The Paradox of Urban Greening: Does it Harm the Very People Who Need it the Most?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-37
Author(s):  
Juliana Maantay ◽  
Andrew Maroko ◽  
Isabelle Anguelovski ◽  
John Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Urban Greening

Urban Greening and Human-Wildlife Relations in Philadelphia: From Animal Control to Multispecies Coexistence?

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Hunold
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Runoff ◽  
Urban Wildlife ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Animal Control

City-scale urban greening is expanding wildlife habitat in previously less hospitable urban areas. Does this transformation also prompt a reckoning with the longstanding idea that cities are places intended to satisfy primarily human needs? I pose this question in the context of one of North America's most ambitious green infrastructure programmes to manage urban runoff: Philadelphia's Green City, Clean Waters. Given that the city's green infrastructure plans have little to say about wildlife, I investigate how wild animals fit into urban greening professionals' conceptions of the urban. I argue that practitioners relate to urban wildlife via three distinctive frames: 1) animal control, 2) public health and 3) biodiversity, and explore the implications of each for peaceful human-wildlife coexistence in 'greened' cities.

scholarly journals Analysis of Urban Greening Scenarios for Improving Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Neighbourhoods of Lecce (Southern Italy)

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Elisa Gatto ◽  
Fabio Ippolito ◽  
Gennaro Rispoli ◽  
Oliver Savio Carlo ◽  
Jose Luis Santiago ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Outdoor Thermal Comfort ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
Urban Microclimate ◽  
Field Campaigns ◽  
Typical Summer ◽  
Radiant Temperature

This study analyses the interactions and impacts between multiple factors i.e., urban greening, building layout, and meteorological conditions that characterise the urban microclimate and thermal comfort in the urban environment. The focus was on two neighbourhoods of Lecce city (southern Italy) characterised through field campaigns and modelling simulations on a typical hot summer day. Field campaigns were performed to collect greening, building geometry, and microclimate data, which were employed in numerical simulations of several greening scenarios using the Computational Fluid Dynamics-based and microclimate model ENVI-met. Results show that, on a typical summer day, trees may lead to an average daily decrease of air temperature by up to 1.00 °C and an improvement of thermal comfort in terms of Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT) by up to 5.53 °C and Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) by up to 0.53. This decrease is more evident when the urban greening (in terms of green surfaces and trees) is increased by 1266 m2 in the first neighbourhood and 1988 m2 in the second one, with respect to the current scenario, proving that shading effect mainly contributes to improving the urban microclimate during daytime. On the contrary, the trapping effect of heat, stored by the surfaces during the day and released during the evening, induces an increase of the spatially averaged MRT by up to 2 °C during the evenings and a slight deterioration of thermal comfort, but only locally where the concentration of high LAD trees is higher. This study contributes to a better understanding of the ecosystem services provided by greening with regard to microclimate and thermal comfort within an urban environment for several hours of the day. It adds knowledge about the role of green areas in a Mediterranean city, an important hot spot of climate change, and thus it can be a guide for important urban regeneration plans.

scholarly journals Physiological and biochemical responses of two precious Carpinus species to high-concentration NO2 stress and their natural recovery

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qianqian Sheng ◽  
Min Song ◽  
Zunling Zhu ◽  
Fuliang Cao
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Function ◽  
Room Temperature ◽  
Normal Growth ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Scientific Application ◽  
Natural Recovery ◽  
Biochemical Responses ◽  
Damage Response ◽  
Physiological And Biochemical

AbstractCarpinus betulus and Carpinus putoensis are precious species in the world. Studies on the ecosystem function of the two species are rare. This study investigated the physiological and biochemical responses of C. betulus and C. putoensis to NO2 stress and their natural recovery. C. betulus and C. putoensis seedlings underwent fumigation with 12.0 mg/m3 NO2 for 0, 1, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h, respectively. Then, the plants were allowed to recover at room temperature for 30 d. Physiological and biochemical changes in the leaves were compared between the two species. In terms of peroxidase (POD) activity, the damage response of C. betulus under NO2 stress appeared later than that of C. putoensis. The soluble protein content of C. betulus was noticeably higher than that of C. putoensis, and C. betulus exhibited more stable membrane lipoperoxidation. The tendency of the changes in nitrate reductase of C. betulus was less noticeable than that of C. putoensis. The variation amplitudes of N, K, Mg, Zn and Mn in the leaves of C. putoensis were greater than those of C. betulus. C. putoensis showed more sensitive metabolisms in response to NO2 stress compared with C. betulus. High-concentration NO2 caused damage to C. betulus and C. putoensis was reversible, and both species returned to normal growth via their own metabolism after 30-d recovery. The results of this study may provide useful reference data for quantitative assessment of the ecosystem function of C. betulus and C. putoensis and for their scientific application in urban greening.

