̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - urbanisation

Wrong trees in the wrong place can make cities hotter at night, study reveals

ta385 — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 09:45:00 +0000

Temperatures in cities are rising across the globe and urban heat stress is already a major problem causing illness, death, a surge in energy use to cool buildings down, heat-related social inequality issues and problems with urban infrastructure.

Some cities have already started implementing mitigation strategies, with tree planting prominent among them. But a ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge-led study now warns that planting the wrong species or the wrong combination of trees in suboptimal locations or arrangements can limit their benefits.

̽��ֱ��study, published today in Communications Earth & Environment found that urban trees can lower pedestrian-level air temperature by up to 12°C. Its authors found that the introduction of trees reduced peak monthly temperatures to below 26°C in 83% of the cities studied, meeting the ‘thermal comfort threshold’. However, they also found that this cooling ability varies significantly around the world and is influenced by tree species traits, urban layout and climate conditions.

“Our study busts the myth that trees are the ultimate panacea for overheating cities across the globe,” said Dr Ronita Bardhan, Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment at Cambridge's Dept. of Architecture.

“Trees have a crucial role to play in cooling cities down but we need to plant them much more strategically to maximise the benefits which they can provide.”

Previous research on the cooling effects of urban trees has focused on specific climates or regions, and considered case studies in a fragmented way, leaving major gaps in our knowledge about unique tree cooling mechanisms and how these interact with diverse urban features.

To overcome this, the authors of this study analysed the findings of 182 studies – concerning 17 climates in 110 global cities or regions – published between 2010 and 2023, offering the first comprehensive global assessment of urban tree cooling.

During the day, trees cool cities in three ways: by blocking solar radiation; through evaporation of water via pores in their leaves; and by foliage aerodynamically changing airflow. At night, however, tree canopies can trap longwave radiation from the ground surface, due to aerodynamic resistance and ‘stomatal closure’ – the closing of microscopic pores on the surface of leaves partly in response to heat and drought stress.

Variation by climate type

̽��ֱ��study found that urban trees generally cool cities more in hot and dry climates, and less in hot humid climates.

In the ‘tropical wet and dry or savanna’ climate, trees can cool cities by as much as 12 °C, as recorded in Nigeria. However, it was in this same climate that trees also warmed cities most at night, by up to 0.8°C.

Trees performed well in arid climates, cooling cities by just over 9°C and warming them at night by 0.4 °C.

In tropical rainforest climates, where humidity is higher, the daytime cooling effect dropped to approximately 2°C while the nighttime heating effect was 0.8 °C.

In temperate climates, trees can cool cities by up to 6°C and warm them by 1.5°C.

Using trees more strategically

̽��ֱ��study points out that cities which have more open urban layouts are more likely to feature a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees of varying sizes. This, the researchers found, tends to result in greater cooling in temperate, continental and tropical climates.

̽��ֱ��combined use of trees in these climates generally results in 0.5 °C more cooling than in cities where only deciduous or evergreen trees feature. This is because mixed trees can balance seasonal shading and sunlight, providing three-dimensional cooling at various heights.

In arid climates, however, the researchers found that evergreen species dominate and cool more effectively in the specific context of compact urban layouts such as Cairo in Egypt, or Dubai in UAE.

In general, trees cooled more effectively in open and low-rise cities in dry climates. In open urban layouts, cooling can be improved by about 0.4 °C because their larger green spaces allow for more and larger tree canopies and a greater mix of tree species.

“Our study provides context-specific greening guidelines for urban planners to more effectively harness tree cooling in the face of global warming,” Dr Ronita Bardhan said.

“Our results emphasize that urban planners not only need to give cities more green spaces, they need to plant the right mix of trees in optimal positions to maximize cooling benefits.”

