Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ufug

Reprint of: Review on urban tree modelling in CFD simulations: T

Aerodynamic, deposition and thermal effects☆
Riccardo Buccolieria, , Jose-Luis Santiagob, Esther Rivasb, Beatriz Sáanchezb
⁎

a
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, University of Salento, S.P. 6 Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
b
Environment Department, Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT), Spain

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: This paper reviews current parameterizations developed and implemented within Computational Fluid
Aerodynamic Dynamics models for the study of the effects linking vegetation, mainly trees, to urban air quality and thermal
CFD modelling conditions. In the literature, passive mitigation via deposition is parametrized as a volumetric sink term in the
Deposition and thermal effects transport equation of pollutants, while a volumetric source term is used for particle resuspension. The aero-
Trees
dynamics effects are modelled via source and sink terms of momentum, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent
Urban air quality
Vegetation parameterizations
dissipation rate. A volumetric cooling power is finally considered to account for the thermal (transpirational
cooling) effects of vegetation. The most recent applications are also summarized with a focus on the relative
importance of both aerodynamic and deposition effects, together with recent studies evaluating thermal effects.
Those studies have shown that the aerodynamic effects of trees are stronger than the positive effects of de-
position, however locally the pollutant concentration increases or decreases depending on the complex inter-
relation between local factors such as vegetation type and density, meteorological conditions, street geometry,
pollutant characteristics and emission rates. Unlike aerodynamic and deposition effects on pollutant dispersion
which were also found in street far from trees, the thermal effects were in general locally restricted to the close
vicinity of the vegetation and to the street canyon itself. Future requirements in CFD modelling include more in
depth investigation of resuspension and thermal effects, as well as of the VOCs emissions and chemical reactions.
The overall objective of this review is to provide the scientific community with a comprehensive summary on the
current parameterizations of urban vegetation in CFD modelling and constitutes the starting point for the de-
velopment of new parametrizations in CFD as well as in mesoscale models.

1. Background
The urban population in 2015 accounted for 54% (4 billion) of the
total global population and it is expected to increase to 60% (4.9 billion
people) of world population by 2030 (UN-Habitat, 2016). People often
breathe air that does not meet the legislation standards making urban
air quality one of the most important environmental challenges and the
largest environmental health risk in Europe (EEA, 2015). Together with
legislative actions to improve air quality, several scientific works have
been conducted on the potential of urban vegetation as mitigation tool
for air quality improvement, carbon sequestration, micro-climate reg-
ulation, noise reduction, rainwater drainage, airborne pollution mod-
ification (Salmond et al., 2016; Livesley et al., 2016). Psycho-logical
and recreational values were also reported by Haaland and van den
Bosch (2015), who reviewed benefits and challenges associated with
implementing the compact city approach by looking at the effects of
urban densification and compact city development on urban green
space and its planning. Their review underlines that provision of urban
green space in compact city environments and during densification
processes is still a major challenge. Loss of private urban green space
rarely is counterbalanced by provision of more public green space.
Several ways are identified to deal with these challenges, e.g. how loss
of green space quantity can be offset by increased green space quality. A
systematic review of epidemiological studies on health benefits of green
spaces in the living environment has been recently provided by Van den
Berg et al. (2015), who showed a strong evidence for significant posi-
tive associations between the quantity of green space and perceived
mental health and all-cause mortality, and a moderate evidence for an

☆
This article is part of a special issue entitled “Green Infrastructure: Nature Based Solutions for sustainable and resilient cities” published at the journal Urban
Forestry & Urban Greening 37C.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: riccardo.buccolieri@unisalento.it (R. Buccolieri).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2018.07.004

