Europe 1 with AFP 6:51 p.m., February 12, 2024

Lille town hall signed two unprecedented agreements on Monday with energy suppliers Enedis and Dalkia in order to better reconcile tree planting and underground networks, and facilitate the city's adaptation to climate change.

According to Serge Martin, Enedis territorial delegate, the agreement signed with Enedis is “a national first on the scale of a large city”. If the experiment is a success, it will be generalized across the Lille metropolis, indicated the town hall.

To combat the accumulation of heat in paved areas, trees are effective tools because they increase the amount of shade on the streets. Problem: the ground in Lille is full of pipes responsible for supplying residents with energy, complicating plantations.

Experiment with new planting methods

“The most important thing is that this vegetation does not weaken the networks which provide electricity and heat to metropolitan areas” explained Senator Audrey Linkenheld, deputy mayor of Lille. The conventions aim to experiment with new methods of planting, protection and maintenance near the networks.

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One of the uses consists of reducing the minimum area between the network and the tree from 1.50 m to less than one meter, by surrounding the roots with a geotextile intended to prevent them from damaging the nearby pipe. A gain for the town hall which limits its work costs, but also for the energy suppliers who thus hope to “avoid moving works” assured Serge Martin.

A climate like Bilbao for the end of the century in Lille

A complementary solution is to choose species whose roots are less invasive and which consume less water. “We no longer plant the same thing today as what we planted around fifty years ago,” explained Stanislas Dendievel, deputy delegate for nature.

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The city has given up on beech, which is less resistant to heat, in favor of hornbeam, lime or mountain ash. In a project cited by the town hall, this change in practices will make it possible to plant at least nine additional trees, or 39% more than initially planned.

Dense and mineral, embedded in a vast metropolis, Lille is particularly affected by the phenomenon of heat islands, while government projections for the end of the century predict a climate close to that of Bilbao.