Urban Vegetation Effects on Meteorology and Air Quality: A Comparison of Three European Cities

Mircea, Mihaela; Borge, Rafael; Finardi, S.; Fares, Silvano; Briganti, Gino; D’Isidoro, Massimo; Cremona, Giuseppe; Russo, Felicita; Cappelletti, Andrea; D’Elia, Ilaria; Adani, Mario; Piersanti, Antonio; Sorrentino, B.; Paz, David de la; Andrés, Juan Manuel de; Narros, Adolfo; Silibello, Camillo; Pepe, N.; Zappitelli, Ilaria; Alivernini, Alessandro; Prandi, R.; Carlino, Giuseppe

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-12786-1_2

Cited by 2 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…On the other hand, in the case of Bologna and Milano, each urban cell of the domains was affected. Models' configurations over cities at 1 km resolution are described in Section 2.1, while more details on vegetation types present in the three cities and their spatial distribution can be found in Figure S1 and Table S3 in the Supportimg Information of the companion paper [29].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Figure 2 shows a magnification of the three WRF domains with the prevalent urban class (top) and the vegetation fraction (bottom) at every grid point. In the Supporting Information of the companion paper, Mircea et al (2023) [29], the reader can find a more detailed insight for which are the most relevant tree species present (Table S3) and the fractional land cover maps of different vegetation species (Figure S3) for the three cities.…”

Section: Urban and Vegetation Types And Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other quantities, such as latent and sensible heat fluxes (LHFs and SHFs), that can be related to convective turbulence and stability are presented in SI. Moreover, the reader can refer to [29] for additional considerations regarding the effect of urban vegetation on the Planetary Boundary Layer Height (PBLH), which has an important impact on air quality.…”

Section: Evaluation Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Supporting Information of the companion paper, Mircea et al ( 2023) [29], the reader can find a more detailed insight for which are the most relevant tree species present (Table S3) and the fractional land cover maps of different vegetation species (Figure S3) for the three cities.…”

Section: Evaluation Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3,150,000), which can be considered as representative of small-, medium-and large-sized European cities, respectively. In a companion paper to Mircea et al (2023) [29], we extensively address the impact of urban vegetation on air quality in these three cities, using the meteorological data produced in this work. In spite of the continuous reduction in anthropogenic emissions from 1990, the concentration of some pollutants in European cities is still high; therefore, it is necessary to understand and quantify the role of vegetation in cleaning the air through its impact on meteorology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Role of Vegetation on Urban Atmosphere of Three European Cities—Part 1: Evaluation of Vegetation Impact on Meteorological Conditions

D’Isidoro

Mircea

Borge

et al. 2023

Forests

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This study quantifies the vegetation impact on urban meteorology by means of the numerical model WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting model). The assessment was made for two months: July and January. These were considered as representative for the summer and winter seasons, for the reference year 2015 in three European cities: Bologna, Milano, and Madrid. Two simulations at 1 km resolution were conducted over the cities with and without the actual urban vegetation, called VEG and NOVEG, respectively, in the model input. Then, the impact of vegetation was evaluated as the difference between the two simulations (VEG-NOVEG) for temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed fields. In general, we found that, as can be expected, urban vegetation tends to cool the atmosphere, enhance the humidity, and reduce the wind speed. However, in some cases, areas with the opposite behaviour exist, so that no a priori results can be attributed to the presence of urban vegetation. Moreover, even when major impact is confined around grid cells where urban vegetation is present, changes in meteorological quantities can be observed elsewhere in the city’s area. The magnitude of urban vegetation impact is higher in summer than in winter and it depends on the city’s morphological peculiarities, such as urban texture and vegetation types and distribution: average July temperature variations due to the presence of urban vegetation reach peaks of −0.8 °C in Milano, −0.6 °C Madrid, and −0.4 °C in Bologna, while in January, the values range between −0.3 and −0.1 °C. An average heating effect of ca. +0.2 °C is found in some parts of Madrid in January. For relative humidity, we found increments of 2%–3% in July and 0.5%–0.8% in January, while a decrease in wind speed was found between 0.1 and 0.5 m/s, with the highest occurring in Madrid during July.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Urban and Vegetation Types And Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evaluation Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evaluation Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Role of Vegetation on Urban Atmosphere of Three European Cities—Part 1: Evaluation of Vegetation Impact on Meteorological Conditions

D’Isidoro

Mircea

Borge

et al. 2023

Forests

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The Role of Vegetation on Urban Atmosphere of Three European Cities. Part 2: Evaluation of Vegetation Impact on Air Pollutant Concentrations and Depositions

Mircea

Borge

Finardi³

et al. 2023

Forests

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This is the first study that quantifies explicitly the impact of present vegetation on concentrations and depositions, considering simultaneously its effects on meteorology, biogenic emissions, dispersion, and dry deposition in three European cities: Bologna, Milan, and Madrid. The behaviour of three pollutants (O3, NO2, and PM10) was investigated considering two different scenarios, with the actual vegetation (VEG) and without it (NOVEG) for two months, representative of summer and winter seasons: July and January. The evaluation is based on simulations performed with two state-of-the-art atmospheric modelling systems (AMS) that use similar but not identical descriptions of physical and chemical atmospheric processes: AMS-MINNI for the two Italian cities and WRF-CMAQ for the Spanish city. The choice of using two AMS and applying one of them in two cities has been made to ensure the robustness of the results needed for their further generalization. The analysis of the spatial distribution of the vegetation effects on air concentrations and depositions shows that they are highly variable from one grid cell to another in the city area, with positive/negative effects or high/low effects in adjacent cells being observed for the three pollutants investigated in all cities. According to the pollutant, on a monthly basis, the highest differences in concentrations (VEG-NOVEG) produced by vegetation were estimated in July for O3 (−7.40 μg/m3 in Madrid and +2.67 μg/m3 in Milan) and NO2 (−3.01 μg/m3 in Milan and +7.17 μg/m3 in Madrid) and in January for PM10 (−3.14 μg/m3 in Milan +2.01 μg/m3 in Madrid). Thus, in some parts of the cities, the presence of vegetation had produced an increase in pollutant concentrations despite its efficient removal action that ranges from ca. 17% for O3 in Bologna (January) to ca. 77% for NO2 in Madrid (July).

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Urban Vegetation Effects on Meteorology and Air Quality: A Comparison of Three European Cities

Cited by 2 publications

References 6 publications

The Role of Vegetation on Urban Atmosphere of Three European Cities—Part 1: Evaluation of Vegetation Impact on Meteorological Conditions

The Role of Vegetation on Urban Atmosphere of Three European Cities—Part 1: Evaluation of Vegetation Impact on Meteorological Conditions

The Role of Vegetation on Urban Atmosphere of Three European Cities. Part 2: Evaluation of Vegetation Impact on Air Pollutant Concentrations and Depositions

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