{"id":3185,"date":"2025-10-23T12:20:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T10:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbag.eu\/?p=3185"},"modified":"2025-10-23T12:20:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T10:20:16","slug":"new-preprint-the-role-of-soil-moisture-and-shading-in-influencing-the-capacity-of-urban-street-trees-to-reduce-heat-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/2025\/10\/23\/new-preprint-the-role-of-soil-moisture-and-shading-in-influencing-the-capacity-of-urban-street-trees-to-reduce-heat-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"New preprint: The role of soil moisture and shading in influencing the capacity of urban street trees to reduce heat stress"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new paper has been posted as a preprint on the Research Square platform.<\/p>\n

See full article\/ Veure l’article complet<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

English:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Street trees can significantly reduce urban heat through shading and transpirative cooling, but their effectiveness may be compromised during heat waves with dry soil conditions. This study assesses the cooling potential of street trees using a modified BEP-Tree model incorporating soil moisture dynamics and thermos-physiological indices like the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). The model is first validated with a micrometeorological measurement campaign during hot summer days in a town in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, Spain, yielding a good model performance representing the spatial variability of the mean radiant temperature and UTCI inside the studied neighbourhood. Then, BEP-Tree is used to simulate two highly-compact neighbourhoods with differing tree densities in the city of Barcelona, combined with varying soil moisture levels during a heat wave. Results show that street trees in moist soil reduced air temperatures by an average of 1.2\u00b10.4\u00b0C, leading to UTCI reductions up to 3.2\u00b0C. Albeit air-cooling effects were reduced under dry-soil conditions, shade-driven temperature reductions remained substantial, retaining 71-97% of the cooling effect. The findings highlight the importance of tree shading rather than air-cooling in maximising the cooling capabilities of street trees during extreme heat events. Additionally, it is crucial to maintain adequate soil moisture to preserve tree health and substantial foliage to provide consistent microclimatic benefits, particularly during periods of strong heat stress.<\/p>\n

\n

Catal\u00e0:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Els arbres de carrer poden reduir significativament la calor urbana mitjan\u00e7ant l\u2019ombra i el refredament transpiratiu, per\u00f2 la seva efic\u00e0cia pot veure\u2019s compromesa durant les onades de calor amb condicions de s\u00f2l sec. Aquest estudi avalua el potencial de refredament dels arbres de carrer utilitzant una versi\u00f3 modificada del model BEP-Tree que incorpora la din\u00e0mica de la humitat del s\u00f2l i \u00edndexs termo-fisiol\u00f2gics com l\u2019Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). El model es valida primerament amb una campanya de mesuraments micrometeorol\u00f2gics durant dies c\u00e0lids d\u2019estiu en un municipi de l\u2019\u00c0rea Metropolitana de Barcelona, obtenint un bon rendiment en la representaci\u00f3 de la variabilitat espacial de la temperatura radiant mitjana i de l\u2019UTCI dins el barri estudiat. A continuaci\u00f3, el model BEP-Tree s\u2019utilitza per simular dos barris d\u2019alta compacitat amb densitats d\u2019arbrat diferents a la ciutat de Barcelona, combinats amb diversos nivells d\u2019humitat del s\u00f2l durant una onada de calor. Els resultats mostren que els arbres de carrer en s\u00f2ls humits redueixen la temperatura de l\u2019aire en una mitjana d\u20191,2 \u00b1 0,4 \u00b0C, comportant reduccions de l\u2019UTCI de fins a 3,2 \u00b0C. Tot i que els efectes de refredament de l\u2019aire disminueixen sota condicions de s\u00f2l sec, les reduccions de temperatura degudes a l\u2019ombra continuen sent substancials, mantenint entre un 71 i un 97 % de l\u2019efecte de refredament. Les troballes destaquen la import\u00e0ncia de l\u2019ombra dels arbres m\u00e9s que no pas del refredament de l\u2019aire per maximitzar la seva capacitat de mitigaci\u00f3 t\u00e8rmica durant episodis extrems de calor. A m\u00e9s, \u00e9s fonamental mantenir una humitat del s\u00f2l adequada per preservar la salut dels arbres i garantir un fullatge abundant que proporcioni beneficis microclim\u00e0tics consistents, especialment durant per\u00edodes d\u2019intens estr\u00e8s t\u00e8rmic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure: Location of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona in the Iberian Peninsula; (b) Administrative boundaries of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and the city of Barcelona (yellow), and the location of the Eixample District and the measurement campaign neighbourhoods; (c) measurement campaign neighbourhood in Sant Feliu del Llobregat and sampling locations classified by the presence of tree cover; (d) case study neighbourhood in the Eixample District\u00a0and the location of Sparse and Dense trees streets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title: The role of soil moisture and shading in influencing the capacity of urban street trees to reduce heat stress \/
\nStreet trees can significantly reduce urban heat through shading and transpirative cooling, but their effectiveness may be compromised during heat waves with dry soil conditions. This study assesses the cooling potential of street trees using a modified BEP-Tree model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3153,"featured_media":2893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,16,155,157,446,100,447,448,449,450],"class_list":["post-3185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-amb","tag-barcelona","tag-bep-tree","tag-climate","tag-heat-stress","tag-heat-wave","tag-shading","tag-soil-moisture","tag-street-trees","tag-utci"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/atmosphere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}