{"id":60101757,"date":"2025-10-01T10:11:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T09:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60101757"},"modified":"2025-12-01T17:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:13:00","slug":"trees-are-natural-acs-for-cities-if-you-plant-the-right-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/trees-are-natural-acs-for-cities-if-you-plant-the-right-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"Trees are natural ACs for cities, if you plant the right ones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today,\u201d so the saying goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trees have been touted as solutions to many environmental problems, from reducing air pollution to restoring biodiversity. But much planting in cities today is motivated by their potential to mitigate extreme heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of our signatory cities are reporting extreme heat as their main risk currently, and adding green infrastructure such as trees is one of their key activities to tackle it,\u201d says Samie Raichs Tovany, urban heat project officer at C40 Cities, a global network of cities committed to climate action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a CATCH story<\/p>

This story is part of Dialogue Earth\u2019s work on the Community Adaptations to City Heat (CATCH) project, in partnership with Boston University. The project is funded by Wellcome. All Dialogue Earth content is editorially independent.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Nearly half a million people are estimated<\/a> to die annually from heat-related causes, primarily due to cardiovascular problems<\/a>. Extra strain is put on the heart as the body tries to cool itself down by circulating large quantities of blood to the skin. This can prove fatal to those with chronic health problems, particularly the elderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repeated exposure to heatwaves has even been shown<\/a> to increase a person\u2019s biological age to an extent comparable to regular smoking or alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trees cool their surroundings in three main ways. They create shade. They emit water from their leaves which absorbs heat as it evaporates much like human sweat. And they change airflow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are significant gaps in the understanding of the cooling potential of urban trees and there is great variation in how particular tree species cool a given urban area. Many existing assessments are only really relevant to their particular locations and climates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tree panacea?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Researchers at the University of Cambridge recently attempted to provide the first comprehensive global assessment by analysing<\/a> 182 studies published in journals since 2010. They concluded that urban trees can lower pedestrian-level air temperature by up to 12C. After trees were planted, in 83% of the 110 global cities studied \u201cthe air temperature of the hottest month was reduced to below 26C\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is not as simple as just planting any tree in any location and things get cooler. To maximise the potential of trees to reduce heat in cities, many factors need to be taken into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cambridge study reveals the importance of tree species, urban layout and climate conditions. It also shows that the wrong tree in the wrong place could not only fail to reduce temperatures but also trap heat radiating from the ground at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is heat such a problem in cities?<\/p>

Cities often have higher temperatures than the countryside that surrounds them. This is caused by a combination of factors including fewer trees to provide shade and cooling; more concrete and brick buildings which absorb heat; and more energy use which produces waste heat. This is known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur study busts the myth that trees are the ultimate panacea for overheating cities across the globe,\u201d says Ronita Bardhan, associate professor of Sustainable Built Environment at the University of Cambridge\u2019s Department of Architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study found that urban trees are best at cooling cities in hot and dry climates, providing cooling of just over 9C and warming them at night by 0.4C. Trees in hot and humid climates were less successful. In Nigeria, trees cooled cities by up to 12C during the day, but warmed cities at night by up to 0.8C. In temperate areas, cooling in the day was a more modest 6C but nighttime temperatures could be raised 1.5C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether the substantial daytime cooling is worth the modest increase in night-time heat is not straightforward, since night-time recovery is critical for health,\u201d Bardhan tells Dialogue Earth. \u201cThe trade-off depends on context, vulnerability and how households adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She explains that more open and low-rise cities tend to benefit more from trees, as they have more space to spread out and for air to flow. In compact city layouts, evergreens may be the best choice as they provide year-round shade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where trees species are selected appropriately, the evidence suggests the greater the area they stand over, known as \u201ccanopy cover\u201d, the greater their cooling effect. A soon-to-be-published study by Cardiff University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen found that average temperatures of 24C at ground level in Cardiff would fall to 22C with minor tree canopy cover of 1%, 20C with 15% cover, and 19.7C at 38% cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny trees are useful to reduce temperatures, but you need to have quite large areas covered to maximise the benefit,\u201d explains study co-author Phillip Jones, professor of architectural science at Cardiff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"line<\/div>
Work by researchers at Cardiff University shows it can sometimes take a lot of trees to maximise cooling of cities (Image: Jeff Morgan 06 \/ Alamy)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This finding is echoed by a 2019 study<\/a> in the mid-sized city of Madison in the US state of Wisconsin. It found the greatest cooling was achieved when canopy cover exceeded 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Targeting inequality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In order to protect the most vulnerable people from extreme heat, cities need to consider where new trees are planted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leafy neighbourhoods with access to parks are often the most desirable and expensive, leaving the poorest people living in areas with the least green space, exacerbating inequality. Low-income neighbourhoods in the US had less tree cover than high-income blocks in 92% of nearly 6,000 communities assessed in a 2021 study<\/a> by environmental non-profit The Nature Conservancy (TNC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of C40 such as Guadalajara in Mexico have specifically targeted tree planting in areas with populations at most risk from extreme heat, says Tovany. To do this, they are using a technique known as \u201cvulnerability mapping\u201d, where maps of urban heat are combined with demographic data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

