Paris is demonstrating how redesigning city streets can reduce heat and create healthier, more comfortable spaces for people in France.
What happened?
Content creator Louis de Jaeger (@louis.de.jaeger) shared the photos and data supporting how green spaces impact cities via an Instagram post.
The before-and-after images show a transformed block as trees replaced rows of parked cars. Where asphalt once dominated, there's now shade and greenery.
"A peer-reviewed study across all twenty Paris arrondissements found that the most vegetated districts had a 23.5% lower risk of heat-related death than the least vegetated ones," De Jaeger wrote in the caption. "If every district reached the vegetation level of the greenest one, heat-attributable deaths could have been cut by up to 38%."
How does street redesign address extreme heat?
Extreme heat is one of the deadliest weather-related hazards, and cities often make the danger worse.
Asphalt, concrete, and rows of parked cars absorb and radiate heat, and a lack of tree cover leaves neighborhoods exposed. This is especially true in areas that face the heat island effect.
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Adding trees can help cool neighborhoods in several ways. Shade reduces surface temperatures, and plants release moisture that can lower surrounding air temperatures.
When that happens across an entire district, the health benefits can add up quickly.
Hotter streets can mean more dangerous walks to school, higher cooling bills, and greater risks for older adults, outdoor workers, and anyone without reliable air conditioning. Greener streets can also improve air quality and create spaces that center people over vehicle storage.
What's being done?
Other cities are experimenting with similar ideas.
A nonprofit in Louisville, Kentucky, has also been planting trees to deal with tree loss and higher temperatures. And New York City is aiming to have 30% of the city covered in trees by 2040.
Urban heat is a large-scale problem, but street design choices can make a measurable difference in how dangerous hot days become.
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