Available online 24 July 2018

1618-8667/ © 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
R. Buccolieri et al.
association with perceived general health.
When dealing with air quality at local scale, urban vegetation,
especially trees, as well as other obstacles and barriers, have been de-
monstrated to influence flow patterns and thus the levels of pollutant
concentrations (see recent reviews by Gallagher et al., 2015; Janhäll,
2015; Grote et al., 2016; Abhijith et al., 2017). Some green infra-
structures as vegetation barriers (e.g. hedges) can potentially improve
urban air quality acting as a barrier between traffic emissions and po-
pulation. In addition, pollutant concentration is mitigated by means of
deposition on these green infrastructures. However, the impact of street
trees is more complex and reduce or increase the concentration de-
pending on the case. Results have highlighted the complexity and the
need for a careful design of vegetation structures to optimize benefits
and reduce the potential for unintended consequences. A systematic
evaluation of the impact of vegetation health, height, species, density,
distance from the road, or leaf area index (ratio of leaf area to ground
area, LAI) on the processes determining pollutant dispersion, deposition
and atmospheric chemistry has been recently provided by Abhijith et al.
(2017), who attempted to review the inter-relations between local
factors such as vegetation type and density, climatic conditions, street
geometry, pollutant characteristics and emission rates. There remains
however considerable controversy as to whether increased vegetation
within urban areas has the potential to provide a positive or negative
contribution to local scale air quality.
In reviewing past works on such topics, it is worth noting that
aerodynamic and deposition effects have been separately investigated
in simple geometries, and only few recent studies have brought them
together to enable an appreciation of their relative influence and how
they interact in real scenarios. Further, very limited studies have re-
cently accounted for resuspension and thermal effects of vegetation on
street temperatures, which, in turn, affect flow pattern and pollutant
distribution.
In this context, this paper focuses on the parametrizations of the
effects of urban vegetation, trees in particular, on flow and pollutant
dispersion in urban areas by reviewing the most recent Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) microscale simulations. The overall objective is
to provide the scientific community with a comprehensive overview on
the current parameterizations of aerodynamic, deposition, resuspension
and thermal effects of trees in CFD models (Fig. 1), as well as insights on
the relative importance of aerodynamic and deposition effects on flow
and pollutant concentration. This review could constitute a systematic
summary for scientists interested in modelling vegetation in their stu-
dies and the starting point for the development of new parametrizations
in CFD models as well as in mesoscale models, which is an open
question for the scientific community.
Fig. 1. Effects of street trees parametrized in CFD models and discussed in the
present review.
57
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64
2. Brief overview of regulating (dis)services of urban street trees
The recent papers by Salmond et al. (2016) and Livesley et al.
(2016) have systematically reviewed works analysing the role of street
vegetation, mainly, trees in provision of regulating (dis)services which
are briefly summarized here:
- microclimate regulation: increasing vegetation in urban areas may
lead to reduced ambient and surface temperatures and increased
evapotranspiration, precipitation interception and reduced runoff.
This is an effective option for mitigating urban heat and adapting to
climate changes caused by regional-scale changes in land use and
global scale changes in atmospheric composition (Gill et al., 2007).
Local reductions in temperature may change the rate of chemical
reactions within the atmosphere, leading to reduced concentrations
of other pollutants such as ozone;
- noise attenuation: little is known about the specific value of street
trees in reducing noise pollution in street canyons, although there is
certain evidence that trees can attenuate traffic noise roadside of
open busy streets (Kalansuriya et al., 2009);
- emission of biogenic volatile compounds: street trees directly emit
gases precursors to the formation of secondary pollutants such as
ozone. Trees emit biogenic volatile organic compounds (bVOCs) as a
reaction to stress in their environment, such as high light intensities
and/or temperatures or low water availability (Seinfeld and Pandis,
2006; Leung et al., 2011). In the presence of NOx and sunlight, VOC
contribute to ozone and particulate formation, which may accu-
mulate locally when ventilation is limited (Calfapietra et al., 2013);
- pollen release: exposure to allergenic pollen produced in the flowers
of trees is associated with a range of health effects. The timing of the
release varies depending on the tree species and environmental
conditions (Cariñanos et al., 2016). Dispersion of tree pollen is de-
pendent on a number of environmental factors, including local
meteorological conditions;
- absorption and deposition of pollutants: street trees have the potential
to regulate air quality by absorbing pollutants and increasing pol-
lutant deposition. Trees increase both the surface roughness
(slowing air flow thus enhancing deposition and absorption pollu-
tant removal processes) and the area of the ground surface that at-
mospheric pollutants come into contact with (acting as biological
filters, enhanced by the properties of their surfaces). Trees absorb
CO2 and gaseous pollutants such as O3, NO2, SO2 primarily by up-
take via leaf stomata or surface, and accumulate airborne particu-
lates (by interception, impaction or sedimentation) more effectively
than other urban surfaces (Escobedo and Nowak, 2008; Janhäll,
2015).
As for air quality at local scale, as already mentioned in the
Introduction, the atmosphere-urban vegetation interaction is complex
and it is needed a careful design of green infrastructure to optimize air
quality improvements and reduce unintended consequences.
3. Brief overview of experimental studies for CFD validation
purposes
Both field and wind tunnel investigations have looked at the effects
of urban vegetation, mainly trees, hedges and other vegetation barriers,
on flow and pollutant concentrations in urban areas. While most field
experiments were performed in real scenarios, wind tunnel experiments
mainly considered idealized cases of isolated trees or located within
simple street canyons. For a comprehensive review see Abhijith et al.
(2017). Here a brief overview of wind tunnel studies which are used for
CFD validation purposes is provided.
In full-scale field tests flow and concentrations are measured under
real atmospheric conditions. They have the advantage that the full
complexity of a real problem is considered even though they are limited
R. Buccolieri et al.
by low spatial resolution and uncontrollable meteorological conditions.
As for vegetation, the main advantage is that the “real” effect has been
considered, but it is not likely to distinguish between aerodynamic,
deposition, resuspension and thermal effects on concentration levels.
This makes field tests not suitable for evaluating the relative con-
tribution of those effects, even though they are important to validate
modelling simulations under real conditions.
In wind tunnel experiments boundary conditions can be chosen
based on the problem and the stationary flow conditions can be
maintained throughout the experiments. However, they also suffer from
