Riyadh: Urban greening works began in the Qurtubah neighborhood of Riyadh on Thursday, a continuation of a tree planting initiative in the city’s residential neighborhoods within the framework of the Green Riyadh project. The work in the Qurtubah neighborhood includes planting trees and shrubs and establishing parks and green areas. The program aims to plant more than 92,000 trees and shrubs in the neighborhood and build 34 gardens. Trees will be planted in the surrounding areas of four schools, 56 mosques, nine parking lots, eight governmental facilities, and along 44 km of roads and streets in Qurtubah. The types of trees and shrubs to be planted include acacia gerrardii, acacia pruinocarpa, acacia salicina, acacia tortilis spirocarpa, and balanites aegyptiaca, all of which are heat-tolerant and suitable for the Kingdom’s summer climate. Details of the urban greening works were announced during an interactive event held in Qurtubah, where visitors had the chance to familiarize themselves with the project’s various phases and see what the neighborhood will look like once it is complete. The exhibition showcasing details of the greening project in Qurtubah is open for one week and includes a space for children to learn about the importance of planting trees and the role they can play in community tree-planting events across the city. The urban greening works in Qurtubah have wide-ranging environmental, social and economic impacts, reducing temperatures and protecting biological diversity, improving the well-being of the neighborhood’s residents, increasing the global attractiveness of Riyadh, and reducing annual power consumption by 650 GW per hour. Next on the list of Green Riyadh projects are the neighborhoods of Al-Ghadeer and Al-Nakhil. Contracts have already been signed for the implementation of greening projects in these neighborhoods. The Green Riyadh program is one of Riyadh’s four megaprojects launched by the Saudi leadership in 2019, contributing to achieving the goals of the Saudi Green Initiative and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. Green Riyadh aims to plant over 7.5 million trees in the city of Riyadh, raise the vegetation cover’s proportion to 9.1 percent of the city’s area, and increase the share of green space per individual from 1.7 square meters to 28 square meters per capita, which is 16 times higher than the current share.