After the duel for shamira’s death a 20 year old girl by the fall of a palm tree in a street in Raval on August 3, the time has come to draw conclusions. It has gone on to review if there was any previous negligence, check the state of the palm trees in the city and modify irrigation criteria that had been established during the exceptional situation due to drought. But this will not suffice: the effect of the change in the city’s climate must lead to a more in-depth analysis of how to manage urban trees, in a context to which many species may not adapt at the same time as your presence is key to help make the city livable.
Retrospective review of what happened can easily lead to criticism of what was not done on time. But sometimes until the evidence of the danger is not incontestable it is difficult to assume some actions. And even after. Each felling of a tree, each decision not to plant large species in places where (due to the presence of underground installations, for example) the soil cannot support them, each suppression of a parrot nest or each closure of a garden space to anticipate the falling branches or trees may have been criticized. And in many they have been. Not even in Madrid, which closes its parks with mature specimens when windy, hot and dry situations coincide after two people died from falling branches in recent years, has this decision ceased to be controversial. Excess caution that deprives the neighbors of a necessary climatic refuge or rational precaution?
In the case of Barcelona, the decision to cut down the date palms with signs of fragility, water them despite the restrictions and remove the elements that represent an overload is an acknowledgment that the dangers have hitherto been underestimated that could suppose the state of this species.
But beyond this emergency action, experts point out that adaptation to a future of increasing heat and more frequent droughts must lead to a review of the urban green model. A review that began years ago, with the promotion, for example, of Mediterranean plants in the face of less and less sustainable expanses of grass. But that it must go further, and be integrated into a new culture of urban space design and water management. Shade should be considered a basic need, and natural whenever possible, without ruling out the use of artificial elements. Trees, subjected to water stress that calls into question both their safety and their survival, must be considered as one of the exceptions when planning restrictions. And to make it possible, systems for the regeneration, reuse and collection of rainwater, wastewater or groundwater must continue to be designed. Finally, the renewal of the repertoire of urban trees must continue to reduce the number of species less adapted to our new climate. And perhaps it is necessary not to wait to progressively replace the specimens that are reaching the end of their natural cycle, but to act more proactively. The pairing in which the fight against the climate crisis unfolds (mitigation and adaptation) will not fail to affect only one aspect of our daily lives.