Feasibility of afforestation as an equitable nature-based solution in urban areas

Chakraborty, TC; Biswas, Tanushree; Campbell, Leah S.; Franklin, Bradley; Parker, Sophie S.; Tukman, M.

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2022.103826

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Urban climate research has generally encouraged urban tree planting due to their local evaporative cooling potential (Chakraborty & Lee, 2019; Chakraborty, Biswas, et al., 2022; Li et al., 2019; Paschalis et al., 2021; Schwaab et al., 2021; Wong et al., 2021; Ziter et al., 2019). However, reductions in T s through evaporation, which is the primary focus of most of these studies, do not imply equivalent reductions in T a (Novick & Katul, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, note that shading effect of trees is also important and reduces the radiant heat exposure on pedestrians at the micro scale, although urban form can also serve this purpose (Middel et al., 2021; Q. Zhao et al., 2018). Moreover, there are several co‐benefits of urban vegetation, from increased carbon sequestration to reduced air pollution to multiple beneficial health outcomes, beyond any reduction in local temperature (Chakraborty, Biswas, et al., 2022; Fargione et al., 2018; Fong et al., 2018; Remme et al., 2021). Overall, mitigation strategies that rely on urban vegetation should carefully consider the realistic efficiency of street trees to improve thermal comfort at multiple scales (vs. competing strategies) in addition to those other co‐benefits for accurate cost‐benefit analyses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Overall, mitigation strategies that rely on urban vegetation should carefully consider the realistic efficiency of street trees to improve thermal comfort at multiple scales (vs. competing strategies) in addition to those other co‐benefits for accurate cost‐benefit analyses. Besides, when the reduction in satellite‐derived T s due to surface vegetation is usually examined (Chakraborty, Biswas, et al., 2022; Paschalis et al., 2021; Schwaab et al., 2021; Wong et al., 2021), what is compared is the association of T s of the top of the canopy (what the satellite “sees”) with some measure of vegetation. Since this is not physically equivalent to what a pedestrian would feel either underneath the tree canopy or near it, we need to be cautious about quantitative estimates of the cooling potential of urban vegetation derived from satellite measurements of T s .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides, when the reduction in satellite-derived T s due to surface vegetation is usually examined (Chakraborty, Biswas, et al, 2022;Paschalis et al, 2021;Schwaab et al, 2021;Wong et al, 2021), what is compared is the association of T s of the top of the canopy (what the satellite "sees") with some measure of vegetation. Since this is not physically equivalent to what a pedestrian would feel either underneath the tree canopy or near it, we need to be cautious about quantitative estimates of the cooling potential of urban vegetation derived from satellite measurements of T s .…”

Section: Deficiencies In Surface Temperature For Studying Urban Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lower Urban Humidity Moderates Outdoor Heat Stress

et al. 2022

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Surface temperature is often used to examine heat exposure in multi‐city studies and for informing urban heat mitigation efforts due to scarcity of urban air temperature measurements. Cities also have lower relative humidity, traditionally not accounted for in large‐scale observational urban heat risk assessments. Here, using crowdsourced measurements from over 40,000 weather stations in ≈600 urban clusters in Europe, we show the moderating effect of this urbanization‐induced humidity reduction on outdoor heat stress during the 2019 heatwave. We demonstrate that daytime differences in heat index between urban clusters and their surroundings are weak, and associations of this urban‐rural difference with background climate, generally examined from the surface temperature perspective, are diminished due to moisture feedbacks. We also examine the spatial variability of surface temperature, air temperature, and heat index within these clusters—relevant for detecting hotspots and potential disparities in heat exposure—and find that surface temperature is a poor proxy for the intra‐urban distribution of heat index during daytime. Finally, urban vegetation shows much weaker (∼1/6th as strong) associations with heat index than with surface temperature, which has broad implications for optimizing urban heat stress mitigation strategies. These findings are valid for operational metrics of heat stress for shaded conditions (apparent temperature and humidex), thermodynamic proxies (wet‐bulb temperature), and empirical heat indices. Based on this large‐scale empirical evidence, surface temperature, used due to the lack of better alternatives, may not be suitable for accurately informing heat mitigation strategies within and across cities, necessitating more urban‐scale observations and better urban‐resolving models.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Deficiencies In Surface Temperature For Studying Urban Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lower Urban Humidity Moderates Outdoor Heat Stress

