Landscape Architects

Do you like sitting or strolling through the squares, gardens, and parks in your city? Do you feel relaxed and at ease when you're in those places, surrounded by trees, beautiful plants, cheerful flowers, and wide green lawns? You might think that having things like this in your city — or any city — is just scenery meant to add some extra beauty and charm to the surrounding areas, but there are actually health and climate dimensions tied to the spread of green spaces in cities, around homes, squares, plazas, shops, and streets. Having trees and plants helps reduce levels of air pollution loaded with dust, smoke, toxic gases, and harmful particles that can cause all kinds of health disorders and problems when inhaled and allowed into the lungs and bloodstream. On top of that, they're one of the main solutions to the climate change crisis and the ever-rising planetary temperatures caused by the carbon emissions from the many products we use in our daily lives — trees and plants are able to absorb large amounts of carbon emissions, which helps lower temperatures. The beautiful arrangements and stunning views of the various green spaces we see in gardens, parks, and elsewhere also have a major effect on people's mental health — they make us feel relaxed and help reduce levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. So the question now is: who's responsible for planting all the different kinds of green spaces and arranging them beautifully and attractively in squares, plazas, roads, streets, gardens, parks, and around residential and commercial complexes? For all the reasons mentioned, and because having these things requires careful studies and analysis tied to the nature of the place and its climate, planting and arranging them is handled only by a number of experts specialized in a specific branch of engineering called "environmental design engineering" or "landscape architecture." In the lines ahead, you'll learn in more detail exactly what these engineers do.

Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa