Impact of planted areas on urban environmental quality: A review

Abstract

The paper discusses the impact of urban planted areas: public parks and private planting around individual buildings, on various aspects of the quality of the urban environment. Specific issues discussed are: • functions and impacts of urban planted areas; • effect of plants on the climatic characteristics of an area; • climatic impacts of private planted areas around buildings; • experimental studies on the thermal effect of plants; • public parks and the urban climate; • range of the effect of urban parks; • impact of green spaces on air pollution; • planted areas as noise; • social functions of urban parks; • parks as social interaction areas between neighborhoods; and • summary: Climatic guidelines for parks design: ◦ Parks in hot, dry regions; ◦ Parks in hot, humid regions; and ◦ Parks in cold regions. Comment: This paper is based on a book by the author, published by the World Meteorological Organization (Givoni, 1989, Urban Design for Different Climates, WMO).