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GREEN CONCERNS: EXPERT SAYS MASSIVE CONSTRUCTION THREATENS YEREVAN'S ECOLOGY
Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
13.07.10
Environmentalist Karine Danielyan says Yerevan is an example of how
not to implement urban construction
Environmentalist Karine Danielyan, who heads the "For Sustainable
Human Development" NGO, thinks that on the example of Yerevan one can
learn how not to implement urban construction. According to Danielyan,
"Armenian oligarchs build where they want, without considering any
environmental norm."
The environmentalist remembers the Yerevan master plan of the Soviet
times "when the environmental science was not so much developed",
but all master plans had ecological directions.
"Yerevan used to have a green network that one could go from one
place to another using only green space," says Danielyan.
In recent years Armenian environmentalists have constantly warned
authorities in charge of the sphere about the risk of desertification
faced by Yerevan, as sweeping construction has been implemented in the
city at the expense of green zones. (According to environmentalists,
desertification threatens 80 percent of Armenia's territory; forests
now make only eight percent of the country's territory. It is estimated
that if desertification continues for another 20 years, Armenia will
lose almost all of its forests and woods.)
Danielyan believes that first the population of Armenia did not
need such large-scale construction, as most complete elite housing
remains unlived-in.
"Even if there were that need, this construction could have been
carried out in areas adjacent to Yerevan," says Danielyan.
In recent years the average air temperature in Yerevan has risen
by 0.7 degrees. Danielyan links it to the logging of trees on the
hillsides surrounding Yerevan, which used to give some coolness to
the capital city during hot summers.
"Now the city doesn't have enough time to cool down overnight,"
says Danielyan.
She brings the examples of the cities of Edinburgh and Bordeaux,
in Scotland and France respectively, where the centers once, too,
lost their green areas due to unsparing construction.
"Edinburgh had to blow up the city center, then plant trees and
other greenery, because people were running away from there. The same
situation was also Bordeaux," says the environmentalist, warning that
the same situation threatens Yerevan as well.
From: A. Papazian
Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
13.07.10
Environmentalist Karine Danielyan says Yerevan is an example of how
not to implement urban construction
Environmentalist Karine Danielyan, who heads the "For Sustainable
Human Development" NGO, thinks that on the example of Yerevan one can
learn how not to implement urban construction. According to Danielyan,
"Armenian oligarchs build where they want, without considering any
environmental norm."
The environmentalist remembers the Yerevan master plan of the Soviet
times "when the environmental science was not so much developed",
but all master plans had ecological directions.
"Yerevan used to have a green network that one could go from one
place to another using only green space," says Danielyan.
In recent years Armenian environmentalists have constantly warned
authorities in charge of the sphere about the risk of desertification
faced by Yerevan, as sweeping construction has been implemented in the
city at the expense of green zones. (According to environmentalists,
desertification threatens 80 percent of Armenia's territory; forests
now make only eight percent of the country's territory. It is estimated
that if desertification continues for another 20 years, Armenia will
lose almost all of its forests and woods.)
Danielyan believes that first the population of Armenia did not
need such large-scale construction, as most complete elite housing
remains unlived-in.
"Even if there were that need, this construction could have been
carried out in areas adjacent to Yerevan," says Danielyan.
In recent years the average air temperature in Yerevan has risen
by 0.7 degrees. Danielyan links it to the logging of trees on the
hillsides surrounding Yerevan, which used to give some coolness to
the capital city during hot summers.
"Now the city doesn't have enough time to cool down overnight,"
says Danielyan.
She brings the examples of the cities of Edinburgh and Bordeaux,
in Scotland and France respectively, where the centers once, too,
lost their green areas due to unsparing construction.
"Edinburgh had to blow up the city center, then plant trees and
other greenery, because people were running away from there. The same
situation was also Bordeaux," says the environmentalist, warning that
the same situation threatens Yerevan as well.
From: A. Papazian