the limited set of spatial points. In addition to high costs (i.e. personnel,
instrumentation and others), the set-up is time-consuming and requires
adherence to similarity criteria. As for vegetation, the aerodynamic
effects, which have been proven in field tests to dominate over the
deposition in street canyon, have been investigated without the influ-
ence of deposition, resuspension or thermal effects and this makes wind
tunnel data suitable to validate modelling simulations under controlled
conditions.
Some wind-tunnel experiments were performed in real vegetation
canopies. Brunet et al. (1994) analysed flow profiles in and above a
continuous forest and Raupach et al. (1987) studied the flow at the edge
of a forest performing wind-tunnel experiments in different forest-
clearing configurations. These experiments were used to test and tune
some CFD models (see Section 4.1). Few experiments were conducted
using real trees in wind tunnel to investigate the particle removal ef-
ficiency, confirming that trees can improve air quality by capturing
particles in their foliage (Rasanen et al., 2013; Huang et al., 2013; Lin
and Khlystov, 2012). A systematic evaluation of the aerodynamic ef-
fects of street trees and hedgerows has been performed in other wind
tunnel tests in idealized scenarios. Two different sets of wind tunnel
experiments have been performed at the University of Karlsruhe, La-
boratory of Building- and Environmental Aerodynamics. They are re-
ported here since they have constituted the basis for validation of most
of the CFD modelling studies performed until now.
The first wind tunnel dataset is CODASC (COncentration DAta of
Street Canyons – www.windforschung.de/CODASC.htm) and comprises
pollutant concentrations in street canyons of street-width-to-building-
height ratio W/H = 1 (narrow) and W/H = 2 (broad) and a street-
length-to-building-height ratio of L/H = 10 with avenues of trees of
different tree-stand densities ρts and crown porosities PVol subjected to
various wind directions (Gromke and Ruck, 2012). Trees were not real
but realized using custom-made lattice cages. A filament/fibre-like
synthetic wadding material was used to fill the cells, whose purpose
was to facilitate a uniform distribution of the wadding material
throughout the entire length of the lattice cage. The strongest effects of
avenues of trees on traffic pollutant dispersion were observed for ob-
lique wind directions for which also the largest concentrations at the
canyon walls were found. Thus, the prevailing assumption, which at-
tributes the most harmful dispersion conditions to a perpendicular
wind, does not hold for street canyons with avenues of trees.
The second wind tunnel dataset collects concentration data ob-
tained from the dispersion of gaseous traffic pollutants in an isolated
street canyon of W/H = 2 and L/H = 10 with roadside hedges (Gromke
et al., 2016). Hedgerows were realized as trees in the CODASC case.
Various hedge configurations of differing height, permeability and
longitudinal segmentation (continuous over street length L or dis-
continuous with clearings) were investigated under a perpendicular and
parallel wind. Two arrangements were examined: two eccentric
hedgerows sidewise of the main traffic lanes and one central hedgerow
between the main traffic lanes. This study indicates that continuous
hedgerows can be employed as an effective passive control measure for
air quality in urban street canyons.
Findings obtained in the two wind tunnel experiments described
above are obviously restricted to the aerodynamic effects of gaseous
pollutants because the effect to absorb gases and filter out particle
matter (deposition effect), as well as resuspension and thermal effects,
58
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64
are not considered. For example, for particle matter, the filtering ca-
pacity of vegetation by particle deposition on leaves has an optimum for
a specific permeability, and then findings related to the permeability
that improves air quality cannot be directly transferred to particle
concentrations (Gromke et al., 2016).
4. CFD modelling of urban vegetation
Complementary to experimental studies, flow and pollutant dis-
persion models constitute a relatively economic approach for assessing
urban air quality as well as temporal and spatial variations. They give
insights into the physical and chemical processes that govern the dis-
persion of atmospheric pollutants. At the micro-scale, the CFD tech-
nique, even though computational expensive, is the preferred way of
investigation and the most suitable for studies of various physical flow
and dispersion processes in complex geometries such as cities. CFD
offers some advantages compared to other methods since provide re-
sults of flow features at every point in space simultaneously and do not
suffer from potentially incompatible similarity because simulations can
be conducted at full scale.
In this context, the main objective is to review some of the most
recent CFD modelling studies which have developed and proposed
parameterizations of aerodynamic and deposition (including re-
suspension) effects of urban vegetation, mainly trees, and looked at
their effects on flow and pollutant concentrations in urban areas.
Recent studies which have investigated the modelling of resuspension
and thermal effects of vegetation are also considered. The importance
of thermal effects is twofold. First, the impact of thermal effects on flow
within the urban canopy induces changes in the pollutant distribution.
And second, urban vegetation is widely used to improve thermal
comfort but its effects on air quality are not being jointly investigated
for planning purposes.
4.1. Parameterization of aerodynamic effects
The representation of vegetation in the CFD modelling is crucial to
capture the its effects on wind flow in urban areas. Salim et al. (2015)
investigated the aerodynamic effects of the inclusion of trees with dif-
ferent approaches: a) an implicit approach where trees were included in
the surface parameterization as a roughness length and b) an explicit
approach where trees were considered as porous media and additional
terms are added to the momentum and turbulence equations. Results
showed that only explicit approach could be used to simulate wind flow
in urban areas. In this sense, most of CFD studies have considered ve-
getation as a porous medium, which is modelled by the addition of a
momentum source (sink) term to the standard fluid flow equations. The
source term is composed of two parts: a viscous loss term (Darcy) and
an inertial loss term. Some studies (e.g. Buccolieri et al., 2009, 2011;
Jeanjean et al., 2015, 2016, 2017) used a pressure loss coefficient λ
[m−1] as inertial loss term based on measurements of porous material
in wind tunnel. This coefficient is the ratio between the static pressure
difference between the windward and leeward side of the porous ma-
terial ΔPstatic [Pa] and the dynamic pressure divided by streamwise
depth of the material l [m] (Balczó et al., 2009):
Pstatic
= [m 1]
((1/2) u2) l (1)
This coefficient was applied to simulate wind tunnel experiment of
CODASC database (see previous section). In this approach, turbulence
in the medium is treated as though the porous medium has no effect on
the turbulence generation or dissipation rates.
Other recent CFD works about urban vegetation (e.g. Katul et al.,
2004; Mochida et al., 2008; Santiago et al., 2013; Amorim et al., 2013;
Krayenhoff et al., 2015; Salim et al., 2015; Vranckx et al., 2015;
Gromke and Blocken, 2015a; Santiago et al., 2017a; Moradpour et al.,
2017), following Green (1992) and Liu et al. (1996), parameterized the
R. Buccolieri et al. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64

