only how cities retain heat, but also whom they are designed to protect.

Street trees are more than urban decoration. They provide shade, reduce surface temperatures, absorb rainwater, support biodiversity, and protect pedestrians from extreme heat. Yet the trees themselves are being weakened by compacted soil, limited root space, drought, heavy pruning, and rising temperatures. This article examines the role of street trees as living infrastructure and asks whether Japan’s urban greenery can survive a hotter future.

雨を待つ国から、水を設計する国へ─マラウイが映す気候変動時代の未来 マラウイ。アフリカ南東部にある、内陸の国です。 この国を語るとき、よく使われる言葉があります...