“Urban planners should plan for future warmer climates by choosing resilient species which will continue to thrive and maintain cooling benefits,” said Dr Bardhan, a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Matching trees to urban forms

̽��ֱ��study goes further, arguing that species selection and placement needs to be compatible with urban forms. ̽��ֱ��orientation of the ‘street canyon’, local climate zones, aspect ratio, visible sky ratio and other urban features that influence the effects of trees all need to be carefully considered.

Although a higher degree of tree canopy cover in street canyons generally results in more cooling effects, excessively high cover may trap heat at the pedestrian level, especially in compact urban zones in high temperature climates. In such locations, narrow species and sparse planting strategies are recommended.

̽��ֱ��researchers emphasise that we cannot rely entirely on trees to cool cities, and that solutions such as solar shading and reflective materials will continue to play an important role.

̽��ֱ��researchers have developed an interactive database and map to enable users to estimate the cooling efficacy of strategies based on data from cities with similar climates and urban structures.

Reference

H Li et al., ‘Cooling efficacy of trees across cities is determined by background climate, urban morphology, and tree trait’, Communications Earth & Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01908-4

While trees can cool some cities significantly during the day, new research shows that tree canopies can also trap heat and raise temperatures at night. ̽��ֱ��study aims to help urban planners choose the best combinations of trees and planting locations to combat urban heat stress.

Trees have a crucial role to play in cooling cities down but we need to plant them much more strategically to maximise the benefits which they can provide

Ronita Bardhan

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Trees in an Indian city street. Photo: hannahisabelnic via Flikr (Public domain)

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Cambridge to launch lectureship in Chinese urban development

ag236 — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 16:01:25 +0000

̽��ֱ��new lectureship will be funded through a gift of £1m to the Department of Land Economy by the Pecan Foundation Limited, a charity organization founded by Dr Justin Chiu. Dr. Chiu is a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Department of Land Economy, and is currently an Executive Director of Cheung Kong Asset Holdings Limited in Hong Kong. ̽��ֱ��funding will also support an ambitious new research and engagement programme in Chinese urban development.

This Lectureship represents the opening of a new phase of engagement between Cambridge's department of Land Economy and China. ̽��ֱ��Lecturer will provide teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and conduct world-leading research in sustainable development and urbanisation with a focus on China. ̽��ֱ��lecturer will also provide a focal point for collaboration and interaction with industrial leaders and research institutions throughout China.

This lectureship will address the impact of rapid population growth in China, and the demands placed on urban development. Some Chinese cities are home to populations larger than those of entire nations. ̽��ֱ��growth of these cities presents a unique opportunity to define new models and ideas for urban spaces. How these models develop will not only improve the future of cities in China, but will shape the future of urban development across the globe.

"This exciting new position will help further our understanding of the dynamics of Chinese urbanisation and its role in economic development, as well as the pressures it creates on planning and sustainability,” said Professor Colin Lizieri, Head of the Department of Land Economy. “Both our research and our teaching will benefit hugely from these insights, and the post will allow us to deepen our relationships with business leaders, policy-makers, researchers and our alumni in China and the surrounding nations."

̽��ֱ��creation of the lectureship, based at the Department of Land Economy, was announced at a signing ceremony held in Hong Kong.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Urbanisation of rural Africa associated with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes

cjb250 — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 18:00:00 +0000

Over 530 million people live in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where rates of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases tend to be much lower than in urban areas. However, many of these areas are becoming increasingly urbanised, with people living within larger populations in more built-up environments, with better access to education, health facilities and utilities, for example.

In an attempt to better understand the impact that urbanisation is having on communities, a team of researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute Uganda Research Unit on AIDS, and Deakin ̽��ֱ�� in Australia analysed data from 7,340 people aged 13 years and above across 25 villages in Uganda. Each individual was allocated an ‘urbanicity score’ and this was compared to their lifestyle risk factors, such as alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable consumption, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity. ̽��ֱ��results are published today in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Dr Manjinder Sandhu from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, joint senior author of the study, says: “Over half a billion people live in rural areas across sub-Saharan Africa. We need to understand how the health of these populations will change as the areas develop and become more urbanised to enable countries to plan future healthcare programmes and develop interventions to reduce this risk.”

