Urban forests, air quality and health: a systematic review

Arantes, Bruna Lara de; Mauad, Thaís; Filho, Demóstenes Ferreira da Silva

doi:10.1505/146554819826606559

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…This may indicate that nature’s benefit to human health is more important in big cities. The results found here add to the wide body of evidence that shows the correlation between urban forest and other aspects of human health ( Hartig et al, 2014 ; James et al, 2015 ; Van den Berg et al, 2015 ; Gascon et al, 2016 ; Van den Bosch and Sang, 2017 ; Franco et al, 2017 ; Kabisch et al, 2017 ; Aerts et al, 2018 ; Kondo et al, 2018 ; Arantes et al, 2019 ; and Rojas-Rueda et al 2019 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…However, studies mention noise, air temperature, and air pollution as the urban conditions most problematic to human health ( Gronlund et al, 2015 ; James et al, 2015 ; Franco et al, 2017 ; WHO, 2017 ; Van den Bosch and Sang, 2017 ; Aerts et al, 2018 ; Arantes et al, 2019 ; Haahtela et al, 2019 ). Noise is related to stress, sleep disorders, mental discomfort, attention and memory decline, and even elevated blood pressure, increased risk of myocardial infarction, and other cardiovascular problems ( Franco et al, 2017 ; Van den Bosch and Sang, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The influence of urban, socio-economic, and eco-environmental aspects on COVID-19 cases, deaths and mortality: A multi-city case in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Viezzer

Biondi

2021

Sustainable Cities and Society

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Urban, socio-economic and eco-environmental influences on people’s health are widely studied and well-known. Their relation to COVID-19, however, is still a novel research topic. Thus, we investigated if COVID-19 parameters are higher in cities with higher urbanization, worst socio-economic conditions, and less vegetation cover, considering 3,052 municipalities in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. Brazil is the second country most affected by COVID-19, and the Atlantic Forest is its most urbanized, populous, and deforested region. Indexes were created through multivariate principal components analysis using secondary official data: population, demographic density, absolute built area, and relative built area as urbanization parameters; average per capita income, relative people vulnerable to poverty, illiteracy rate of the population aged 18 or over, and human development index (HDI) as socio-economic parameters; and absolute and relative vegetation cover, absolute and relative forest cover as eco-environmental parameters. These indexes were correlated with absolute and relative confirmed COVID-19 cases, absolute and relative confirmed deaths, and mortality rate via Spearman’s and Kendall’s coefficients. Strong correlations (>0.50) were found between COVID-19 and urbanization. Socio-economic and eco-environmental aspects, although weaker predictors of COVID-19, presented meaningful relations with the health parameters. This study contributes to the evidence regarding COVID-19 incidence in the Brazilian population.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of urban, socio-economic, and eco-environmental aspects on COVID-19 cases, deaths and mortality: A multi-city case in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Viezzer

Biondi

2021

Sustainable Cities and Society

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“…Most studies on the relationships between air quality and urban vegetation were conducted in North America and Asia (Arantes et al, 2019;Lin et al, 2019). In Brazil, the few existent studies on the subject investigated eco-toxicological effects of particulate matter on urban vegetation and biomonitoring (Locosselli et al, 2018(Locosselli et al, , 2019Ramon et al, 2022), without providing a quantitative assessment of air pollution removal rates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main contribution of this study is to provide the first quantitative estimate of air pollution removal rates by the urban vegetation in a Brazilian megacity. South American cities are underrepresented in the literature (Arantes et al, 2019;Lin et al, 2019), even though the predominance of evergreen tree species in tropical and subtropical cities may result in substantial air pollution removal. MASP is a singular urban area to investigate air pollution removal by vegetation, since it combines remnants of the Atlantic rainforest, subtropical humid conditions, and peculiar atmospheric chemistry conditions associated with the broad use of biofuels, influencing air pollution production and emission.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

PM2.5 removal by urban trees in areas with different forestry conditions in São Paulo using a big-leaf modeling approach

Brito

Rizzo

2022

Rev. Bras. Ciênc. Ambient.

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Air pollution is one of the main environmental problems in megacities, such as the metropolitan area of São Paulo (MASP), in Brazil. Urban forests can alleviate air pollution by providing a surface for the dry deposition of particles and trace gases. To benefit from this environmental service and design future green structures, it is crucial to estimate the removal rate of air pollutants by trees. The removal rates of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by urban trees were quantitatively assessed for the first time in Brazil. A big-leaf modeling approach was adopted, using the i-Tree Eco software. In situ dendrometric data, hourly PM2.5 concentrations, and meteorological variables were used as inputs to the model. PM2.5 removal fluxes ranged between 0.06 and 0.21 g/m2/year in three study areas with contrasting urban forestry conditions. The neighborhood with the greatest canopy cover and tree diversity had the highest removal rates. The evergreen character of the urban forest in the MASP possibly contributed to the relatively high PM2.5 removal fluxes, as compared to other cities around the world. Removal rates were higher in the austral summer, when high precipitation rates restricted the resuspension of deposited particles back to the atmosphere. When extrapolated to the whole metropolitan area, assuming homogeneous forestry conditions, the estimated PM2.5 removal rates were comparable to the magnitude of vehicular emissions, showing that air pollution removal by trees can be substantial in the MASP. The results demonstrate the contribution of urban trees to the improvement of air quality and can boost the development of public policies on urban afforestation in the MASP.

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The removal of PM2.5 by trees in tropical Andean metropolitan areas: an assessment of environmental change scenarios

Velásquez

Barriga

Hoyos

2021

Environ Monit Assess

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Urban forests, air quality and health: a systematic review

Cited by 6 publications

References 78 publications

The influence of urban, socio-economic, and eco-environmental aspects on COVID-19 cases, deaths and mortality: A multi-city case in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

The influence of urban, socio-economic, and eco-environmental aspects on COVID-19 cases, deaths and mortality: A multi-city case in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

PM2.5 removal by urban trees in areas with different forestry conditions in São Paulo using a big-leaf modeling approach

The removal of PM2.5 by trees in tropical Andean metropolitan areas: an assessment of environmental change scenarios

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