Table 1
Summary of additional term added to the momentum equations for modelling aerodynamic effects of vegetation and values of sectional drag coefficient used in CFD
simulations.
Additional Term [Pa m−1] Sectional drag coefficient References
Cd

Sui = LADCd Uui 0.1–0.3 Katul et al. (2004) and Vranckx et al. (2015)
0.2 Santiago et al. (2013), (2017a,b), Amorim et al. (2013), Krayenhoff et al. (2015), Salim et al. (2015), Gromke and
Blocken (2015a), Gromke et al. (2015) and Moradpour et al. (2017)
0.25 Jeanjean et al. (2015), (2017)Jeanjean et al., 2015Jeanjean et al. (2015), (2017)
0.3 Liu et al. (1996)

form drag (inertial term) at grid cell scale due to the interactions of
foliage and atmosphere in terms of leaf area density LAD [m2 m−3] of
the vegetation and added a sink of momentum term (Sui ) to each mo-
mentum equations (one for each velocity component, ui) as:
Sui = LADCd Uui [Pa m 1]
where ρ is the air density [kg m−3], ui is the appropriate wind velocity
component [m s−1], U is the wind speed [m s−1] and Cd is the sectional
drag for vegetation (dimensionless). The sectional drag is a constant
related to aerodynamic features of vegetation (see Section 4.3 for values
usually employed). Higher foliage and wind speed induce higher sink of
momentum. Please note that this is the same approach as using the
pressure loss coefficient λ = LADCd.
In addition, the vegetation modifies the mean flow motion into
wake turbulence, but the smaller length scale compared to turbulence
generated by the shear induces a fast dissipation. Then, this process is
usually parametrized as source and sink terms of turbulent kinetic en-
ergy (k) and turbulent dissipation rate (ε) (Amorim et al., 2013;
Santiago et al., 2013; Gromke and Blocken 2015a; Krayenhoff et al.,
2015; Santiago et al., 2017a,b,c; Moradpour et al., 2017; Hong et al.,
2018) as follows:
Sk = LADCd ( p U 3 d Uk ) [kg m 1 s 3]
S = LADCd C 4 ( p kU
3 C5 dU ) [kg m 1 s 4]
where βp is the fraction of mean kinetic energy converted into turbulent
kinetic energy by means of drag and takes a value between 0 and 1; βd is
the dimensionless coefficient for the short-circuiting of the turbulence
cascade; Cε4 and Cε5 are model constants. Several values of these
parameters could be found in the literature. βp = 1 and βd = 4 have
been used by Amorim et al. (2013) and Salim et al. (2015). Green
(1992) defined Cε4 = 1.5 and Cε5 = 1.5 and these values were applied
to urban vegetation modelling by Amorim et al. (2013) and Hong et al.
(2018). Other studies as Santiago et al. (2013), Gromke and Blocken
(2015a), Moradpour et al. (2017) or Santiago et al. (2017a) computed
βd, Cε4 and Cε5 values based on analytical formulation of Sanz (2003).
Santiago et al. (2013) used βp = 1 and computed the other values (di-
mensionless) as follows:
2
2
3 3
= Cµ0.5 + [ ]
d p
k (5)
2
2 Cµ0.5 2 3
C 4 (=C 5) = (C 2 C 1) [ ]
(2) k
6 (6)
where it is assumed Cε4 = Cε5, α = 0.05 (Dalpé and Masson, 2009) and
(Cμ, σk, σε, Cε 1, Cε2) = (0.09, 1, 1.3, 1.44, 1.92). As summary, βp is
usually assumed equal to 1 and the values of βd, Cε4 and Cε5 range
between 4–6.5, 0.9–2 and 0.9–1.8, respectively. However, the optimal
values of these parameters depend on the study case. Mochida et al.
(2008) optimized the values of Cε4 and Cε5 by comparing numerical
results with field measurements. Recently, Krayenhoff et al. (2015)
carried out analysis about the optimisation of Cε5 finding it is case
dependent. This parameter in particular controls the destruction of
dissipation due to the foliage, i.e. a low Cε5 yields a higher dissipation
rate and small turbulent kinetic energy in the canopy (and elsewhere
depending on vertical transport). They used two wind-tunnel data sets:
a) a “continuous forest” configuration (Brunet et al., 1994) and b)
several “forest-clearing” configurations (Raupach et al., 1987). Vertical
profile of mean velocity, turbulent kinetic energy and Reynolds stress
were analysed. In the first case, better results were found for Cε5 = 1
(3)
and in the second one for Cε5 = 1.10.These datasets have been used to
test several other RANS and LES model implementation: the k-l model
(4) of Wilson and Flesch (1999), the k-ε model of Foudhil et al. (2005), and
the LES models of Yang et al. (2006) and Dupont and Brunet (2008)
where a different set of parameters were used by each model. In this
way, a wide range of values for Cε5 (0.6–1.8), as well as for other
parameters involved in the parametrization of the impacts of foliage on
k and ε, were employed in different studies (Green, 1992; Liu et al.,
1996; Foudhil et al., 2005; Mochida et al., 2008; Endalew et al., 2009;
Dalpe and Masson, 2009; Rosenfeld et al., 2010) and there is no evi-
dence that one of these set of parameters works better than other in a
general case.
A summary of the additional terms added to the momentum and
turbulence equations for modelling aerodynamic effects is shown in
Tables 1–3. The tables also report on some of the reference studies
which employed those parameterizations.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that there is a lack of studies

Table 2
Summary of additional terms added to the turbulent kinetic energy equation for modelling aerodynamic effects of vegetation and values of constants used in CFD
simulations.
Additional Term [kg m−1 s−3] Constant values References

0 Buccolieri et al. (2011) and Jeanjean et al. (2015), (2017)Jeanjean et al., 2015Jeanjean et al. (2015), (2017)
Sk = LADCd ( p U3 d Uk )
βp = 1 Green (1992), Liu et al. (1996), Katul et al. (2004), Mochida et al. (2008), Amorim et al. (2013) and Salim et al. (2015)
βd = 4
βp = 1 Hong et al. (2018)
βd = 3
βp = 1 Santiago et al. (2013), (2017a,b) and Krayenhoff et al. (2015) using βd = 6.5; Katul et al. (2004), Gromke and Blocken
(2015a), Gromke et al. (2015) and Moradpour et al. (2017) using βd = 5.1
2
d = Cµ0.5 ()
2 3
p +
3
k

59
R. Buccolieri et al. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64

Table 3
Summary of additional term added to the turbulent dissipation rate equation for modelling aerodynamic effects of vegetation and values of constants used in CFD
simulations.
Additional Term [kg m−1 s−4] Constant values References

0 Buccolieri et al. (2011) and Jeanjean et al. (2015), (2017)Jeanjean et al.,

2015Jeanjean et al. (2015), (2017)
Cε4 = 1.5 Green (1992), Katul et al. (2004), Amorim et al. (2013) and Hong et al. (2018)
S = LADCd C ( 4 pkU
3 C5 dU ) Cε5 = 1.5
Cε4 = 1.5 Liu et al. (1996)
Cε5 = 0.6
Optimized values of Cε4 and Cε5 Mochida et al. (2008)
(Cε4 = 1.5–2; Cε5 = 1.5–1.8)
Cµ0.5
2 Santiago et al. (2013), (2017a,b) and Krayenhoff et al. (2015) using
C4= k
2
6 ()
2 3
(C 2 C 1) Cε4 = Cε5 = 1.26; Katul et al. (2004), Gromke and Blocken (2015a), Gromke et al.
(2015) and Moradpour et al. (2017) using Cε4 = Cε5 = 0.9
Cε4 = Cε5

