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Photos: Altair Umirbekov
The concept of Astana as a “garden city”, and problems related to the greening of the city, came to the fore roughly a year ago. Speaking at a meeting on the capital’s development in July 2023, Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, lambasted the city’s efforts so far. He gave Zhenis Kasymbek, Astana’s akim (head of city administration), exactly one year to improve the situa-tion. The reprimand led the akimat (city administration) to take some actual tangible steps, turning the city (somewhat) greener. At least, this is what the statistics say.
According to Astana City Environmental Protection and Nature Management Department, about 1 million green plantings were planted in the metropolitan area in 2023, including 528,000 inside the city limits and 456,591 in the artificially forested “green belt” surrounding Astana. The same year — following the lead of more established “green cities” across the world — significant efforts were launched to transform Astana into a “garden city” over the course of five years.
The planting plan for 2024 was just as ambitious: over 1.1 million green plants, 889,000 inside the city and 200,000 in the green belt). Over 300,000 green spaces had already been established in the capital by mid-2024, with the ambition to continue planting in the fall.
As of today, Astana contains 14 square metres of green area per Astana resident. The city admin-istration plans to boost this number to 19 square metres in compliance with health regulations. For comparison, Almaty’s city administration last year planned to achieve 12.3 square metres per inhabitant.
Responding to an inquiry, Astana City Environmental Protection and Nature Management Department informed Vlast of “the updated Astana City budget allocating 16,840.6 million tenge for comprehensive urban development, including landscaping, repair, and recovery”.
Astana’s akimat has asserted that there are multiple operators engaged in greening the city. Yet in reality, Astana-Zelenstroy LLP (hereinafter “Zelenstroy”) is responsible for over 70 percent of metropolitan landscaping projects. According to Zelenstroy’s own data, the survival rate of hardwood trees in Astana is up to 85 percent; conifers’ survival rate is 70 percent; for shrubs, floral, and decorative shrubs 75–85 percent; and seedlings that fail to take root are replaced by contractors at their own expense.
Bolat Musabekov, an expert landscaper, believes the situation is somewhat trickier.
“Speaking not only for Astana City, but all of Northern Kazakhstan, which has the same climate and similar soil, the key challenge is one and the same: a lack of plant nurseries. Zelenstroy operates its own large facility that covers only its own corporate needs. They don’t sell anything to anyone outside. The organization has turned into a stodgy monster”, states Musabekov. “Take any tender for greening in Astana, and you’ll see that virtually all requirements are tailored to Zelenstroy. They’ve been on Astana’s landscaping market for 25 years now.”
While he’s not entirely against the status quo, he believes that a slightly more market-friendly attitude and some more competition wouldn’t hurt.
“Zelenstroy is basically an unacknowledged monopolist, leaving room for other vendors only with small-scale tenders or, say, sporadic commissioning of newly built property. Then they import substandard planting material from Europe, regardless of how well acclimatized or beneficial for our climate such materials are”, Musabekov continues.
Musabekov even describes cases in which specialists from other cities (such as Almaty) have partaken in greening efforts in Astana using materials that might grow well in the country’s south, but are not suitable for its northern regions.
The expert notes that the planting material brought in from southern Kazakhstan or Europe are not completely incompatible with Astana’s climate — the majority are of “good quality and adapt well”. Panicled hydrangea, spiraea, dwarf and common ninebark (bubbler), and other ornamental shrubs feel quite at home in Astana.
“The small-leaved linden has performed well; it's growing okay here. One of the operators has imported quite expensive linden trees, I believe, from Germany. New planting technologies. According to the supplier, the trees will grow just fine ... But it’s purely an experiment, I’d say. Let's see how they survive the winter, and what becomes of them in the spring. On a different note, such efforts do expand plant variety, richness of colours, and the city’s appeal”, Musabekov con-cludes.
Ephemerals: A Luxury?
That said, Musabekov does not agree with the decision announced at last year's meeting on Asta-na’s development, which deemed annual plants an unacceptable luxury and endorsed the consequent switch to perennials — which currently make up only 10 percent of the capital’s plantings and green spaces.
