Paradigm Shifts from Social Forestry to Urban Forestry: A Synergy to Mitigate Urban Heat Island in High-Density Developments

Abstract

Urban heat islands are one of the biggest challenges for urban habitats. The two parallel worlds are growing together on this planet, one full of new opportunities for urbanization and another with shrinking green covers. High-density, high-rise development is a part of the 􀅫irst category of the world, i.e., a more urbanized one. It takes limited land resources to develop housing for more people by keeping more green covers intact than low-rise development. The dense developments are good for accessibility to different amenities and facilities. However, these developments pose challenges to sustainable development. However, the energy requirements are higher in highrise-high-density settlements, and simultaneously, such developments challenge solar access to solar power. It eventually causes enormous growth in the environmental footprints of such urban habitats, resulting in higher surface temperature through the urban heat island effect. The study aims to explore the effectiveness of urban forestry in combating the increased surface temperature in highly dense cities. The study adopts a case study approach and investigates 􀅫ive different cases of cities where urban forestry was adopted as a mitigation measure to cut down urban heat island effects.