ABOUT

The historic city of Cleveland, Ohio has established itself on the shores of Great Lake Erie and the banks of the Cuyahoga River.  However, urbanization and climate change threaten the health of these vital ecosystem and its communities.  People of the City of Cleveland already know these impacts: dangerously hot summers, degraded fish and wildlife habitat, and urban development exacerbating social and health disparities across the city’s neighborhoods.

With a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), The Trust for Public Land’s national Climate-Smart Cities program is partnering with the City of Cleveland in providing key planning and decision-making support to help the city achieve regional resiliency goals by leveraging the power of green infrastructure for a healthy Great Lakes region and for those who need it most. Together with the City of Cleveland (in tandem with similar work in the nearby City of Sandusky) and other municipal and community partners, we’re bringing cutting-edge science, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) planning, and fostering collaborative networks to drive park, open space and green infrastructure solutions in preparing the city and its most vulnerable for a climate-resilient future.

Our Climate-Smart Cities process bring together a team of experts to research, design, and build the infrastructure and tools that help increase our resilience to climate change. Our strategy is to: