Urban forests, air quality and health: a systematic review

Abstract

Cities are complex systems where many factors interconnect, therefore multidisciplinary research is crucial to understand their functional capacity and to improve the quality of life that these spaces offer. This research provides a decade of scientific literature review (2006 to 2016) about urban forest, air quality and health. This review aims to increase the discussion of the importance of multidisciplinary research in urban studies. In total we found 236 papers, from which 50 were selected for the systematic analyses. The number of multidisciplinary research papers is scarce in general, however, it has been growing in recent years. Most studies are found in the United States and China, a few in Latin America, but no studies have been reported in Africa. Few studies approached the three themes aforementioned simultaneously, which highlights the importance of strengthening a multidisciplinary approach for international urban forest research, creating results that allow integration of urban forest environments.