Impact on Ambient Temperature, Air Quality and Heat-Related Mortality and Morbidity

Urban vegetation provides undeniable benefits to urban climate, health, thermal comfort and environmental quality of cities. Despite the plethora of available scientific information, very little is known about the holistic and global impact of a potential increase of urban green infrastructure (GI) on urban climate, environmental quality and health. We have reviewed and analysed 55 fully evaluated scenarios and case studies investigating the impact of additional GI on urban temperature, air pollution and health for 39 cities. Statistically significant correlations between the percentage increase of the urban GI and the peak daily and night ambient temperatures are obtained.

The average maximum peak daily and night-time temperature drop may not exceed 1.8 and 2.3 ◦C respectively, even for a maximum GI fraction. In parallel, a statistically significant correlation between the peak daily temperature decrease caused by higher GI fractions and heat-related mortality is found. When the peak daily temperature drops by 0.1 ◦C, then the percentage of heat-related mortality decreases on average by 3.0%

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Increasing Green Infrastructure in Cities: Impact on Ambient Temperature, Air Quality and Heat-Related Mortality and Morbidity