“In reality, perennial flower beds are five to ten times more expensive than the ones made of ephemerals! The mere fact that a plant is perennial doesn’t automatically mean it will grow continuously for 50+ years. In certain cases, additional transplanting will be necessary; sometimes there will be complete replanting due to loss of decorativeness, etc. I strongly believe it should be 50/50. The fact is that whereas with ephemerals we are talking about almost 90 percent Kazakhstani content, all the money for perennials goes to Western Europe (the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland) and Russia” says Musabekov. “It means we are financing their landscaping industry, which is not the best solution from an economic point of view.”
The lack of plant nurseries is yet another challenge, as highlighted by the expert landscaper above. Zelenstroy does have good specialists, but its nursery is the only one in the country — and one is as good as none.
“What’s the foundation of the nursery business? It’s[access to] long-term cheap money. Our agri-culture has been enjoying state support, but the nursery industry has been left by the wayside of the government’s focus,” explains the landscaper. “The allocated budget may seem huge, but all of it simply gets channelled to Europe to procure the planting material.”
Musabekov is convinced that Kazakhstan needs private nurseries, of the kind found in Poland.
“Polish nurseries are 30 years old, and they’ve virtually flooded our market with their planting material. We need our own domestic programme and assistance from the state. This should be our priority,” explains the landscaper. “I have repeatedly knocked on the doors of Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs regarding the matter, but in vain … perhaps due to the fact that there is no landscaper association in Kazakhstan yet. Having such an organization would make it easier to get on their radar.”
On 17 June the Anti-Corruption Agency of Kazakhstan reported the pre-trial investigation of Zelenstroy’s former director general on suspicion of attempted fraud and incitement to bribe in the amount of 15 million tenge (around 28,000 USD) to law enforcement officials to close the criminal case. The former Zelenstroy director is also suspected of having abused his office by unjustifiably overstating the costs of planting perennial shrubs.
The Back End of Metropolitan Landscaping
A state audit has shed light on Astana’s shortcomings in landscaping management, indicating, for example, that planting efforts were not backed up by corresponding dendrological plans. Recommendations based on the audit’s findings included launching a green space register and eliminating instances of maintaining green space without an assessment of inventory and forest pathology. Aizhan Skakova, an ecologist and member of the Public Сhamber of the Mazhilis (lower house) of Kazakhstan’s parliament, spends a great deal of time on this issue.
“According to the city’s akim, last year [the city government] adopted a landscaping charter for the capital”, Skakova says. “It includes three-year warranty obligations for planted green spaces, as well as prioritizing large-sized trees and perennial plants.”
The city administration insists that the charter was developed on the basis of international experience, with input from landscaping researchers, urbanists, and metropolitan residents, and in accordance with the 2035 Astana Development Plan.
The charter does include regulations pertaining to a broad spectrum of the capital’s greening issues, yet it also contains a number of hard-to-escape snags, some of them — according to Bolat Musabekov — associated with seemingly banal matters like technologies for planting and taking care of trees.
“We are suffering from low customer competence,” Musabekov explains. “District-level akimats face significant personnel turnover, specifically among young lead specialists overseeing landscaping.”
The landscaping expert speculates that a designated budget may be necessary to ensure the independent audit of landscaping and greening projects as well as green space maintenance.
“Let’s say a company wins a construction tender. It totally makes sense to have a different company monitoring the quality of the works performed by the first company, right? That means attracting expert organizations like Zh. Zhiyembayev Kazakh Research Institute for Plant Protection and Quarantine, U. Uspanov Kazakh Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry, the Kazakh Research Institute of Forestry and Agroforestry, or Kazakhstan Gardening Association to en-sure robust quality control. These are just a few domestic agencies with real expertise. In addition, as far as I remember, Astana’s maslikhat [city council] has endorsed the regulations for creating, maintaining, and protecting green sites in the city.” Musabekov emphasizes: “This is one of the key, yet so far neglected, tools.”
Other organizations — the overwhelming majority of which are backed by government agencies — may also participate in landscaping-related tenders. Musabekov explains that in this case the rules are slightly different, and a lot is left up to disability organizations.
“Disability organizations tend to win such tenders. In the past, the idea was to somehow help people with disabilities, and today they get most of the landscaping projects. At the same time, 70 to 80 percent of people with disabilities cannot physically perform the necessary works. So, in reality, behind each disability association that participates in a tender and is awarded a landscaping project, there is another entity actually performing the works. No knowledge, no skills! But the trees have to be planted one way or another. At the end of the day, people with disabilities themselves don’t earn anything. I have brought it to the attention of Atameken [National Chamber of Entrepreneurs] multiple times. For people with disabilities to benefit from such projects, we need to change the law,” Musabekov argues.
