Improving the green space arrangement in residential areas from the perspective of tree leaf temperature utilizing scenario simulation in ENVI-met

Abstract

Studying the differences in leaf temperature and their mechanisms can help us accurately understand the microenvironment in which plants are located. In this paper, typical residential areas in Jianye District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, are selected as the research area, we investigated the suitability of green space configurations from the perspective of tree leaf temperature of residential areas based on the scenario simulation in ENVI-met. Firstly, twenty abstract models were constructed, including four kinds of aspect ratio of trees (ARTs) which can be used to indicate the different green space arrangement and two typical tree species, camphora tree and platanus tree. And then three aspects were discussed including impacts of different Aspect Ratio of Trees (ART), different house-side configurations on tree leaf temperature and the relationship between temperature of tree leaves and land surface temperature (ΔSurfT) and the thermal comfort index of physiological equivalent temperature (ΔPET). The results showed that B-1 (camphor tree, ART = 2) demonstrates the most effective cooling effect in summer, with ΔPET of 3.09 °C and ΔSurfT of 3.34 °C. In winter, A-1 (platanus tree, ART = 2) proves to be the most effective in enhancing thermal comfort (ΔPET = −0.15 °C), while B-1 excels in improving surface temperature (ΔSurfT = 0.55 °C). In all, for residential area, especially in summer, planting dense camphora trees is better than platanus trees and house-side green space was very necessary. This research can help to determine appropriate tree species and green space configuration strategies for future residential areas to enhance thermal comfort.