comparing models with vegetation parameterizations using only the
term of sink of momentum with parameterizations using also turbulent
kinetic energy and dissipation sink/source terms. However, we can
analyse the results from validation exercises carried out by different
CFD models using CODASC wind-tunnel experiments. Gromke et al.
(2008) modelled the vegetation only taking into account the sink of
momentum and applying a RANS model obtained a general good
agreement with concentration measured. Improved results were ob-
tained by Moonen et al. (2013) which use the same sink of momentum
but with a LES model. Santiago et al. (2017a) and Vranckx et al. (2015)
used Eqs. (2)–(4) to model vegetation and they did not obtained much
better fit of experimental concentration. This comparison is limited
because only concentrations are considered, and in these conditions,
there is no evidence to establish the differences between parametriza-
tion performances and more studies would be necessary.
4.2. Parameterizations of deposition and resuspension effects
In addition to the aerodynamic effects, the presence of vegetation
removes pollutants from air by means of deposition on the leaves.
Traditionally, this effect has been parametrized by means of a down-
ward flux as follows:
2 s 1]
Fdepo = Vd (z ref ) C (z ref ) [kg m
where C(zref) is the mean concentration of pollutant at zref [kg m−3] and
Vd(zref) is the deposition velocity at zref [m s−1]. This approach is used
in mesoscale modelling. However, since the resolution at the microscale
is much finer and resolves the vegetation into several computational
cells, urban vegetation has been modelled in CFD simulations as a vo-
lumetric sink term in the transport equation of pollutants. This term is
proportional to LAD, Vd and pollutant concentration C(x, y, z) within
each cell (Vos et al., 2013; Vranckx et al., 2015; Santiago et al.,
2017a,b; Jeanjean et al., 2016, 2017):
Sd = LADVd C (x , y, z ) [kg m 3 s 1]
Please note that Eq. (8) works for homogenous vegetation surfaces.
In real world, the leaves are aligned in different orientation to the wind
flows which is not included in the equation. Which thus can be seen as
an average sink term of the trees on particulate over the whole tree
crown area.
Trees also affect particulate matter in the atmosphere through re-
suspension of particles captured on the plant surface (Nowak et al.,
2013; Chen et al., 2017). Nowak et al. (2013) estimated a PM2.5 re-
suspension from leaves to range between 4.5% and 12% for wind
speeds between 3–9 m/s, respectively. The particulate resuspension is
usually neglected in CFD simulations. Recently, Hong et al. (2018)
parameterized it in CFD simulations as a volumetric source term in the
transport equation of pollutants (Bell and Treshow, 2003):
Sr = LADVr Csink (x , y, z ) [kg m 3 s 1]
(9)
−1
where Vr is the particle resuspension velocity from plant foliage [m s ]
and Csink is the particle concentration deposited on plant foliage
[kg m−3].
A summary of additional terms added to the pollutant dispersion
equation for modelling deposition and resuspension effects of vegeta-
tion and values of deposition velocities used in CFD simulations is
shown in Table 4. The table also reports on some of the reference stu-
dies which employed those parameterizations.
(7)
4.3. Values of Vd, Cd and LAD
The values of deposition velocity Vd depend on the type of vegeta-
tion and pollutant. Many discrepancies between published values are
found (Nowak et al., 2006, 2013, 2018; Janhäll, 2015). Deposition
velocities for vegetated surfaces are usually less than 1 cm s−1 for some
gases to several cm s−1 for particles. For example, Litschke and Kuttler
(2008) in their review of urban particle deposition found that the
average published value for PM10 deposition velocity is around
1 cm s−1, however current in-situ measurements indicate deposition
velocities higher than this value and for PM1 above 10 cm s−1. For
(8)
PM2.5 values of 0.02 cm s−1 (lower end) (Peters and Eiden, 1992),
0.64 cm s−1 (intermediate) (Pugh et al., 2012) and 30 cm s−1 (higher

Table 4
Summary of additional terms added to the pollutant dispersion equation for modelling deposition and resuspension effects of vegetation and values of deposition
velocities used in CFD simulations.
Additional Term [kg m−3 s−1] Deposition velocity Vd[cm s−1] References

Sd = LADVd C (x , y, z ) 0.2–1 (for PM10) Vos et al. (2013)

0.5–5 (for PM10) Vranckx et al. (2015)
0.64 (for PM2.5) Jeanjean et al. (2016) and Jeanjean et al. (2017)
0.25–10 (Sensitivity analysis) Santiago et al. (2017a)
0.5–3 (for NOx) Santiago et al. (2017b)
4.58 (for PM2.5) Hong et al. (2018)
Sr = LADVr Csink (x , y, z ) Resuspension velocity Vr [cm s−1] Concentration deposited on plant Csink [kg m−3] Hong et al. (2018)

