Street trees provide an opportunity to mitigate urban heat and reduce risk of high heat exposure.

Autor: Ettinger AK; The Nature Conservancy of Washington, 74 Wall Street, Seattle, WA, 98121, USA. ailene.ettinger@tnc.org., Bratman GN; School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA.; Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA., Carey M; Urban Forest Program, City of Tacoma, Tacoma, WA, USA., Hebert R; Urban Forest Program, City of Tacoma, Tacoma, WA, USA., Hill O; School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA., Kett H; The Nature Conservancy of Washington, 74 Wall Street, Seattle, WA, 98121, USA., Levin P; School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA., Murphy-Williams M; The Nature Conservancy of Washington, 74 Wall Street, Seattle, WA, 98121, USA., Wyse L; Tacoma Tree Foundation, Tacoma, WA, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Scientific reports [Sci Rep] 2024 Feb 13; Vol. 14 (1), pp. 3266. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Feb 13.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51921-y
Abstrakt: Climate change is exacerbating the need for urban greening and the associated environmental and human well-being benefits. Trees can help mitigate urban heat, but more detailed understanding of cooling effects of green infrastructure are needed to guide management decisions and deploy trees as effective and equitable climate adaptation infrastructure. We investigated how urban trees affect summer air temperature along sidewalks within a neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington, USA, and to what extent urban trees reduce risks of high summer temperatures (i.e., the levels regulated by state outdoor heat exposure rules intended to reduce heat-related illnesses). Air temperature varied by 2.57 °C, on average, across our study area, and the probability of daytime temperatures exceeding regulated high temperature thresholds was up to five times greater in locations with no canopy cover within 10 m compared to those with 100% cover. Air temperatures decreased linearly with increasing cover within 10 m, suggesting that every unit of added tree cover can help cool the air. Our findings highlight the value of trees in mitigating urban heat, especially given expected warming with climate change. Protecting existing urban trees and increasing tree cover (e.g., by planting street trees), are important actions to enhance climate change resilience of urban areas.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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