Urban green spaces provide shade for city dwellers facing rising temperatures brought on by climate change, but how much relief from the heat island effect do they provide when humidity is factored in?
Urban green spaces provide shade for city dwellers facing rising temperatures brought on by climate change, but how much relief from the heat island effect do they provide when humidity is factored in?
The temperature and humidity effect cancel each other out during daylight hours, but green spaces provide a net reduction in humid heat at night, according to a new study in Nature Cities, co-authored by Yale School of the Environment doctoral student Yichen Yang and Xuhui Lee, Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor of Climate Science.
"When it comes to urban heat resilience, humidity matters as much as temperature or shade provisions," Lee said.
Using mobile smart sensors on bicycles to measure temperature and humidity across 114 green spaces in 15 cities worldwide, the research team examined their combined effects across wet and dry urban regions. Their measurements found that during the day, green spaces are indeed cooler than the surrounding built-up areas, but this effect is often counterbalanced by increased humidity.
Read more at Yale University
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