scholarly journals Improving Air Quality by Nitric Oxide Consumption of Climate-Resilient Trees Suitable for Urban Greening

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiangli Zhang ◽  
Andrea Ghirardo ◽  
Antonella Gori ◽  
Andreas Albert ◽  
Franz Buegger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nitric Oxide ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Greening

scholarly journals Natural selection? Picking the right trees for urban greening

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 12-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Churkina ◽  
R. Grote ◽  
T.M. Butler ◽  
M. Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
The Right

scholarly journals Role of Urban Greening Strategies for Environmental Sustainability—A Review and Assessment in the Context of Saudi Arabian Megacities

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6457
Author(s):  
Abdullah Addas ◽  
Ahmad Maghrabi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Saudi Arabian ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Design Management ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

The review and assessment of urban greening patterns play a crucial role in sustainable urban planning and green spaces (GSs) management, helping to improve human well-being. In recent years, various methods and strategies were applied to examine the relationship between GSs and environmental sustainability, but so far, no studies on systematic review and empirical assessments were carried out in Saudi Arabian context. Thus, a comprehensive review and assessment of current GSs patterns and planning strategies are important for achieving urban environmental sustainability. This study aims to assess spatial pattern of GSs across the cities and a bibliographic review on the urban greening strategies in the Saudi context. These six urban strategies were further supported from empirical evidence on Saudi cities. Geographical information system (GIS) techniques and questionnaire surveys were performed for spatial mapping of GSs and the perceived role of GSs strategies of the respondent to environmental sustainability across cities. The findings showed that (i) highest PCGS was reported from Dammam (5.4 m2) followed by Riyadh (1.18 m2), and Jeddah (0.5 m2); (ii) most of the respondents use GSs for picnic (59%), mental well-being (53%), and physical activities (47%), respectively; (iii) GSs play a significant role for local climate regulation such as temperature control (78%) and UHI reduction (81%), and GSs provide thermal comfort (84%), respectively; and (iv) 40% respondents do not use GSs due to the lack of availability, accessibility, design, management, and safety of GSs. Thus, such findings of the study surely assist planners and policy makers to understand and implement the suggested GSs strategies to meet the satisfaction level of the respondents as well as to manage GSs at neighborhood and city level for urban environmental sustainability.

Re-thinking “Smart City” – transferring urban climate research into city planning processes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Fallmann ◽  
Hans Schipper ◽  
Stefan Emeis ◽  
Marc Barra ◽  
Holger Tost
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
Holistic Understanding

<p>With more and more people residing in cities globally, urban areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change. It is therefore important, that the principles of climate-resilient city planning are reflected in the planning phase already. A discussion of adaptation measures requires a holistic understanding of the complex urban environment, and necessarily has to involve cross-scale interactions, both spatially and temporally. This work examines the term “Smart City” with regard to its suitability for the definition of sustainable urban planning based on urban climate studies over the past decade and own modelling work. Existing literature is assessed from a meteorological perspective in order to answer the question how results from these studies can be linked to architectural design of future urban areas. It has been long understood that measures such as urban greening, or so-called "Nature Based Solutions", are able to dampen excess heat and help reducing energetic costs. As numerous studies show however, integrating vegetation in the urban landscape shares a double role in regional adaptation to climate change due to both cooling effect and air pollution control. Using the state-of-the-art chemical transport model MECO(n) coupled to the urban canopy parametrisation TERRA_URB, we simulated a case study for the Rhine-Main metropolitan region in Germany, highlighting mutual unwanted relationships in modern city planning. Hence, we oppose the so-called compact city approach to an urban greening scenario with regard to the potential for both heat island mitigation and air quality.</p>

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