̽��ֱ��researchers found that levels of urbanicity varied markedly across the villages, ranging from those without educational facilities or electricity in households, to villages with a public telephone and a dispensary. However, despite the features of urbanisation being relatively modest, living in more urban villages was associated with increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors such as physical inactivity, low fruit and vegetable consumption, heavy drinking and high body mass index, even after controlling for other factors such as socioeconomic status.

Johanna Riha, first author and a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, says: “Development in rural areas will provide people with much needed access to education, healthcare and improved sanitation, with very positive health benefits. But it could be a double-edged sword and come at a cost of a greater incidence of diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.”

Professor Janet Seeley, joint senior author from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, adds: “Even a small increase in a person’s level of urbanicity appears to be associated with poorer lifestyle choices that raise their risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. As better infrastructure, education and healthcare systems are being developed, we should look for ways to use them to provide an opportunity to design and deliver interventions to help reduce the risk of these diseases.”

̽��ֱ��study was supported in part by the African Partnership for Chronic Disease Research.

̽��ֱ��increasing urbanisation of rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to an explosion in incidences of heart disease and diabetes, according to a new study carried out in Uganda which found that even small changes towards more urban lifestyles was associated with increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Development in rural areas will provide people with much needed access to education, healthcare and improved sanitation... But it could come at a cost of a greater incidence of heart disease and diabetes

Johanna Riha

neiljs

Uganda

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Capturing urban conflict: beyond the newsreel

bjb42 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:24:14 +0000

Jerusalem, Belfast, Beirut, Mostar – Mention these cities to most people and they will conjure scenes of bullet-sprayed walls, barbed wire fences and militarized zones, the images that appear on TV screens around the world. But some people will think just one word – home. Cities of conflict and the boundaries within them are not just defined by the politics and violence of the moment, but also by the daily throng of the population as they go about their lives: shopping, schooling, socialising and so on.

You can listen to a podcast on the research here:

̽��ֱ��Capturing Urban Conflicts exhibition, which runs from 19 – 23 October in Cambridge and then from 3 – 5 November in London as part of the ESRC’s ‘Festival of Social Sciences’, was developed by the Conflict in Cities team at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. Using photo-essays and a fresh cartographic approach to go beyond the media snapshots of these cities, the exhibition gives people a sense of life in areas of urban conflict, and how areas of conflict are constantly shifting.

“We created a series of unique maps that show the spectrum of not just boundaries, but also transitional and mixed spaces that exist within contested cities”, says Dr Wendy Pullan, Principal Investigator on Conflict in Cities, “This exhibition challenges the perception of these cities often generated by the media, using maps and photography to provide a window on life in the conflict areas, highlighting not just the resilience but, sometimes, even vibrancy.”

Based in the Department of Architecture, the research has involved comparative mapping of nine divided cities at different stages of their transition through conflict, focusing on the two key cities of Belfast and Jerusalem. Usually, maps of these cities don’t display contested areas and flash-points, but this is what the team focused on. ̽��ֱ��exhibition features a special section of maps devoted to Jerusalem.

“We have drawn all the maps in the same hand using the same graphic conventions to allow for proper comparison, which hasn’t been done before” says Pullan. “Details in the divisions in many of these cities are not properly mapped. One reason is that they change so frequently, but it is also very often extremely politically charged.”

“A case in point is Jerusalem. We produced two different maps showing how Israel sees the city, and how Palestine sees it – they obviously don’t match and we are not trying to make them, but if you compare the two, by the same hand at the same scale, you get a better picture of where the divisions are, how they are fluctuating, and the patterns that emerge.”

