City cooling from trees | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

City cooling from trees | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Urban areas are widely known to be warmer than their surrounding rural regions — a phenomenon known as the urban heat island. Trees and other


vegetation can effectively reduce this heat island effect through biophysical influences on surface energy and water budgets, namely enhanced evapotranspiration, increased albedo and shade


provision. As such, urban greening, including tree planting, has been advocated as a way to mitigate urban heat, with cities incorporating greening policies to future-proof urban spaces in


light of ongoing anthropogenic warming. While expanded tree cover in urban areas offers cooling benefits, these effects become saturated with high tree cover. Urban planners must therefore


carefully manage afforestation strategies to maximize cooling effects and minimize heat stress-related morbidity and mortality. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your


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institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES ORIGINAL ARTICLE * Zhao, J. et al. Satellite-based evidence highlights a considerable increase of urban tree


cooling benefits from 2000 to 2015. _Glob. Chan. Biol._ 29, 3085–3097 (2023) Article  Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nature Reviews Earth


& Environment https://www.nature.com/natrevearthenviron Graham Simpkins Authors * Graham Simpkins View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar


CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Graham Simpkins. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Simpkins, G. City cooling from trees. _Nat Rev


Earth Environ_ 4, 516 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00474-1 Download citation * Published: 01 August 2023 * Issue Date: August 2023 * DOI:


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