Health and climate related ecosystem services provided by street trees in the urban environment

Environmental Health

Review

Helen Macintyre¹  Clare Heaviside²  Katherine Arbuthnott²  Sotiris Vardoulakis³  Marc Tadaki⁴  Benedict W. Wheeler⁵  Rachel N. McInnes⁶  Andrew Coutts⁷  Matthias Demuzere⁸  Jennifer A. Salmond⁹  Shanon Lim⁹  Kim N. Dirks^1,10 

[1] Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, OX11 0RQ, Chilton, UK;Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, OX11 0RQ, Chilton, UK;Department of Social and Environmental Health Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, WC1H 9SH, London, UK;Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, OX11 0RQ, Chilton, UK;European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Knowledge Spa, Royal Cornwall Hospital, TR1 3HD, Truro, Cornwall, UK;Department of Social and Environmental Health Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, WC1H 9SH, London, UK;Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, V6T 1Z2, Vancouver, BC, Canada;European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Knowledge Spa, Royal Cornwall Hospital, TR1 3HD, Truro, Cornwall, UK;European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Knowledge Spa, Royal Cornwall Hospital, TR1 3HD, Truro, Cornwall, UK;Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, EX1 3 PB, Exeter, Devon, UK;School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne 3800, Victoria, Australia;Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Australia;School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne 3800, Victoria, Australia;Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Australia;Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences Physical and Regional Geography Research Group - Regional climate studies Celestijnenlaan 200E, 3001, KU Leuven, Heverlee (Leuven), Belgium;School of Environment, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, 1142, Auckland, New Zealand;School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, 1142, Auckland, New Zealand;

关键词: Street trees;    Ecosystems services;    Health impacts;    Climate;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12940-016-0103-6

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Urban tree planting initiatives are being actively promoted as a planning tool to enable urban areas to adapt to and mitigate against climate change, enhance urban sustainability and improve human health and well-being. However, opportunities for creating new areas of green space within cities are often limited and tree planting initiatives may be constrained to kerbside locations. At this scale, the net impact of trees on human health and the local environment is less clear, and generalised approaches for evaluating their impact are not well developed.In this review, we use an urban ecosystems services framework to evaluate the direct, and locally-generated, ecosystems services and disservices provided by street trees. We focus our review on the services of major importance to human health and well-being which include ‘climate regulation’, ‘air quality regulation’ and ‘aesthetics and cultural services’. These are themes that are commonly used to justify new street tree or street tree retention initiatives. We argue that current scientific understanding of the impact of street trees on human health and the urban environment has been limited by predominantly regional-scale reductionist approaches which consider vegetation generally and/or single out individual services or impacts without considering the wider synergistic impacts of street trees on urban ecosystems. This can lead planners and policymakers towards decision making based on single parameter optimisation strategies which may be problematic when a single intervention offers different outcomes and has multiple effects and potential trade-offs in different places.We suggest that a holistic approach is required to evaluate the services and disservices provided by street trees at different scales. We provide information to guide decision makers and planners in their attempts to evaluate the value of vegetation in their local setting. We show that by ensuring that the specific aim of the intervention, the scale of the desired biophysical effect and an awareness of a range of impacts guide the choice of i) tree species, ii) location and iii) density of tree placement, street trees can be an important tool for urban planners and designers in developing resilient and resourceful cities in an era of climatic change.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Salmond et al. 2016