̽��ֱ��team look at the range of interaction within the zones where conflicting areas meet, what they refer to as the ‘spectrum of engagement’. Of course this can be antagonistic, but it can also be casual and generous interaction between ostensibly hostile factions. “Cities don’t function like states,” says Pullan, “and urban areas that have national frontiers running through them are the most volatile, but can also lead the way in demonstrating how conflict can be resisted, and even potentially absorbed, through the environment people create in their quest to live as best they can.”

An example is the neighbourhood of French Hill in Jerusalem. A settlement for Israeli Jews, in what is a fairly recent phenomenon some Palestinians have been buying houses and renting flats there. “French Hill is near the university and Hadasa hospital, the housing and municipal services are so much better” says Pullan. “We did some research on Palestinians in the neighbourhood, even checking names on mailboxes, as there are just no statistics around this at the moment. A few people voiced the idea that this is a type of re-colonisation, but others want to be quiet about it and get on with their lives.”

It can be easy to view conflict as simply two states – war and peace – but all these urban areas are in an in-between state, and in this landscape the smallest presentation decisions, such as what colour you paint your door, can become highly value-laden. Street art takes on huge political significance, and the team found that many of the cities actually reference each other, defining themselves as ‘divided cities’ and showing solidarity with other urban areas.

“Many people tell us ‘you can’t compare us with anywhere else’, conflict is such a strong part of a divided city’s identity,” says Pullan, “but the more politically aware citizens often notice comparisons with other cities, and referenced this on the streets.” This is particularly strong with regard to Belfast and Jerusalem: from murals of the Jerusalem separation barrier on the Falls Road in Belfast, to graffiti in East Jerusalem imploring passers-by to ‘learn from Northern Ireland’.

Physical landmarks of conflict can end up frozen for memorial purposes, and this identification of a city as conflicted even extends to tourism in some instances. “Conflict tourism is a going concern, there’s a group of former prisoners who guide tours in Belfast for example” says Pullan. “Tourism is a huge battleground in Jerusalem of course, people use it to legitimise their own causes. Berlin is an interesting example not just of a city that has emerged from its divided state in many ways, but for how much interest there is in recreating evidence of the divide, and how popular a tourist destination it is.”

“Urban populations are dramatically increasing. Cities are full of diversity by their very nature, which can create centres of culture and learning. However, as contact zones between ethnic, political and class groups, and strategic centres of power, they may also be arenas of dissent.”

“By 2030, 92.2% of Britons are expected be living in urban areas and, as was startlingly proved in London earlier in the year, we are far from immune to explosions of urban conflict. We hope this exhibition reveals how inhabitants of contested cities survive, resist, dominate, cope, ignore and imagine their fraught existences.”

Capturing Urban Conflict can be seen at the Department of Architecture in Cambridge between 19 – 23 October as part of the Festival of Ideas, then at the Department of Architecture at London Metropolitan ̽��ֱ�� between 3 – 5 November as part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Sciences.

A new exhibition unveils the work of a unique study into some of the most bitterly divided cities in the world, such as Jerusalem and Belfast, showing how daily life adapts to, defines and defies boundaries in spaces of urban conflict.

Cities don’t function like states, and urban areas that have national frontiers running through them are the most volatile, but can also lead the way in demonstrating how conflict can be resisted.

Dr Wendy Pullan

Conflict in Cities

Separation barrier in Jerusalem

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Designing sustainable cities of the future

tdk25 — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Today, half of the world’s population live in cities, and estimates by the United Nations suggest that by 2030 this will have risen to two-thirds. As the world population increases from 6 to 8 billion at current predictions, rural towns will become cities and cities will grow larger. In developed countries, as many as 83% of the population will become city-dwellers.

Cities have expanded over time to meet the economic growth and lifestyle aspirations of those who live in them. But they have grown at the expense of increasing rates of resource consumption and increasing waste production and carbon emissions. Can urban planners design cities of the future that will be sustainable: cities with good air and water quality, where transportation systems are optimised, and energy consumption and carbon emissions are reduced? Understanding how to accomplish this is the aim of a new four-year project, ‘ReVISIONS’, led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Architecture.

