Water Management Strategies for Urban Trees in Dry Environments: Lessons for the Future

Symes, Peter; Connellan, Geoff

doi:10.48044/jauf.2013.016

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…In regulating urban microclimate and thermal comfort, the benefit of GI varies by location, the size of the areas [18], and species [26]. The temperature reduction depends heavily on canopy covers [27,28] and the health status of vegetation, which is indicated by the chlorophyll content [29,30].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying the Effect of Blue-Green Infrastructure on Microclimate and Human Thermal Comfort in Melbourne’s Central Business District

et al. 2022

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Blue-green infrastructure (BGI) is defined as a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services, which include microclimate regulation and enhanced human thermal comfort. While green infrastructure is widely known to be capable of mitigating the adverse effects of urban heat island, the effect of blue infrastructure to regulate thermal comfort is still poorly understood. This study investigates several blue-green-infrastructure (BGI) scenarios in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Australia to assess their effects on microclimate and human thermal comfort. Three-dimensional microclimatic modelling software, ENVI-met, was used to simulate the microclimate and human thermal comfort. Physiological equivalent temperature (PET) was used to quantify the level of thermal comfort in selected research areas. Ten different scenarios were simulated, which included those based on green roofs, green walls, trees, ponds and fountains. The simulations suggest that green roofs and green walls in the high-rise building environment have a small temperature reduction in its surrounding area by up to 0.47 °C and 0.27 °C, respectively, and there is no noticeable improvement in the level of thermal perception. The tree-based scenarios decrease temperature by up to 0.93 °C and improve the thermal perception from hot to warm. Scenarios based on water bodies and fountains decrease the temperature by up to 0.51 °C and 1.48 °C, respectively, yet they cannot improve the thermal perception of the area. A deeper water body has a better microclimate improvement as compared to a shallow one. The temperature reduction in the fountain scenario tends to be local and the effect could only be felt within a certain radius from the fountain.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying the Effect of Blue-Green Infrastructure on Microclimate and Human Thermal Comfort in Melbourne’s Central Business District

et al. 2022

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Biochar, but not soil microbial additives, increase the resilience of urban plant species to low water availability

et al. 2023

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Impervious surfaces that characterise urban areas can make them harsh, water-limited places for plants to grow. To help alleviate plant stress under these challenging drought conditions, a range of soil additives can be utilised. Although well-studied individually, our understanding of the interaction between different soil additives in alleviating drought stress in urban areas is rudimentary. The aim of this study was to (1) assess the growth of urban horticultural plant species under drought stress and (2) determine whether drought stress in these species is alleviated by the use of soil additives, both individually and in combination. We grew six plant species (three trees, three graminoids) commonly planted in Australian urban areas under two watering regimes (drought-stressed, well-watered) and four soil additive treatments (no additive, microbial additive only, biochar only, microbial additive and biochar), and assessed their performance. We found that drought stress significantly reduced the growth of the six study species. Surprisingly, this decrease in growth was not reduced with the use of soil additives, despite biochar increasing soil water content and mycorrhizal colonisation when used in combination with the microbial additive. However, the addition of biochar significantly delayed the visual onset of drought stress across all species. Our results show that soil additives can be used as a cost-effective management strategy to increase plant resilience to drought stress in urban areas.

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A Protocol for Citizen Science Monitoring of Recently-Planted Urban Trees

Vogt¹,

Fischer²

2016

Urban Forests

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Water Management Strategies for Urban Trees in Dry Environments: Lessons for the Future

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

Studying the Effect of Blue-Green Infrastructure on Microclimate and Human Thermal Comfort in Melbourne’s Central Business District

Studying the Effect of Blue-Green Infrastructure on Microclimate and Human Thermal Comfort in Melbourne’s Central Business District

Biochar, but not soil microbial additives, increase the resilience of urban plant species to low water availability

A Protocol for Citizen Science Monitoring of Recently-Planted Urban Trees

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