Air quality and heat-related health impacts of increasing urban greenery cover

Abstract

Green spaces and vegetation cover offer various environmental benefits, including air quality improvements and mitigation of the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Several UHI mitigation policies promoted over the last years in the Greater Toronto Area have targeted the enrichment of the urban vegetation. An integrated approach, including statistical data elaborations and microclimate simulations, is developed in this chapter to look at the impact of increasing the urban green infrastructure on the urban environment, air quality levels, and heat-related health responses. The increase in the urban greenery cover includes the intensification of the urban tree canopy and the incorporation of vegetated façades and green roofs. The proposed enhancements confirm reduction of the ambient air temperature due to applying the proposed heat mitigation strategy.The statistical approach ensures significant correlations between air pollutants' concentration and higher ambient temperatures. Tracking the air quality and health responses due to enhancing the urban microclimate, the results demonstrate a potential reduction all-cause mortalities and cardiorespiratory-related mortalities due to heat resilience and improved air quality levels.