Advances in Modelling Vegetation and Forests in the Urban Environment: Local Climate and Air Quality

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Inventory, Modeling and Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 February 2019)

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Micrometeorology, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali (DiSTeBA), University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: urban air quality and microclimate; experimental and computational fluid dynamics; turbulence and pollutant dispersion; urban ventilation and vegetation
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Guest Editor
Atmospheric Modelling Unit, Environmental Department, Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT), 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: urban air quality; microscale modeling; in particular with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models; urban vegetation (trees in streets, vegetation barriers, etc.) and its effects on pollutant concentrations and thermal comfort; pollutant mitigation strategies; urban climate and meteorology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada; Urban Climate Research Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
Interests: urban micrometeorology; local climate effects of urban trees; urban canopy model development; regional climate modeling and dynamical downscaling; pedestrian thermal comfort; urban heat island causation and mitigation; urban thermal anisotropy

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Guest Editor
Department of Atmospheric Science, Kongju National University, 56 Gongjudaehak-ro, Gongju 32588, Korea
Interests: atmospheric boundary layer processes and parameterization; urban meteorology and air quality modeling; quantitative verification of anthropogenic emissions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We invite original research articles relating to model representation of impacts of urban vegetation and forests on local climate and air quality. These contributions will include modelling approaches at micro- to meso-scale (e.g., Computational Fluid Dynamics models, Urban Canopy Models), with a focus on the parameterization of urban vegetation (including aerodynamic, deposition and thermal effects) and their impacts on air pollutant concentrations, surface energy balance, and air/surface temperatures. Experimental work from field and laboratory studies is also welcomed, especially in relation to the drag and turbulence effects of vegetation in the urban environment useful for parametrizations development, as well as provision of velocity, turbulence and concentration data for model evaluation purposes. We also invite review papers that may focus on current knowledge and future directions in the field. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • advances in urban vegetation and forests parameterizations in microscale and mesoscale models;

  • experimental efforts and databases with a focus on the drag force representation exerted by different urban vegetation structures;

  • effects of vegetation on flow and pollutant dispersion in complex areas;

  • effects of urban vegetation in radiation exchange, surface energy balance, and air temperatures; use of vegetation barriers in site-specific contexts;

  • development of functional relations between key parameters of vegetation, meteorology and city morphology which enhance the positive effects of vegetation;

  • innovative strategies for alleviating poor ventilation, thermal discomfort, and air pollution in the urban environment.

Dr. Riccardo Buccolieri
Dr. Jose Luis Santiago
Dr. Scott Krayenhoff
Dr. Sang-Hyun Lee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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-blind 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.

Keywords

  • urban vegetation
  • urban forests
  • urban trees
  • dry and wet deposition in urban environment
  • aerodynamic and thermal effects
  • modelling techniques
  • mitigation strategies

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 32559 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Vegetation Enhancement on Particulate Pollution Reduction: CFD Simulations in an Urban Park
by Hongqiao Qin, Bo Hong, Runsheng Jiang, Shanshan Yan and Yunhan Zhou
Forests 2019, 10(5), 373; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10050373 - 28 Apr 2019
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5059
Abstract
Vegetation in parks is regarded as a valuable way to reduce particulate pollution in urban environments but there is little quantitative information on its effectiveness. The aim of this study was to conduct on-site measurements and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations to determine [...] Read more.
Vegetation in parks is regarded as a valuable way to reduce particulate pollution in urban environments but there is little quantitative information on its effectiveness. The aim of this study was to conduct on-site measurements and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations to determine the aerodynamic and deposition effects of vegetation enhancement on particulate matter (PM) dispersions in an urban park in Xi’an, China. Initially, the airflow characteristics and deposition effects of vegetation were predicted and compared with measured air velocities and particulate pollution data to validate the numerical modeling. Then, associated coverage ratios and supplementary green areas (tree coverage ratio, crown volume coverage (CVC), and roof greening) were added to numerical simulations. After a series of numerical simulations and comparisons, results indicated that: (1) Numerical models with simplified vegetation method could reproduce the distribution of particulate matter concentrations in the real park environment; (2) with a tree coverage ratio >37.8% (or CVC > 1.8 m3/m2), the pedestrian-level PM2.5 could meet the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines (IT-1) standards in the park; (3) roof greening on leeward buildings produced greater PM removal effects compared with windward buildings; and (4) the most economical and reasonable tree coverage ratio and CVC to reduce atmospheric PM in urban parks should be 30% and 1.8 m3/m2, respectively. These results are useful guidelines for urban planners towards a sustainable design of vegetation in urban parks. Full article
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20 pages, 70555 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Green Space Layouts on Microclimate and Air Quality in Residential Districts of Nanjing, China
by Liyan Rui, Riccardo Buccolieri, Zhi Gao, Wowo Ding and Jialei Shen
Forests 2018, 9(4), 224; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9040224 - 23 Apr 2018
Cited by 81 | Viewed by 9929
Abstract
This study numerically investigates the influence of different vegetation types and layouts on microclimate and air quality in residential districts based on the morphology and green layout of Nanjing, China. Simulations were performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics and the microclimate model ENVI-met. Four [...] Read more.
This study numerically investigates the influence of different vegetation types and layouts on microclimate and air quality in residential districts based on the morphology and green layout of Nanjing, China. Simulations were performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics and the microclimate model ENVI-met. Four green indices, i.e., the green cover ratio, the grass and shrub cover ratio, the ecological landscaping plot ratio and the landscaping isolation index, were combined to evaluate thermal and wind fields, as well as air quality in district models. Results show that under the same green cover ratio (i.e., the same quantity of all types of vegetation), the reduction of grass and shrub cover ratio (i.e., the quantity of grass and shrubs), replaced by trees, has an impact, even though small, on thermal comfort, wind speed and air pollution, and increases the leisure space for occupants. When trees are present, a low ecological landscaping plot ratio (which expresses the weight of carbon dioxide absorption and is larger in the presence of trees) is preferable due to a lower blocking effect on wind and pollutant dispersion. In conjunction with a low landscaping plot ratio, a high landscaping isolation index (which means a distributed structure of vegetation) enhances the capability of local cooling and the general thermal comfort, decreasing the average temperature up to about 0.5 °C and the average predicted mean vote (PMV) up to about 20% compared with the non-green scenario. This paper shows that the relationship vegetation-microclimate-air quality should be analyzed taking into account not only the total area covered by vegetation but also its layout and degree of aggregation. Full article
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