The landscaping expert admits that one should not judge the state of the country’s green spaces based purely on their being incorrectly planted or cared for; many phyto diseases get imported along with foreign planting material.
“We do have the regulator — the phytosanitary agency — issuing quarantine certificates. I am not sure whether it’s their incompetency or simply the absence of equipment allowing proper pathogenicity testing. In Almaty, the conifers have been dying since the year before last. Before, it was the oaks, and apple orchards before that. It's an epidemic,” says Musabekov. “In Astana, the situation is similar. You’ve probably seen trees without leaves in these cities. That means they are either sick, were improperly planted, or that the planting material came from a different climatic zone, say, from Shymkent City, Uzbekistan, or Kyrgyzstan.”
Ecologist Aizhan Skakova shares Musabekov's opinion that the first step is to proceed from the natural-climatic and soil conditions of a target area. Astana, for instance, is located in an arid zone characterized by limited water resources.
An important factor is vegetation’s exposure to autumn and spring frost – making green space cultivation and preservation difficult. According to ecologist Skakova, it is essential to select species capable of thriving in a specific location.
“The natural and climatic conditions in and around the capital are rather complicated. The city’s territory lies within the dry steppe zone featuring dry winds in summer and severe blizzards in winter. For some woody and shrubby vegetation, it’s quite harsh," explains the environmental specialist.
Another important factor is vegetation’s exposure to autumn and spring frost – making green space cultivation and preservation even more difficult. According to Skakova, it is essential to select species capable of thriving in a specific location.
“There are around 15 species that comprise the most resilient trees and shrubs for enduring local conditions, including pine, birch, apple, poplar, willow, oleaster, elm, and bird cherry,” Skakova continues. “Driving through the green spaces of Akmola Region, you will definitely see these unpretentious plants, long considered ‘standard and zoned’. They do not require sophisticated care, are less susceptible to diseases, and demonstrate a good rate of survival. On average, it’s 65 to 70 percent, while poplar, maple, and elm perform even better.”
When landscaping in steppe conditions, it is paramount to analyse soil types and features before starting to plant in terms of their afforestation suitability, purpose of planting (landscaping, drought resistance, salt tolerance), as well as the complexity of care. According to Skakova, the soil cover in and around Kazakhstan’s capital consists of dark and meadow-chestnut, meadow-swamp, swamp, and black alkali soils, as well as salt marshes, all of which freeze deeply in winter.
“Depending on soil type afforestation suitability, the valuable tree varieties, which can potentially grow well in and around Astana, include birch, willow, pine, maple, spruce, linden, and poplar,” says Skakova. “Of the shrubby species, hawthorn does excellently here. The capital’s green belt also has ash-leaved maple, hybrid poplar, tree-like willow, common bird cherry, Siberian apple tree, juneberry, yellow acacia, golden currant, and wild olive.”
The specific technologies (used to identify soils, most suitable planting material, and groundwater table) that are applied in adverse climatic conditions also help enhance plant survivability.
Waterlogging
Water deficit, caused not only by plant water demand, is also high on the agenda of planting experts. “Is there enough water, and what is its quality? Both are equally important. It’s an escalating con-cern,” warns Musabekov. “It’s a cut-and-dried fact that we should look more into the quality of the water we use for plantations.”
He recalls that ten years ago, 90 percent of the water supplying urban green spaces in the capital came from the Ishim River.
“This water is okay and appropriate. I remember the time when Water-Green Boulevard was supplied with drinking water. They’ve redone the boulevard now, but there are other water sources,” the landscaper notes.
According to Marat Koshumbayev, PhD in Technical Sciences at S. Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical Research University and a member of the International Academy for Information Management (IAIM), Astana and adjacent areas are distinguished by shallow groundwater, which leads to waterlogging.
“Draining projects can help,” Koshumbayev says. “As you might know, Lake Taldykol formed thanks to water filtration, which hints at a nature-based solution for pushing groundwater further down. In winter, groundwater freezes and cuts through tree roots. In other words, a high water table has an adverse impact on urban green plantations. To aid our landscaping efforts, we need to increase our groundwater depth and improve soil quality.”