A multidisciplinary consortium

With funding of £3.85 million awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of their Sustainable Urban Environment programme, the project brings together the Universities of Cambridge, Aberystwyth, Exeter, Leeds, Newcastle and Surrey. Each institution contributes expertise in different areas to the multidisciplinary project, from energy generation and supply, through water and waste management, to assessments of demography, economics, health and sustainability.

Cambridge’s role will be to coordinate the project and design the options and modelling framework for land use, buildings and transport. Because the research is constructed from the outset with the purpose of having direct value for public and private decision-makers, key partnerships have been formed with regional planning authorities and private companies, with the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) being one of the leading partners.

From SOLUTIONS to ReVISIONS

̽��ֱ��ReVISIONS project builds on expertise developed through ‘SOLUTIONS’, a four-year EPSRC-funded project in the Department of Architecture that reaches completion in September 2008. Here, the focus has been on designing suburbs of the future – improving the quality of life for people who live in the outer fringes of cities.

SOLUTIONS has focused on four UK cities, including Cambridge, which are experiencing high growth pressures in their suburbs. Like ReVISIONS, the planning horizon for testing designs is 25 years. Computer models have been used to assess combinations of land use and modes of transport, asking how changes in the planning of suburbs might affect how people travel, their cost of living and the damage to the environment. ̽��ֱ��results are being used to draw up policy advice for central and local government, as well as design guidelines for planners, house builders and environmentalists alike.

Towards sustainable living

Important considerations in planning a sustainable city include how best to plan its infrastructure for coordinating transport, water, waste and energy, and these will form core research questions in the ReVISIONS project. Although the research focuses on London, the Greater South East and the North East of England, the project also looks beyond the UK, to Beijing, São Paulo and Los Angeles city regions, providing a valuable international perspective. As the world moves towards greater urbanisation, the team’s goal is to deliver innovative and practical guidelines on how best to plan cities for sustainable and economic growth, as well as for improved quality of life for the billions of people who live in them.

For more information, please contact the author Professor Marcial Echenique (me15@cam.ac.uk) or the Project Manager Dr Anthony Hargreaves (ajh91@cam.ac.uk) at the Department of Architecture.

SOLUTIONS: Sustainability of Land Use and Transport in Outer Neighbourhoods

ReVISIONS: Regional Visions of Integrated Sustainable Infrastructure Optimised for Neighbourhoods

As more people become city-dwellers, can we design cities to be more sustainable?

As the world moves towards greater urbanisation, the team’s goal is to deliver innovative and practical guidelines on how best to plan cities for sustainable and economic growth, as well as for improved quality of life for the billions of people who live in them.

Marcial Echenique

drawing CAD

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Finding fault

tdk25 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Examining how western legal systems have developed, and understanding the factors that have shaped the dynamics of legal change, has been at the heart of a three-year study that reached its conclusion in December 2007. ̽��ֱ��European Legal Development project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), was led by Professors John Bell and David Ibbetson at the Faculty of Law. It brought together some 70 academics, including eminent scholars and early career researchers, from 10 different jurisdictions across Europe.

Although concerned with legal development and involving the research input of many lawyers, the project also benefited from the insights of historians, philosophers and scholars in other disciplines. It stands as a model for how national scholars can be supported and developed in an international context in the humanities and social sciences. Regular meetings and website interactions have built a network of researchers that will continue long after the project itself.

Illustrations of legal development

Of course, the topic ‘How do western legal systems develop?’ is very broad. Does the law change principally in step with the state of the economy and of society at large, or does it respond to its own internal dynamics of change? Even where there are strong similarities between the social and economic factors that fuel changes in the law, how do legal systems in different European countries respond? To make these areas of enquiry more manageable, they were tackled through the lens of a particular branch of law that illustrates legal change over a specific period of European history: the liability for harm caused to others by fault in the years 1850–2000.

