Effects of Urban Vegetation on Urban Air Quality

Spatio-temporal variations of ozone and nitrogen dioxide concentrations under urban trees and in a nearby open area

“…Nowak et al, 2000) and reduction in atmospheric concentrations of NO x and other gaseous pollutants due to the presence of vegetation have been observed and suggested for a number of urban and peri-urban environments (e.g. Manes et al, 2012;Alonso et al, 2011;Leung et al, 2011;Calfapietra et al, 2013;Salmond et al, 2013). By applying the Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) model, designed to statistically estimate urban forest characteristics and functions (including O 3 removal and VOC emission), Paoletti (2009) estimated for Q. ilex in Florence urban environment an annual O 3 removal of 70 g/tree and a VOC emission of 341 g/tree.…”

The effects of short- and long-term air pollutants on plant phenology and leaf characteristics

“…Air quality can be improved by urban vegetation which absorbs or filters gaseous and particulate air pollutants (Leung et al, 2011). On the other hand, plants are threatened by pollution whereby different agents lead to different effects (Mudd and Kozlowski, 1975;Taylor, 1978;Gratani et al, 2000;Beck et al, 2013).…”

The importance of local scale for assessing, monitoring and predicting of air quality in urban areas

“…Urban green infrastructure is a green network consisting of parks and historic villas but also public or private gardens, allotments, street trees and urban forests. Several studies investigated the relationship between urban forests and air pollution removal, quantifying the amount of air pollution removed by urban forests (Yang et al, 2005;Escobedo et al, 2011;Leung et al, 2011). Nowak and co-workers (2006) reported a PM10 removal by trees to be on average of 8.0 g m −2 in Los Angeles.…”