Chur Climate Change and missing Trees - Heatstress in the City
Channel: Sketch&Draw
Date: 2024-02-18

I'm standing here in the centre of Chur, the capital of the canton of Graubünden with a population of around 32,000. Unfortunately, a busy road runs right through the centre of the city. So here is actually all the traffic of one or even several valleys passing through. On the other side of the road you can see a park. There are trees here, even a sequoia and some fenced-in greenery in the style of a baroque garden. The city lies in a basin, surrounded by mountains. The mountains all around ensure less rainfall and lots of sunshine, especially in summer.  Chur is one of the top ten Swiss towns in terms of hours of sunshine. This also has its disadvantages. 

You can see it right here. 
The oldest city in Switzerland, a Roman city, was built on the edge of the valley, on rubble. Large square. All stone. Almost no trees. This makes for hot summers in the city, together with the low rainfall it gets very hot here. That's why planting trees is almost impossible. 
If we look at the forest on the sunny southern slopes, it's bad. Conifers died years ago, the beech trees couldn't stand the sun at their feet and now they are all dying too. You can recognise this by the bare branches that stick out of the still green crowns in summer. This sign means that it is already too late. In winter, rainwater will run into the dead branches and penetrate the trunk. It will rot. 
But what can you do? 
I live here on this hot street. We have planted a row of yews. These shade the patio in summer and make the city heat more bearable.