Abstract
Canary Island date palms (Phoenix canariensis) have been planted as a landscaping feature plant throughout warm, temperate, and subtropical climates. The physical amenity provisioning of this species (shade effects, microclimate amelioration, water usage, etc.) has so far not been systematically assessed. This paper reports on temperature and humidity measurements in both a suburban and a rural location in SE Australia. The study demonstrates the effects of the palm canopy as regulator of humidity and provider of shade and, thus, amenity values in urban landscape settings. Drawing on published energy savings and growth requirements of the plant, the paper argues that Canary Island date palms are landscaping plants suitable to ameliorate the microclimate in urban neighborhoods with varied socio-economic conditions.
Highlights
Urban design has recently become concerned with thermal comfort, an issue that is gaining significance in the face of actual and projected climate change [1,2,3,4]
The data show that temperatures in the crown of the palm are significantly cooler during the day than the ambient temperature and warmer during the night
The linear model showed that the temperature differences at the measured time intervals for the full time series were significant at p < 0.001 for the three pairs tested: between the palm crown and the control; between palm trunk and control; and between palm crown and tree
Summary
Urban design has recently become concerned with thermal comfort, an issue that is gaining significance in the face of actual and projected climate change [1,2,3,4]. Trees have been advocated as a means to ameliorate thermal stress, both through the provision of shade and through cooling provided by evapotranspiration [12,13,14,15]. With exceptions [16], palms have been shown to contribute to urban cooling [17,18,19,20] due to leaf albedo [21], shade foliage, evapotranspiration, low heat capacity of vegetation, and high aerodynamic roughness [22]. There have been few systematic studies examining individual palm species [23,24].
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