The Effects of Tree Canopy Structure and Tree Coverage Ratios on Urban Air Temperature Based on ENVI-Met

Abstract

Vegetation configuration in residential districts improves human comfort by effectively moderating the thermal environment. Herein, the reliability of ENVI-met is verified by comparing the field measured with simulated data, including air temperature and relative humidity. The cooling effect of trees gradually increased with increasing tree coverage. Under the same coverage, trees with a tree crown diameter (TCD) of 3 m have the strongest cooling capacity, followed by trees with a TCD of 7 m, and trees with a TCD of 5 m have the weakest cooling capacity. The cooling capacity of a TCD of 3 m is considerably higher than that a TCD of 5 m and a TCD of 7 m. When the tree coverage ratio is 50%, the difference among the three TCDs is the largest. When the tree coverage is 50% or 70%, the cooling effect of TCD at 7 m is considerably higher than that at 5 m. For different canopy sizes and shapes under the same degree of tree coverage, only when the tree coverage is more than 50% and TCD is 3 m, the cooling capacity of a cylindrical shape is 0.2 to 0.3 °C higher than that of conical and ellipsoidal shapes. However, the difference between conical and ellipsoidal shapes when TCD is 5 or 7 m is not significant (∆Ta < 0.1 °C). Our results suggest that small canopy trees have a better cooling effect than large canopy trees for the same level of coverage.