et al. 2022

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“…Similarly, Cook-Patton et al 49 modeled fully planting all low-density open space in urban areas across the contiguous US where forest naturally occurs, and estimated that 52.5 Mt CO 2 /yr of carbon sequestration was possible. A recent study using high-resolution imagery of the US state of California estimated that 4.5 Mt CO 2 /yr from urban reforestation was possible in that state 50 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current inequality and future potential of US urban tree canopy cover for reducing heat-related mortality, morbidity and electricity consumption

McDonald

Biswas²,

Chakraborty

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Excessive heat is a major and growing risk for urban residents. Urban trees can significantly reduce summer peak temperatures, thus reducing heat-related mortality, morbidity, as well as cooling energy demand. However, urban tree canopy is inequitably distributed in US cities, which has been shown to contribute to higher summer temperatures in people-of-color (POC) neighborhoods. Here, we utilize a unique dataset of high-resolution tree canopy cover to estimate the inequality in summertime heat-related mortality, morbidity, and electricity consumption across a sample of 5,723 US municipalities and other places, housing 180 million people during the 2020 census (50.6% in majority non-Hispanic white neighborhoods, 49.4% in majority people-of-color, POC, neighborhoods). We also model the potential to increase tree cover in these municipalities in 5% increments up to a realistic maximum, the 90th percentile of tree cover observed in each municipality for each impervious surface class. On average, trees in non-Hispanic white neighborhoods cool the air by 0.19 ± 0.05⁰C more than in POC neighborhoods, leading annually to trees in white neighborhoods helping prevent 190 ± 139 more deaths, 30,131 ± 10,406 more doctors’ visits, and 1.4 ± 0.5 terawatt-hours (TWhr) more electricity consumption than in POC neighborhoods. The greatest inequality in the protective value of trees occurs in the Northeastern US. We estimate that for these 5,723 municipalities, the maximal feasible urban reforestation program in residential neighborhoods could add 1.2 billion trees, reducing population-weighted average summer temperatures by an additional 0.38 ± 0.01⁰C. Relative to the current status quo, this increase in the cooling benefits of trees would reduce annual heat-related mortality by an additional 464 ± 89 people, annual heat-related morbidity by 80,785 ± 6110 cases, and annual electricity consumption by 4.3 ± 0.2 TWhr, while increasing annual carbon sequestration in trees by 23.7 ± 1.2 MtCO2e and decreasing annual electricity-related GHG emissions by 2.1 ± 0.2 MtCO2e. The total economic value of these benefits, including the value of carbon sequestration and avoided emissions, would be USD 9.6 ± 0.5 billion, although in many neighborhoods the cost of increased tree cover exceeds these benefits. The exception is neighborhoods that currently have lower tree cover, especially those that are majority POC, as these neighborhoods have a much higher return-on-investment from tree planting.

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Afforestation Schemes Are Driven by Urbanisation and Tree Outside Forest: A Case Study of India

Yadav,

Sasaki

2024

Anthr. Sci.

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Feasibility of afforestation as an equitable nature-based solution in urban areas

Cited by 18 publications

References 71 publications

Lower Urban Humidity Moderates Outdoor Heat Stress

Lower Urban Humidity Moderates Outdoor Heat Stress

Current inequality and future potential of US urban tree canopy cover for reducing heat-related mortality, morbidity and electricity consumption

Afforestation Schemes Are Driven by Urbanisation and Tree Outside Forest: A Case Study of India

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