60
R. Buccolieri et al.
end) (White and Turner, 1970) are found. In addition, Beckett et al.
(2000), Freer-Smith et al. (2005) and Nowak et al. (2013) mentioned
deposition velocities well above 1 cm s−1 depending on wind speed.
However, these values are rather exceptional and deposition velocities
of 1 cm s−1 or less are more frequent. See Table 4 for a summary of
values of deposition velocity Vd used in CFD simulations.
Recently Santiago et al. (2017a) analysed the differences between
deposition velocities from mesoscale and microscale point of view.
They showed as in urban configurations the deposition velocity from
mesoscale point of view is not similar to microscale deposition velocity
due to the emissions are below the vegetation canopy. Considering a
downward flux of pollutant over a forest, the mesoscale deposition
velocity can be calculated from concentration at a reference height
above the canopy, taking into account an aerodynamic resistance in
addition to microscale deposition velocity. However, in urban config-
urations the scenario is different. The traffic emissions are located
below urban vegetation canopy and the resistance model, traditionally
used at mesoscale for computing deposition velocity, cannot be applied
as in a forest configuration.
As for the leaf drag coefficient Cd, values of for forest range between
0.15 and 0.3 (Li et al., 1985; Massman 1987), however, usually, the
drag coefficient is set 0.2 in CFD modelling of urban vegetation to re-
flect an average value instead of a species specific value (Gromke and
Blocken, 2015a). See Table 1 for a summary of values of leaf drag
coefficients Cd used in CFD simulations.
Values of LAD depend on the kind of vegetation and for deciduous
trees also on the season considered (Di Sabatino et al., 2015). Lalic and
Mihailovic (2004) showed values of distribution of LAD for different
species with an average of approximately to 1 m2 m−3. The values used
in CFD modelling ranges from 0.1 (Santiago et al., 2017a) to 4 m2 m−3
(Vranckx et al., 2015) with an average value in the literature about
1 m2 m−3, and, in general, LAD is considered constant with height. In
CFD modelling, in addition to tree species or season of the year, it
should also be taken into account that it is modelled a zone where the
vegetation is located but the individual trees are not usually considered.
For this reason, the equivalent LAD of this zone should be less than the
LAD for individual trees because in the vegetation zone we have to
consider also the space between trees. A summary of values of LAD used
in CFD simulations is shown in Table 5 which also reports on some of
the reference studies.
4.4. Parameterization of thermal (cooling) effects
Urban vegetation plays an important role on thermal comfort inside
the city, and, with this purpose, it is planning an increase of green in-
frastructure in many of them as a measure to mitigate high outdoor air
temperatures. However, the impact of vegetation on air quality jointly
with its thermal effects has been poorly investigated. In this way, the
CFD technique is useful tool to address this problem, but vegetation
Table 5
Summary of leaf area density (LAD) values used in the CFD simulations.
Leaf Area Density LAD [m2 m−3] References
0.7 (Trees) Vos et al. (2013)
2–5 (Hedges)
1 Amorim et al. (2013)
1 Gromke and Blocken (2015a)
0.55–2 Gromke et al. (2015)
1.6–4 Vranckx et al. (2015)
1.6 Jeanjean et al. (2015), (2016)
Jeanjean et al., 2015Jeanjean
et al. (2015), (2016)
0.1–0.5 Santiago et al. (2017a,b)
1–1.6 Jeanjean et al. (2017)
0.5–2 Moradpour et al. (2017)
2.3 Hong et al. (2018)
61
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64
thermal effects should be appropriate parameterized. On one hand trees
shade buildings and ground and on the other hand they provide tran-
spirational cooling.
In general, thermal CFD simulations are not common in the litera-
ture (Sini et al., 1996; Santiago et al., 2014; Nazarian and Kleissl, 2016)
and few studies including vegetation have been performed (Gromke
et al., 2015; Moradpour et al., 2017). The transpirational cooling of
vegetation has recently been included in thermal CFD simulations to
evaluate the impact on temperature. In addition, Moradpour et al.
(2017) also analysed and the dispersion including photochemistry re-
actions, and how can this modify the flow field and thus the final
concentration levels within the streets. Concerning photochemistry re-
actions, the photostationary steady state defined by three reaction
system of NO, NO2 and O3 is used in the CFD model as in the previous
studies of Baker et al. (2004) and Sanchez et al. (2016).
In order to account for the effect of vegetation on air temperature,
Gromke et al. (2015) employed a volumetric cooling power Pc [W m−3]
per unit volume vegetation as a function of LAD. This method can be
seen as an integral and rather coarse scale approach where the tran-
spirational cooling effect is allocated to a volume containing vegetation,
contrary to a microscale approach where the latent heat flux at leaves
via stomata is considered (Defraeye et al., 2013).
The basic principle is that when air flows through vegetation it gets
cooled by transpiration mainly from the leaf surfaces. The heat H (J)
required to change the temperature of an object can be calculated ac-
cording to (Incropera et al., 2011):
H = cp m T [J] (10)
with cp the specific heat capacity [J K−1 kg−1], m the mass of the object
[Kg] and ΔT the change in temperature [K]. Since the volumetric
cooling power Pc is understood as the transfer of heat per time t [s] and
volume V [m3], Eq. (10) can be rearranged to:
H 1 1 1
= PC = cP m T [W] T = PC V [K]
V V m cp (11)
with Ḣ the heat transfer rate [W] and ṁ the mass flow rate [kg s−1].
The right part of Eq. (11) states that the change in temperature ΔT when
air flows through vegetation is proportional to the cooling power Pc and
the volume of the vegetation V and inversely proportional to the air
mass flow ṁ through the vegetation volume and the specific heat ca-
pacity cp of air. Eq. (11) is based on the simplified assumption that the
heat/mass transfer at the leaf surface is not a function of the flow re-
gime and the corresponding heat transfer coefficient. The same model
has been recently applied by Moradpour et al. (2017). Gromke et al.
(2015) and Moradpour et al. (2017) found for a volumetric cooling
power of 250 W m−3 per unit of LAD the best agreement with experi-
mental air temperature in different validation studies (Table 6).
5. The contribution of street trees effects in idealized and real
scenarios
5.1. Aerodynamic effects vs deposition effects
The modification of airflow within the streets has been widely
studied in idealized and complex scenarios. A large number of micro-
scale simulations were based on configuration of CODASC database (see
Section 3) in order to evaluate modelling results against wind-tunnel
data. Gromke et al. (2008) firstly applied a Reynolds-averaged Navier-
Table 6
Summary of additional term added to energy equation for modelling tran-
spirational cooling of vegetation used in CFD simulations.
Additional Term [W m−3] References
Pc = 250LAD Gromke et al. (2015) and Moradpour et al. (2017)
R. Buccolieri et al.
Stokes (RANS) model with two different turbulent closure: k-ε and
Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) to a two dimensional street canyon with a
