Green infrastructure: microclimate effects to climate adaptation and plant health in an urban warming scenario

Abstract

The benefits brought by vegetation are already known: it provides relevant ecosystem services since it reduces the pollution levels, it has an important role in water management, promotes and protects the biodiversity, balances the temperature and moist the air in the surroundings, besides bringing well-being to people. Green infrastructure, however, consists in interconnected green spaces that offers many ecological, social and economic services which are bound with the effects of vegetation and targeted to infrastructure functions such as water management, food production, air and surface temperature reduction, etc. On the other hand, the ongoing climate changes are followed by the increase of frequency and intensity of the heat waves. In this climate scenario and due to the ecological potential of green infrastructure it becomes an important instrument in adapting cities to the impacts of urban warming. Therefore, this research investigates the quantitative effects of the green infrastructure in the urban microclimate in the current climate situation and under the effects of heat waves. Among the questions that are intended to be answered are: Taking the urban and climate, current and future context of São Paulo, which are the effects of the existing green infrastructure? What would be the effects of this green infrastructure if it gets expanded? How will this green infrastructure respond to the increase of heat waves? To answer these questions, the research will be carried out for the city of Sao Paulo as a case study adopting the computational model Envi-met to simulate the effects of the green infrastructure in the current and future climate situations, as well as the effects of the coming climate in plants and the resultant effects in the microclimate. (AU)