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Quantifying the Cooling Effect of Urban Greening Driven by Ecological Restoration Projects in China

Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Urban greening (UG) affects local climate by altering surface energy balance, while long-term UG cooling potential, patterns, and contribution to curbing urban warming remain unclear. Here, we designed an novel statistical model to evaluate the cooling potential of UG (CPUG) and created the first CPUG map for China. By exploring the trends in observed and simulated urban surface temperatures (UST), we quantified the CPUG of 0.20 K over the past two decades, which slowed down the warming trend by 14.17% in Chinese cities. We found that the CPUG varied significantly between the urban core and sprawl areas. Specifically, the CPUG in the urban core was approximately 1.01 K, and it contributed to curbing urban warming by 56.08%, which was more than 7.2 times higher than in the sprawl areas, where the CPUG was only 0.14 K and contributed to curbing urban warming by 9.93%. We further revealed that urbanization and major ecological restoration projects are the key factors influencing CPUG, emphasizing the need for anthropogenic vegetation management to curb urban warming. The proposed model in this study provides a powerful tool for quantitatively assessing the impact of long-term UG trends on urban warming. The results of the study are an important reference for building climate-adaptive cities.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c10314
Authors: Dong Xu, Tingting Bai, Lin Yang, Yuyu Zhou, Bin Chen, Haifeng Xu, Yongze Song, Yuan Yuan, Yuanzheng Cui, Lin Meng, Ziqian Xia, Min Chen, Zhenci Xu, Peng Zhao, Guihua Dong, Lei Zhang, Jiacheng Zhao, Wanben Wu, Wei Wang, Liu Zhao, Jie Cheng, Philippe Ciais
Institutions: National University of Singapore, Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Northeastern University, Nanjing University, University of Hong Kong, Beijing Forestry University, Curtin University, Fudan University, Hohai University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Vanderbilt University, Tongji University, Nanjing Normal University, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, China National Environmental Monitoring Center, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, University of Tasmania, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4404444433
FWCI: 2.635
Cites: 69
Cited by: 25
Related to: 10