line of trees. They found a better prediction of RSM and a dependence
of the performance with turbulent Schmidt number (Sct). Sct relates
diffusivity with turbulent viscosity, increasing the diffusivity as Sct
decreases. The commonly value used range from 0.7 to 0.9 but they
found that in these cases a reduction of Sct to 0.6 or 0.3, increases the
diffusion and induces a better agreement with experiments. In this
sense, Vranckx et al. (2015) observed that the optimum Sct ranges from
0.3 to 1.0 depending on the case, and Santiago et al. (2017a) and
Gromke and Blocken (2015a) found the best agreement for their si-
mulations using Sct = 0.3 and 0.5, respectively. Large Eddy Simulations
(LES) have also carried out to model CODASC scenarios (Salim et al.,
2011; Moonen et al., 2013). Better quantitative agreement with the
experimental data was obtained. However, this improvement in the
performance increases the computational cost at least one order of
magnitude in comparison with RANS models.
There are only few studies which have looked at the relative con-
tribution of the aerodynamic and deposition effects, while there are no
studies also evaluating the relative contribution of resuspension effects.
Overall, those studies indicate that both the reduction of ventilation
induced by street trees and the pollutant removal capacity of vegetation
should be taken into account. Vos et al. (2013) simulated several con-
figurations of urban vegetation founding locally aerodynamic effects of
roadside vegetation on pollutant concentration are much stronger than
the deposition effects. Therefore, they lead to an increase of con-
centration rather than to mitigate air quality problems. They proposed
to avoid dense rows of trees in street canyons with busy traffic and only
used vegetation with a limited impact on flow fields (e.g. isolated trees,
low hedges). Vranckx et al. (2015) modelled annual average con-
centration of elemental carbon (EC) and PM10 in a street canyon taking
into account the presence of trees and their dynamical and deposition
effects on air quality. They also found the effect of the reduction of
ventilation is greater than the positive effect of deposition. However,
the increase of concentration obtained is smaller than in earlier works
as Vos et al. (2013). Annual average concentrations of EC increased
about 8% (range of 1%–13%) by the presence of vegetation, and in the
case of PM10, this increase is even less, about 1.4% varying from 0.2%
to 2.6%. In order to analyse the scenarios where aerodynamic effects
are stronger than deposition (and vice versa), Santiago et al. (2017a)
carried out a series of simulations over an idealized building config-
uration with different vegetation designs (several positions, LADs and
deposition velocities). The height of vegetation and the magnitude of
microscale deposition velocity were observed in this configuration as
the key parameters that determine which of the two effects (deposition
or aerodynamic) prevails. In general, the vegetation above the building
roof height increases the concentration within the street in comparison
with the no vegetation case, even taking into account pollutant de-
position. Then, street trees below building roof height with a high de-
position velocity were proposed to mitigate air quality problems in
streets. In addition, they observed as, in some cases, the spatial average
pollutant concentration at pedestrian level was reduced by the presence
of vegetation but the maximum at this level was increased.
This shows as the analysis of the street trees effects, and in general
of vegetation, on air quality is complex even in simple configurations.
The effects of trees including deposition in several real cities (Leisceter
and London, UK and Pamplona, Spain) were modelled in different
studies (Jeanjean et al., 2016, 2017; Santiago et al., 2017b). These
studies concluded that the aerodynamic effect of trees prevails over
deposition. In Marylebone neighbourhood (London), Jeanjean et al.
(2017) found an increase of 7% for typical meteorological conditions at
the monitoring site, and only an additional reduction via deposition of
2% in PM2.5 concentration. They showed that changes in PM2.5 via
deposition on trees are less important than the aerodynamic effects in
terms of magnitude in this street. However, these results were depen-
dent on local meteorology and for parallel winds in street canyon the
62
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64
effects of vegetation were shown to be beneficial for air quality.
In a neighbourhood of Pamplona (Spain), Santiago et al. (2017b)
analysed the effects of trees with different LAD and the inclusion of new
trees in a street. They observed as the aerodynamic effect on spatial
average pollutant concentration was moderate as LAD changed from
0.1 to 0.5 m2 m−3 (an increase of 5.4%) and this increase was greater
than the reduction due to deposition (2.8% for a deposition velocity of
0.01 m s−1). This was also analysed for a wide range of deposition ve-
locities and, in all cases, the NOx concentration was clearly higher
(1–8%) for LAD = 0.5 m2 m−3. However, local effects could be stronger
(increase and reductions > 100%), similar to what found by Gromke
and Blocken (2015b) for an idealized neighbourhood considering only
aerodynamics effects of trees. In addition, Santiago et al. (2017b)
showed as the inclusion of vegetation in only one street can change the
flow fields and, although the variation of spatial average concentration
in the whole neighbourhood was minor, the local differences of pollu-
tant concentration could be greater than 100%.
5.2. Thermal (cooling) effects
Thermal CFD studies which attempted to implement thermal
(cooling) effects of vegetation were those by Yoshida et al. (2006),
Gromke et al. (2015) and Moradpour et al. (2017). The first analysed
outdoor thermal comfort by coupled simulation of convection and ra-
diation combined with a tree canopy model considering aerodynamic
and thermal effects. The second studied the transpirational cooling ef-
fects in urban street canyons of the J.P. van Muijlwijkstraat in the Dutch
city of Arnhem, in conjunction with aerodynamic effects, with the aim
of assessing their effectiveness to mitigate high outdoor air tempera-
tures in heatwaves. The second also included transport equations for
nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) with the
photochemistry reactions, and analysed the influence of temperature
reduction by trees on the formation of O3 in idealized regular arrays of
buildings.
The case study of Gromke et al. (2015) showed that locally applied
vegetative measures at the street and building scale can contribute to a
reduction of air temperatures in urban street canyons during hot
summer days by transpirational cooling. The intensity of cooling in
terms of air temperature reductions and their spatial extent differed
distinctly between the various vegetative measures. The avenue-trees
provided a marked transpirational cooling within the street canyon
both in terms of air temperature reductions and spatial extent. And the
combination of avenue trees together with facade greening is most
promising. Different from aerodynamic and deposition effects on pol-
lutant dispersion which were also found in street far from trees, the
