The Influence of Tree Allocation and Tree Transpiration on the Urban Microclimate: An Analysis of a Subtropical Urban Park

Abstract

Recently, because of the growing importance of issues such as global warming and the heat island effect, maintenance of trees and the design of planting on green land have become increasingly significant. This article focuses on variation in sap flow in, and transpiration of, Araucaria heterophylla in Tainan Park. In order to understand the relationship between the allocation of plantings and the physiological functions of trees, the influence of cover conditions and meteorological conditions related to insolation were taken into consideration. First, under the same allocating conditions, the amount of transpiration was affected by differences on the ground (grassy and sandy). The differences in cover conditions have a lot to do with the water physiology of the tree. In addition, other factors such as insolation and changes in the speed of sap flow during a day are positively correlated. The results of this study are the main factors for evaluating the allocation and density of tree plantings and also for analysing the relationship between microclimatic environments and the physiological characteristics of trees.

Impact of tree locations and arrangements on outdoor microclimates and human thermal comfort in an urban residential environment

“…Although trees were widely confirmed to be effective in mitigating heat and improving human thermal perception in dense urban streets (Kong et al, 2017;Morakinyo et al, 2017;Tan et al, 2015Tan et al, , 2017, research has seldom explored how residential tree locations, spacing, and arrangements influence the outdoor microclimates and human thermal comfort. Most of the existing literature simulates outdoor microclimates and human thermal comfort by randomly locating trees to a certain percent of the coverage or is simply based on the real-world landscaping design (Chen and Ng, 2013;Hsieh et al, 2016;Jan et al, 2013;Middel et al, 2015). The obvious next step is to account for factors such as tree densities, locations, and arrangements in the numerical models to evaluate the cooling effects from trees and human thermal comfort.…”

Screening of Tree Species for Improving Outdoor Human Thermal Comfort in a Taiwanese City

“…Because SVF can be measured conveniently, some studies have used SVF to discuss variations in shading levels and air temperature [22][23][24][25]. Areas with relatively dense broadleaf trees tend to have low SVF values [26]. High-SVF areas with thin broadleaf trees were shown to facilitate improved ventilation [27], but these areas also have low shading levels and are exposed to relatively high-air-temperature environments on summer days [28].…”

Computational Fluid Dynamics Application for the Evaluation of a Community Atrium Open Space Design Integrated With Microclimate Environment

“…Given the impacts of global climate change and the urban heat island effect, sustainable design methods by which to create a community environment that better fits into the local microclimate characteristics has become an important research issue in both urban design and community design (Mirzaei and Haghighat, 2010;Jan et al, 2013;Yang et al, 2017). Climate change and the negative effects of urbanization on the living environment, such as high temperatures, increases in PM 2.5, and increases in the heat island effect, make the aerodynamic properties of urban areas increasingly important in architectural and urban design, especially in hot and high density urban areas (Chao and Ng, 2014;Yim et al, 2014).…”