Treeage – Research 2
Dense European cities with their beautifully preserved housing were not built for heat waves imposed by climate change and car culture. “Over 70,000 additional deaths were recorded in the summer of 2003 in 12 European countries.” (World Health Organization) And while those numbers fluctuate dramatically every year, Barcelona, just like other European centers, morns deaths due of heat stroke in the peak of summer despite awareness and public outreach. Heat stoke typically claims the life of people with preexisting conditions or the elderly and is exacerbated by the Urban Heat Island (UHI). The building typologies most impacted by UHIs are typically dense housing in older buildings, typologies like superblocks in Barcelona.
There are numerous solutions for UHI that range from the use of technology to architectural footprint, but the cheapest and most successful for an old city like Barcelona is the simple use of trees. (Laaidi, K. NCBI) Aside from reducing the UHI, trees offer a variety of ancillary benefits: trees filter air, sequester carbon, absorb noise, offer shade, provide shelter, present seasonal backdrops, generate storefront business, catalyze place-making, bring people back out of their homes, moderate building temperatures, calm traffic, and feed people. The use of trees can be dynamic as well. Trees can naturally conditions cities with the use of allees for urban wind tunnels. Parks and parklets can cool down small to large areas to create safe harbors for the ecological functions of wildlife, and significantly enhance the vibe of shaded motive or static spaces. Green roofs can reduce albedo, process stormwater, enhance pollinator networks, feed people, and provide additional places for residents to be outside. Likewise, urban forests can clean the air, protect the urban watershed, and create numerous outdoor and education amenities.
In 1998 Barcelona published a “Street Tree Management” report. The report is a framework for using Barcelona’s fifty-meter-wide streets to facilitate tree growth of target species for target outcomes. The idea being to maximize the ecological functions, social/ economic benefits, and atmospheric conditions (including cooling). It specified what trees to use and what trees not to use. For my project I would like to this report’s tree guide as a starting pallet and then extrapolate on this framework to see what is possible in terms of decrease UHI of the superblock with trees alone by expanding the methodology and zoning in on the UHI and solutions for the reduction of heat stroke specifically. I hope to explore the arrangements of trees based on their shade casting and canopy conditions. I am also interested in modular and tactical planting plans; is possible to move planters seasonally. And lastly, I’m interested in remotely sensing and smart city networking to determine the success of plants plans.
https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/environment-and-health/Climate-change/activities/public-health-responses-to-weather-extremes2/heathealth-action-plans/heat-threatens-health-key-figures-for-europe
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-25/europe-s-cities-weren-t-made-for-this-kind-of-heat
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48756480
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279432/
https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/metadata/case-studies/barcelona-trees-tempering-the-mediterranean-city-climate/11302624.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241215157_Assessing_the_benefits_and_costs_of_the_urban_forest
Great research!!
I posted two PDFs about barcelona and tree plans. You may find them useful.
Start to organize the existing catalog of trees in barcelona with Alissa. Either think broadly or use Google Street View to carefully catalog our superilla! I would do the later now. catalog shrubs and catalog grasses.
then look at what the city wants. Look at P. San Joan alongside our superilla. research that a bit too. Maybe you can find in the article i posted the species.
Now…the term is short…what qualities of the trees effect UHI? tree canopy: seasons of leaves, density of leaves, structure of branches, etc.
see how Im always further breaking down a quality.
I started a project with Josep Roca in Barcelona for UHI. He was interested in the difference of air temp vs ground temp. think about that.
wind?
perceptions of people. we talked about this. How do you plan for either the everyday events and resiiliency for the occasional but catastronphic events?
In the end we need to find human-scaled qualities and variable to attack for your design strategies. You will also have urban furniture, groundscape and possibly shelters to think about. umbrellas. etc. Its hard to address the private buildings but we can talk about that.
great!