Even where it is determined that trees are a good option for cooling, money can be a major barrier for cash-strapped city administrators. Cities are now using a variety of innovative solutions to fund trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Freetown, Sierra Leone, authorities hope to plant five million trees by 2030, to deal with environmental issues including heat stress. The city\u2019s Freetown the Treetown<\/a> initiative pays residents to plant and maintain trees, with the plants geotagged to help track their progress. The project has been partly financed through multilateral funding institution the Global Environment Facility, but the city is also considering obtaining additional investment through voluntary carbon markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Colombia, the city of Medellin has trained citizens from disadvantaged backgrounds to plant 8,800 trees in 30 \u201cgreen corridors\u201d that have been credited with reducing<\/a> city temperatures by 2C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternative options?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, trees might not be the most appropriate solution to urban heat, even if they theoretically provide the largest temperature reduction. A July 2025 study<\/a> from Boston University compared trees to \u201ccool roofs\u201d designed to reflect sunlight, for example by being painted white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It suggests temperature reductions from expanding tree canopy in Boston were 35% higher than those from installing cool roofs. However, the roofs on average had more potential to reduce heat exposure because there were more opportunities to install them in parts of the city where populations were most vulnerable, and space for tree planting most limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research team is now working to identify how the cooling efficiency of trees changes across different climates, and what other factors need to be taken into account, explains Ian Smith, a researcher at Boston University\u2019s Department of Earth and Environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A trend for a lot of cities in the coming decades is to plan for emergency watering of trees<\/blockquote>Rob McDonald, TNC\u2019s lead scientist for nature-based solutions<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is not just about heat of course. Trees provide other benefits to mental health, flood prevention, biodiversity and air quality, he points out. \u201cThere\u2019s a balance between all of these different considerations in determining whether tree canopy expansion is the best solution to reduce heat in a city,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One crucial factor is water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of the hottest places might also be some of the driest, where in order to sustain the health of the urban canopy, and therefore the cooling benefits … we might have to strain local water supplies,\u201d says Smith. \u201cThat makes decision-making a bit more complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasing tree canopy cover in 61 large cities to the maximum potential would increase aggregate water demand by 3,200 million cubic metres per year, according to research<\/a> by TNC. If location-appropriate, drought-tolerant species were planted, water demand could be reduced to 1,500 million cubic metres per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

The consequences of failing to get these calculations right were illustrated in cities across Texas in 2011, when an estimated 5.6 million trees, representing around 10% of the urban tree canopy, died<\/a> in a drought. Authorities had to spend USD 560 million removing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So those aiming to increase tree cover in cities must also think about how they deal with water limitations, says Rob McDonald, TNC\u2019s lead scientist for nature-based solutions. Where irrigation is essential, alternative sources of water will be needed, such as reusing wastewater or stormwater, he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA trend for a lot of cities in the coming decades is to plan for emergency watering of trees,\u201d says McDonald. \u201cYou have to think about how to maintain the canopy you already have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trees can take decades to mature and become large enough to provide shade and cooling benefits. As the planet heats up, keeping people cool and healthy will require caring for existing urban trees as well as planting new ones where appropriate, so that they are still cooling people for decades to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Urban trees are on the rise but researchers are only starting to uncover the best way to cool cities with them<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2833,"featured_media":60101769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761],"tags":[14713,17827,50042413,50042212],"hashtags":[],"country":[50003615],"class_list":["post-60101757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-cities","tag-climate-adaptation","tag-heat-adaptation","tag-tree-planting","country-world-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrees are natural ACs for cities, if you plant the right ones | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Urban trees are on the rise but researchers are only starting to uncover the best way to cool cities with them\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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