A scaling law for predicting urban trees canopy cooling efficiency

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wang, Jia; Zhou, Weiqi; Pickett, Steward T. A.; Qian, Yuguo
• 署名单位: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), CAS; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS; Chinese Academy of Sciences; Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), CAS; Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-14368
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401210121
• 发表日期: 2024-11-12
• 关键词: land-surface temperatures; mitigation strategies; landscape pattern; spatial scale; heat; LIFE

摘要

Urban heat mitigation is a pressing concern for cities. Intense urban heat poses a threat to human health and urban sustainability. Tree planting is one of the most widely employed nature- based heat mitigation methods worldwide. Therefore, city policy makers require knowledge of how much temperature will be reduced by increasing urban tree canopy (UTC). Cooling efficiency (CE), which was been proposed to quantify the magnitude of temperature reduction associated with a 1% increase in UTC, has been primarily investigated at smaller scales previously. However, such small- scale results cannot be used to develop policy at the whole- city scale. This study developed a method that reveals the scaling relations of CE so as to predict its effects at the city scale. CE was found to follow the form of a power law as spatial scale increased from the small analytical units through intermediate size units up to the extent of a whole city. The power law form appeared consistently across cities with different climate backgrounds during summer daylight hours. Furthermore, the power law form was robust within cities under difgoals to mitigate extreme urban heat.