More than a canopy cover metric: Influence of canopy quality, water-use strategies and site climate on urban forest cooling potential

Abstract

The summers of 2022 and 2023 in the northern hemisphere have demonstrated that extreme heat events are an urgent, real problem that cities must address. Among the many aspects of urban planning that relate to human thermal comfort, a major aspect that can contribute to the solution is maintaining and increasing urban tree canopy cover. However, the scientific evidence for the magnitude of cooling benefit is sparse and highly variable. In reviewing the empirical evidence on the extent to which urban trees can cool the environment, we argue that there are still significant knowledge gaps, especially in consideration of the key drivers of environmental changes in cities: urbanization and climate change. In this article, we propose several research priorities related to the ability of urban trees to improve human thermal comfort, that require collective global research attention from the urban forest and urban climate research communities. 

Citation

Rahman, Mohammad A.; Arndt, Stefan; Bravo, Felipe; Cheung, Pui K.; van Doorn, Natalie; Franceschi, Eleonora; del Río, Miren; Livesley, Stephen J.; Moser-Reischl, Astrid; Pattnaik, Nayanesh; Rötzer, Thomas; Paeth, Heiko; Pauleit, Stephan; Preisler, Yakir; Pretzsch, Hans; Tan, Puay Yok; Cohen, Shabtai; Szota, Chris; Torquato, Patricia R. 2024. More than a canopy cover metric: Influence of canopy quality, water-use strategies and site climate on urban forest cooling potential. Landscape and Urban Planning. 248(8): 105089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2024.105089.