AGI – There is a “heat island” effect in big cities, writes Paìs. What does that mean? That asphalt and concrete absorb heat during the day and release it again at night, making the temperature much higher than in adjacent places where earth and trees predominate.
Nothing new so far, only that a study published in Lancet magazine on February 1st, which includes data from 93 European cities, home to 57 million inhabitants over the age of 20, “It is estimated that around 6,700 premature deaths” are due precisely to the “heat island” phenomenon and points out that a third of these deaths could be avoided simply by planting trees on 30% of the city’s land.
However, the newspaper also states that “it is important to distinguish mortality from ‘heat waves’, which can affect many more places, from mortality associated with ‘heat islands’, which are the result of urban planning,” based on ” Asphalt, concrete and a lack of vegetation increase the health risk on summer days, even with normal temperatures,” the researchers emphasize.
The research model provides an outcome of premature deaths associated with temperature rise in urban environments, which corresponds to 4.3% of the total mortality in the summer months (June to August). and 1.8% of mortality throughout the year. In any case, the authors believe a third of these (about 2,644 deaths) could have been avoided by increasing tree cover up to 30% of the urban space, which would reduce temperatures by almost half a degree on average, but in some cases in places even by 1.5°C and maybe even more.
The forest area of the analyzed cities is 14.9%, but in general The cities with the highest death rates from excess heat are in southern and eastern Europethat would benefit most from an increase in tree cover.
For example, according to Tamara Iungman, a researcher at L’IsGlobal, a La Caixa Foundation-funded institution that conducted the study, Barcelona has only 8% trees and the premature mortality attributed to the heat island effect is 14%, while Madrid does tut has 9.5% forest cover, has a mortality rate of about 12% because of this.
Paìs writes again that the document analyzes the urban space with high-resolution images (in areas of 250 by 250 meters) to also take into account the distribution of vegetation. “It is important to differentiate ‘heat wave’ related mortality, which can affect many more places, with this ‘Heat islands’ related to urban design: Asphalt, concrete and the lack of vegetation increase the health risk on summer days, even at normal temperatures,” the researchers emphasize.
The idea of the reference model published in the Lancet is to offer city planners and local councils tools to understand the scale of the problem and the positive impact of changing the usual city model to a ‘greener’ one.
