Articolo in rivista, 2022, ENG, 10.3390/f13050690

Assessment of Air Quality and Meteorological Changes Induced by Future Vegetation in Madrid

De la Paz D., De Andrés J.M., Narros A., Silibello C., Finardi S., Fares S., Tejero L., Borge R., Mircea M.

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, ETSII--Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28040 Madrid, Spain; ARIANET, 20159 Milán, Italy; Research Centre for Forestry and Wood, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), 00184 Rome, Italy; Institute of BioEconomy, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), 00185 Rome, Italy; Ayuntamiento de Madrid, 28014 Madrid, Spain; Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development--ENEA, 40129 Bologna, Italy

Nature-based solutions and green urban infrastructures are becoming common measures in local air quality and climate strategies. However, there is a lack of analytical frameworks to anticipate the effect of such interventions on urban meteorology and air quality at a city scale. We present a modelling methodology that relies on the weather research and forecasting model (WRF) with the building effect parameterization (BEP) and the community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) model and apply it to assess envisaged plans involving vegetation in the Madrid (Spain) region. The study, developed within the VEGGAP Life project, includes the development of two detailed vegetation scenarios making use of Madrid's municipality tree inventory (current situation) and future vegetation-related interventions. An annual simulation was performed for both scenarios (considering constant anthropogenic emissions) to identify (i) variations in surface temperature and the reasons for such changes, and (ii) implications on air-quality standards according to EU legislation for the main pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and O3). Our results suggest that vegetation may have significant effects on urban meteorology due to changes induced in relevant surface properties such as albedo, roughness length or emissivity. We found a net-heating effect of around +0.18 C when trees are introduced in dry, scarcely vegetated surfaces in the city outskirts. In turn, this enhances the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH), which brings about reductions in ambient concentrations of relevant pollutants such as NO2 (in the range of 0.5-0.8 g m?3 for the annual mean, and 2-4 g m?3 for the 19th highest 1 h value). Conversely, planting new trees in consolidated urban areas causes a cooling effect (up to ?0.15 C as an annual mean) that may slightly increase concentration levels due to less-effective vertical mixing and wind-speed reduction caused by increased roughness. This highlights the need to combine nature-based solutions with emission-reduction measures in Madrid.

Forests 13 (5), pp. Article number 690–?

Keywords

air quality; urban vegetation; nature-based solutions; meteorology; VEGGAP project

CNR authors

Fares Silvano

CNR institutes

IBE – Istituto per la BioEconomia