Tampere Tram Expansion Boosts Biodiversity With Meadow Strips

Annual biodiversity tracking accompanies Tampere's tram expansion, with the first interim assessment completed at the end of last year showing improvements and plans to plant about 900 street trees and 1,400 metres of meadow strips, Tamperelainen reports.

The article explains that this biodiversity index measurement is the first of its kind in such infrastructure projects, and it highlights the involvement of the Tampereen ratikan Pirkkala–Linnainmaa alliance’s landscape designer Hanna Ylitalo. In the first year of construction, Ylitalo says, the team has used removed street trees as deadwood, reused bedrock, planted multi-species trees, and installed beehives on the project area, while continually pursuing new sustainability measures to preserve and expand urban greenery and biodiversity as space allows. Titta Pönni, a landscape designer whose thesis underpins the interim assessment, notes that biodiversity accounting is prepared in several design phases to better track changes and enable reaction to biodiversity shifts at the planning stage.

The report notes a biodiversity gain in Pirkkala’s Partola area through mixed planting, meadow replacements for lawns, and turning drainage areas into green stormwater channels. However, biodiversity has declined in Kaupinlaakso where the tram line cuts through a forested area, as the area is planned for around 2,500 residents and is expected to yield a modest biodiversity result. Looking ahead, the route is set to receive about 1,400 metres of meadow strips and roughly 900 street trees from 2025–2028, using around 50 tree species to create linked green corridors within the urban fabric.