With groundwater depth more or less clarified, Koshumbayev’s reply as to water should be used for landscaping is unambiguous: only service water.
“To ensure that, we should build several gravity canals piercing the city and following the natural slope to collect and use technical water,” he suggests. “Wind turbines could generate power to maintain water circulation. The same canals could be used to transport cargo and thus relieve traffic. Separating service and drinking water will definitely improve the quality of water supplied to enterprises and the public.”
Koshumbayev also sees another option: to use purified groundwater. In this case, however, multiple renewable-powered wells throughout Astana would be necessary to pump the water up, with the artificial canals operating as water storage facilities.
The quality of water coming from sewage treatment plants is still an open question. According to Koshumbayev, this is due to lack of financing, competence, and domestic technologies adapted to local conditions.
“Efficient water regulation and management require clear legislation that everyone understands as well as modern water infrastructure, including hydro-technical installations utilized for different purposes,” Koshumbayev says.
Astana’s Green Belt
The project to create a green belt around Astana was initiated by former president Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1996. The idea was to encircle the city with a green belt of artificial plantations to regulate the temperature in the vicinity.
The project commenced in 1997 and has consisted of two phases.
Phase One — from 1998 to 2004 — focused on configuring the green belt. By 2004, over 9.6 million trees and about 1.8 million shrubs had been planted, mainly deciduous (98.2 percent) with some coniferous (1.8 percent). Phase Two was launched in 2009, with the main objective of transforming the initial forest protection strips into a real forest. To achieve this, Astana City’s akimat directed six projects to upgrade the existing plantations and commission second-stage forest species. Over the course of the next 13 years (beginning in 2012), Astana Ormany LLP planted over 4.9 million tree seedlings covering 4,265.63 hectares, 27.5 percent coniferous and 72.5 percent deciduous.
As of today, Astana’s green belt comprises 34 types of trees and shrubs, prioritizing hardwood species like birch, elm, maple, poplar, ash, and oak; conifers (pine and spruce); and shrubs (mainly currant, acacia, and honeysuckle).
“If memory serves, the current area of the green belt is about 78,000 hectares, roughly equal to the area of three state-run farms. The project has undoubtedly had a huge impact on the city. I remember the dust storms when a child,” Musabekov recalls. “None today! The plantations around the capital have likewise slowed down the speed of blizzards. And the green belt has become a full-fledged ecosystem. People go there to enjoy the nature. It has attracted animal communities; it has become a true symbiosis between flora and fauna. It’s hard to overestimate this project’s benefits,” he says.
At present, the green belt’s total area within the capital amounts to 14,827 hectares, including 11,502.2 hectares occupied by forest plantations. Since 2010, the belt’s area has not expanded.
Astana Akimat reports that it has developed a feasibility study for continuous urban landscaping (green wedges), listing all the target steps to establishing additional forest plantations. The corresponding detailed action plan will specify the final project’s deadline, but the planting works are expected to finish by 2030.
Yet the green belt initiative has been facing certain roadblocks, the key one being the lack of land suitable for afforestation.
As the capital’s Environmental Protection and Nature Management Department reports: “Out of the 14,827 hectares of the total green belt area, 24.55 percent are unsuitable soils with negative forest-growing properties containing easily soluble surface salts in depressing and toxic amounts. The majority of seedlings planted in such soils either do not survive even the initial post-planting years or are incapable of taking root. Other countries’ experiences of dealing with unproductive soils proves it is possible to create new forest plantations in such conditions only after embarking on fundamental improvements, i.e. black alkali soil reclamation.”
Jointly with U. Uspanov Kazakh Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry and Kazakh Research Institute of Forestry and Agroforestry, the environment department is currently analys-ing the costs of developing effective methods of reclaiming the green belt’s black alkali soils over the course of three years. The akimat expects to soon obtain a cutting-edge land reclamation technology specific to local unsuitable saline soils, which can then be used for creating new planta-tions.
Meanwhile, the national hydrometeorological agency Kazhydromet has been registering the mean annual wind speed in the capital, which has slowed from 3.6 to 2.8 metres per second.
Since 2000, thanks to the green belt and massive urban development, the number of wind-free days inside the capital has increased from 18 to 25 per year.
