Advances on the Influence of Vegetation and Forest on Urban Air Quality and Thermal Comfort—2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

The interaction of the atmosphere with urban surfaces (buildings, vegetation, etc.) induces complex flow patterns and a reduction in ventilation on the streets. This fact, linked with pollutant emissions (e.g., traffic emissions) gives rise to air quality problems in cities. In addition, the thermal properties of urban materials (buildings, roads) often cause elevated air temperature that leads to thermal discomfort for people. To mitigate these problems, nature-based solutions are widely used, but more knowledge about the complex effects of different types of green infrastructures is needed to design effective strategies for renaturing urban environments.

In this Special Issue, we invite original research articles relating to the impact of urban vegetation on air quality and local climate in urban environments. These contributions will include modeling studies at a micro- and meso-scale (e.g., computational fluid dynamics model, urban canopy models or mesoscale models) and experimental works from field and laboratory experiments. Urban green infrastructures such as different configurations of trees in the streets, urban parks or vegetation barriers will be investigated in relation to their effects on pollutant concentration (aerodynamic effects, pollutant deposition, biogenic emissions, etc.) and/or on local climate and thermal comfort (transpirational cooling, shading, etc.). In addition, works on new parameterization of the effects on urban vegetation are also welcomed. We also invite review papers focusing on the current knowledge and future studies on this topic.

Dr. Jose Luis Santiago
Dr. Esther Rivas
Dr. Beatriz Sanchez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.