Predicting the Growth in Tree Height for Building Sunshine in Residential District

Bo Hong

doi:10.4236/ojf.2015.51007

Abstract

Residential greening constitutes a significant portion of the urban environment. Trees, as the largest entities in the tree-shrub-herb greening system, are the best choice for residential afforestation. Hence, tree arrangement in green space between buildings is significant, for which may exert negative impact on building sunshine. This study takes He Qingyuan residential area in Beijing as a case study to predict the growth in tree height between buildings to meet good sunshine requirements. The procedures were draw as follows: 1) models including building layout and trees were built using computer-aided design (Auto CAD). Afterwards, according to tree crown shape, tree height limits were determined for the same building layout; 2) and after that, the growth in tree height was predicted using the nonlinear height-diameter functions to meet the good sunshine requirements. The results allow us to determine which trees to plant between buildings in that the designers can predict the effects of future tree growth on building sunshine.

Highlights

Trees in residential areas carry out a number of important functions
The relationship between age and tree height measurement could be suitably expressed by the logarithmic function and the equations derived for species used to predict tree height and growth rate at different ages
In all investigated species tree height is highest in the young trees and decrease with tree ages, the rate of decrease differs among the species and among the growth parameter

Summary

Introduction

Trees in residential areas carry out a number of important functions. They reduce energy use by shading building during the summer and reducing wind speeds during the winter. If planted in large numbers, trees can cool the summer climate of an entire metropolitan area, helping to mitigate the urban heat island effect (Frelich, 1992). Trees can use large quantities of CO2 to make wood, which helps retard the buildup of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere (Akbari, 2002). Despite the importance of trees in residential areas, if planted improperly, the trees would bring about negative impact on residents’ daily life, for example, evergreen trees such. Predicting the Growth in Tree Height for Building Sunshine in Residential District.

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Results