Since 2000, thanks to the green belt and massive urban development, the number of wind-free days inside the capital has increased from 18 to 25 per year. However, Kazhydromet says it is still difficult to establish the actual impact of the plantations surrounding the capital on the local climate due to their relatively short existence.
“Either way, it’s obvious that woodlands increase the roughness of the underlying surface and, consequently, slow down ground wind as well as help snow retention. In the future, that may decrease the frequency and force of winter snowstorms. In addition, the plantations stimulate soil fixing, which can be expected to mitigate summer dust storms.”
Meanwhile, over the past 20 years, the level of air pollution in Astana has grown from low to high: whereas in 2023, the city measured “high” on the air pollution index, in the first quarter of 2024 it reached the level of “very high”. During that quarter, air pollution in the city’s atmosphere was between 1.4 and 5.7 times the maximum permissible concentration. This was attributed to emissions from thermal power plants and private households, the growing number of vehicles, and active urban construction.
A Garden in the Steppe
“I have some plants that our gardeners know little about,” says Togzhan Ghani, an Astana resident, as she invites us to her garden. “I love decorative Gramineae or grasses, for example, these over here. They’re called woodreed. This bush is quite young, but in the future it will grow up to two metres tall,” the gardener continues with enthusiasm. “And here’s another ornamental grass … transparent and simply gorgeous. It’s molinia or moorgrass. Unfortunately, our gardeners rarely plant them. These over here are geranium plants, and over there, looking like chamomile, is Echinacea or coneflower. It also looks pretty and, by the way, has medicinal properties.”
Togzhan Ghani's garden feels simultaneously like being on a prairie and in the vast Kazakhstani steppes.
Her garden feels simultaneously like being on a prairie and in the vast Kazakhstani steppes. Ghani explains her garden’s concept: firstly, it’s set up in a natural way.
“That means that here you will not see the traditional flowers our grandmothers used to grow, like irises, lilies, daylilies, peonies, or roses. I do have them, but they are few,” she says.
Secondly, she populates her garden with only the most “trendy” plants from around the world.
“I usually buy the ones originating from prairies, steppes, and meadows, mostly decorative species. We have some of these plants in our steppes, but they only grow small there because nobody takes care of them. For instance, the fever weed, also known as snakeroot. In the wild, it’s a tiny plant, but in the garden it grows larger in size. Burnet is yet another steppe plant with healing properties. These little balls here are its flowers,” continues Ghani.
Why trendy? She explains that in landscape design, fashion is not a fad but a necessity. In other words, the plants used require minimal fertilizers, watering, and pest treatment. They do not need to be covered for winter, and are mostly undemanding.
“This is the main fashion principle in landscape design development: environmental friendliness. My garden is eco-friendly, and I don't use any chemicals. I believe that to an extent my garden contributes to enhancing Astana’s environment,” the gardener says, smiling.
A professional journalist, she spends her free time working in the garden. Ghani has been pursuing this hobby for about four years. The oldest tree in her garden is a five-year-old elderberry. The rest are two to four years old.
“The adult trees were planted by my husband's father. I got into gardening after getting married. Before, only trees grew here, and there was also a potato plot. The first ones I had planted were the marigolds. I was shocked and delighted to see when the first flowers evolved from the small seeds I had planted. This is how my passion for gardening began,” Ghani recalls.
On her way to the “natural garden”, Ghani went through several stages of what is known as “the gardener’s malady”.
“Early on, it was ‘rosomania’. I had a hundred roses from Germany, Belgium, and England. They looked very posh, but with our climate, they are cumbersome. Then came the phase when I bought up all the plants I saw,” she laughs.
Yet Ghani has retained some of these exotic plants, like the arborvitae.
“This is my southern toy. I call it that because in our climate it’s extremely rare. Catalpa is my second southern toy. She's in her second year now. I hope that the garden’s microclimate will help these beauties of the south survive,” she says.
According to Ghani, the plants in her garden attract a lot of butterflies, bees, and birds. One rea-son for this is the absence of chemical treatments.
“So, it turns out the garden is capable of sustaining itself. As you might know, the bee population has been shrinking recently. If they disappear completely, we will lose a huge part of our crops and flowers,” Ghani says.