In England, the core principles for deciding when one individual has to compensate another for the harm they have caused date back to the 14th century; in continental Europe, they date back to the 3rd century BC. This research has sought to chart how these old principles have needed to change and to seek explanations for what happened.

̽��ֱ��law relating to fault began to alter around 1850. Enormous technological and economic changes took place as industrialisation and urbanisation occurred in different countries, influencing many aspects of society, including the law. With the rapid rise in the use of steam boilers to power factories, boats and trains, accidents became more frequent. Machinery was both more complex and less predictable than before, causing injuries to employees and passengers. Although in 1850 there were many similarities in approaches to liability for fault across the legal systems of western Europe, significant divergence began to occur in the years that followed.

Constructing the case

To understand the forces behind legal change, we have to look beyond the experience of one country and investigate many. To this end, six case studies were investigated by academics from jurisdictions across Europe: England, Scotland, ̽��ֱ��Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Sweden, France, Italy and Spain.

̽��ֱ��six case studies, each convened by a different project member, focused on the problems that the law has faced in the 150-year period under study: liability in relation to technological change; liability between neighbours; liability for traffic accidents on rail and road; liability for products; liability for medical negligence; and legal doctrine, or the writings of legal academics trying to set out the principles of this developing law.

Factors for change

In a second stage, the project examined the factors that actually shaped legal development in the fields studied. Certain legal institutions, such as law reform bodies, have been important in fostering change in the law. But these bodies have depended on key individuals who have promoted change, typically by persistence over many years. Governments often promote legislation in response to recent prominent crises or disasters, and at such moments proposals that are already formulated are often seized upon.

To what extent does the law reflect developments in social and political ideas? Sometimes there is a clear connection. For example, the French social theorist Émile Durkheim influenced key French legal writers of the late 19th century to argue that the law should provide compensation out of social solidarity with those who were injured, rather than focusing simply on whether a responsible individual was at fault. But, in other areas, it is the opinions of specialist technical experts that shape the law. For example, the law governing asbestos was strongly influenced by relatively small numbers of people in inspectorates, rather than by a broad movement of opinion or ideas.

Changes in the economy clearly have an impact on law – new problems arise that the law has to solve. But it is less clear whether the pattern of solutions directly responds to economic interests. For example, the easy availability of insurance is frequently invoked in arguments for legislation or in court. But it does not dictate a solution. Although Germany and France introduced insurance-based compensation for road accidents, England did not, even though the economic conditions and the availability of insurance were similar. And so, similar economies do not necessarily adopt similar legal solutions.

This study has illustrated that private law can operate with a kind of relative autonomy from contemporary social and political ideas or economic interests. History and legal ideas can be powerful determinants of how far private law contributes to the solution of contemporary problems.

A multicentre project led by the Faculty of Law has reached its conclusion, having studied over a century's worth of European legal changes relating to liability.

It stands as a model for how national scholars can be supported and developed in an international context in the humanities and social sciences.

Keith Heppell

Members of the European Legal Development Project

Coming to a Conclusion

Three main trends in the law relating to liability have become apparent from this study:

Victims of accidents have gradually found it easier to obtain compensation, either because the burden of proof has shifted towards the person causing the injury or because liability no longer depended on proof of fault.
Simpler and less expensive compensation systems have gradually been created outside private law (the law of relations between individuals). For example, although the victims of boiler and railway accidents tended to be employees, they rarely gained compensation through private law but instead through state-created insurance-based workmen’s compensation systems. In Germany, Sweden and France, such schemes have also replaced private law for most road accidents, and Sweden and France have now adopted similar schemes for medical injuries.
Although private law has played a minimal role in incentivising accident prevention, other forms of regulation could have an impact. For instance, state regulation on the siting of boilers, or of buildings or crops alongside railway lines, as well as regulation related to determining who can practise as a doctor, has played a very important role in reducing the incidence of harm.

For more information, please contact the author Professor John Bell (jsb48 AT cam DOT ac DOT uk) at the Faculty of Law.

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