Publication Details

Year Published

2013

Publication

Environmental Pollution. 178: 395-402.

Abstract

Urban particulate air pollution is a serious health issue. Trees within cities can remove fine particles from the atmosphere and consequently improve air quality and human health. Tree effects on PM_2.5 concentrations and human health are modeled for 10 U.S. cities. The total amount of PM_2.5 removed annually by trees varied from 4.7 tonnes in Syracuse to 64.5 tonnes in Atlanta, with annual values varying from $1.1 million in Syracuse to $60.1 million in New York City. Most of these values were from the effects of reducing human mortality. Mortality reductions were typically around 1 person yr^-1 per city, but were as high as 7.6 people yr^-1 in New York City. Average annual percent air quality improvement ranged be- tween 0.05% in San Francisco and 0.24% in Atlanta. Understanding the impact of urban trees on air quality can lead to improved urban forest management strategies to sustain human health in cities.

Keywords

Citation

Nowak, David J.; Hirabayashi, Satoshi; Bodine, Allison; Hoehn, Robert. 2013. Modeled PM_2.5 removal by trees in ten US cities and associated health effects. Environmental Pollution. 178: 395-402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2013.03.050.