The gardener currently relies on plants suitable for the climate and winter hardiness zone, i.e. the most drought-resistant ones capable of withstanding severe winters and hot dry summers with scorching sun. “I’m friends with landscape designers from Moscow and St. Petersburg. They have rain constantly, and everything grows perfectly there. In contrast, I have to manually water my garden using a hose, since I don’t have an automatic watering system. Those are quite expensive. To install a system covering a small plot costs several million tenge,” she explains.
The garden eats up almost all of Ghani’s salary, also due to the fact that Astana lacks plant nurseries. “The vendors import plants from Russia and Europe, and sell them to us at triple the price. Gardening is costly. A good landscaping project may be as expensive as building an entire residence,” Ghani says.
To master the art of gardening, Ghani attended landscaping courses by top designers from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to gain more knowledge in dendrology, botany, biology, and even engineer-ing.
“It's in my heart. It doesn’t feel like a burden at all, because I love my garden so much. It's totally uncomplicated. This is where I find peace. It feels like I’m somewhere in the country and not surrounded by cars and buildings. This is my hideaway, a place where I can hear my true self. And most importantly, I feel that the plants are alive, I sense their energy,” she admits.
According to Ghani, people in the area perceive all plants as a homogeneous green mass. This phenomenon is called “plant blindness”. According to the gardener, whereas only few have heard this term in Kazakhstan, it has been extensively researched abroad.
“People are more interested in animals than plants. Their attention may get caught by a bright flower bed; otherwise, nobody thinks about what’s growing around. It’s almost like neglecting plants, depreciating them. People take the benefits they get from plants for granted and don’t really care about the role plants play in our lives. Roughly speaking, it seems like our people know only two types of plants: fir trees and birches,” she says with regret.
In her opinion, people should learn how to coexist with plants from childhood, go on family tours to botanical gardens, and embark on studying the flora from an early age.
“That would change a lot in our culture. So far, unfortunately, it’s not part of our mentality. Even here, surrounded by private homes, very few of my neighbours have gardens, although their plots are quite large. Seeing their backyards, tears well up — piles of construction waste, rubble, coal, and most importantly, no urge for aesthetics. If you ask them how they live under the burning sun, they say they have a canopy. A canopy covering the entire territory around the house, and asphalt on the ground fence to fence. Vegetable gardens and a couple apple trees at most. Nobody wants flowers or shrubs. Of course, this attitude has a lot to do with focusing on the bare essentials. When people in Kazakhstan satisfy their basic needs, perhaps then the demand and longing for beauty will come,” Ghani conjectures.
Astana, the Garden City: Reality or Utopia?
When asked whether Astana can become a garden city, landscaper Bolat Musabekov replies in the affirmative.
“What’s a garden city? Almaty is a garden city, Shymkent too. The scale of greening efforts in Astana is colossal. I got into landscaping in 2004, and since then I’ve seen big changes. In the past, Zelenstroy’s management used to send its landscape designers to major exhibitions to get acquainted with the latest trends. What was once considered a weed became an ornamental plant. When plant figurines came into fashion, a mere study trip to the US could alter the entire urban development concept,” he recalls.
Musabekov admits that he got involved in the landscaping business by accident. A mechanical engineer by education, he was nevertheless one of the first to participate in setting up a new garden square in Astana. “It was a small park on Abylai Khan Avenue. I went there about three months after the project was finished and saw women walking with strollers, grandmothers, and children. It motivated me even more, and I realized it was something that fed my soul,” the landscaper says.
Musabekov has supervised the design of multiple urban parks across Kazakhstan, including in the capital. “My favourite as of today is Arai Park. The great concept, small architectural forms, trees, lawns, and shrubs create a true fairy tale. The designers did a good job there.”
The fact that trees literally save cities from heat should not be forgotten. Kirill Pavlov, an agricul-tural analyst and climate change expert, uses heat maps to elaborate on the importance of urban greening.
The heat map of any metropolis clearly shows that the temperature inside city limits and around it can differ by several degrees, with a direct correlation between the amount of greenery and at-mospheric temperature: the more green spaces, the lower the temperature. That’s because asphalt, concrete, and roofing heat up in the sun more than trees. This phenomenon is called the “urban heat island effect”.
This article was first published in Vlast.
Translation into English: Sergey Medvetsky