transpirational cooling effect was in general locally restricted to the
close vicinity of the vegetation and to the street canyon itself. The
modifications in the flow fields would induce in modifications in the
pollutant distributions in the cases where dispersion is considered.
In this sense, Moradpour et al. (2017) studied not only the impact
on temperature but also on NO, NO2 and O3 dispersion considering
photochemistry reactions. In addition to thermal effects, the aero-
dynamic effects are considered modelling vegetation as a momentum
sink. For similar configurations to that used by Gromke and Blocken
(2015b), Moradpour et al. (2017) also found an increase of primary
pollutants concentrations (NO, NO2) as vegetation is considered (note
that photochemistry is not considered by Gromke and Blocken
(2015b)). This fact is due to ventilation efficiency of NO and NO2 is
weakened revealing that the dispersion of nitrogen oxides was influ-
enced by the flow patterns. In the presence of trees, flow is reversed,
and it enhances as leaf area density increases; additionally, vegetation
creates downward and vortex flows which resulted in the accumulation
of the cool air in the lower layer of the canyons. Nevertheless, chemical
reactions were significant for the dispersion of O3 and ventilation ef-
ficiency of O3 improved in LAD = 0.5 and 1.0 cases. Aspect ratios and
leaf area densities were also found to interact with each other;
R. Buccolieri et al.
consequently, the optimum LAD was different for each aspect ratio.
Furthermore, vegetation as compared to tree-free environment, mostly
led to a better chemical equilibrium. This research illustrated an ap-
proach to urban planner in order to design urban vegetation for im-
proving air quality and outdoor thermal environment. An interesting
task for future study is to evaluate various conditions of air temperature
and solar radiation.
Studies above which considered thermal effects of vegetation, in
conjunction with aerodynamic effects, and thus the influence of buoy-
ancy on flow and pollutant dispersion, are limited. It is not possible to
achieve any conclusion on the relative importance of thermal effects on
air quality with respect to aerodynamic and deposition effects.
However, this may represent one of the next step the scientific com-
munity is called to deal with.
6. Discussion and conclusions
6.1. The right tree in the right street
The microscale studies on the role of vegetation, mainly trees, re-
viewed here suggest that urban vegetation cannot be used as a general
mitigation measure of air quality problems. From a local point of view,
the aerodynamic effects of trees are stronger than the positive effects of
deposition and, this, usually, induces a reduction of ventilation in the
streets and an average increase of pollutant concentration. However,
locally the pollutant concentration increases or decreases due to the
presence of trees depending on the studied zone and meteorological
conditions. This paper is in line with previous reviews by Gallagher
et al. (2015), Janhäll (2015) and Abhijith et al. (2017) which provide a
detailed overview on the impacts of green infrastructure on dispersion
in the urban environment suggesting that urban planners need to ac-
count for the impact of trees and vegetation on pollutant dispersion.
One should be aware that any measure needs to be analysed for each
particular case in conjunction with several other factors, i.e. pre-
dominant meteorology, building morphology, types of trees, location of
pollutant sources (e.g. traffic).
In exploring the opportunity of planting trees and vegetation, it also
should be taken in mind that they produce social benefits (e.g. making
urban environment more pleasant), economic benefits (e.g. increasing
property value), health benefits (psycho-logical values), visual and aes-
thetic benefits, micro-climate regulation, storing carbon, reducing energy
use, etc. (Roy et al., 2012; Haaland and van den Bosch, 2015; Van den
Berg et al., 2015). In addition, the vegetation could be used to improve
wind comfort of pedestrian reducing wind speed in zones where high
speeds are usually presented. However, if the vegetation is planted in
urban areas for mitigating traffic-related pollution, benefits should be
counterbalanced with the impact on flow and pollutant dispersion. “The
more trees the better” approach is clearly inadequate in urban areas, while
the most appropriate approach is “the right tree in the right street”. Failure
to account for the functional mechanisms may not achieve the desired
outcomes and may actually increases local pollution concentrations, with
concomitant negative effects on human health. In addition, urban vege-
tation is usually planted to mitigate high outdoor air temperature, but its
impact on air quality is not jointly analysed. In these scenarios, both ve-
getation effects (i.e. on air quality and thermal comfort) should be jointly
investigated in order to obtain improvements on thermal comfort without
a deterioration of air quality of the area.
6.2. Future requirements in experiments and CFD modelling
The developed parameterizations of trees (and urban vegetation in
general) are appropriate for taking into account deposition and the
aerodynamic effects on air quality in urban areas. In fact, validation
studies, mostly performed using wind tunnel experiments, have shown
a good performance of CFD modelling provided that the appropriate
turbulence closures and tuning of some parameters are employed.
63
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64
The analysis of the literature has also pointed out some shortages
and future perspectives:
- resuspension and thermal effects of vegetation have been considered
in few studies and there is the need for more works to gain con-
fidence on the accuracy of their parametrizations in CFD modelling;
- the different orientation of leaves to the wind flow and moving
crown may be taken into consideration in the parameterizations of
aerodynamic and deposition effects;
- emissions of VOCs from vegetation and chemical reactions may be
sink or source of NOx and O3 and thus strongly affect the pollutant
concentrations in urban areas. Such effects are usually neglected in
CFD modelling;
- wind tunnel studies employed for validation purposes refer to
idealized scenarios under specific meteorological and conditions
and for limited combinations of different types of vegetation (e.g.
trees, hedges) and LAD. There is the need for systematic and com-
prehensive filed and wind tunnel experiments of aerodynamic, de-
position, including resuspension, and thermal effects of different
types of trees and vegetation in general. This would allow to better
evaluate which is the dominant effect for the different scenarios and
provide useful suggestion for planning purposes.
Acknowledgements
JLS, ER and BS acknowledge funding from the projects: LIFE+
RESPIRA (LIFE13 ENV/ES/000417) funded by EU and TECNAIRE-CM
(S2013/MAE-2972) funded by The Regional Government of Madrid.
References
Abhijith, K.V., Kumar, P., Gallagher, J., McNabola, A., Baldauf, R., Pilla, F., Broderick, B.,
Di Sabatino, S., Pulvirenti, B., 2017. Air pollution abatement performances of green
infrastructure in open road and built-up street canyon environments—a review.
Atmos. Environ. 162, 71–86.
Amorim, J.H., Rodrigues, V., Tavares, R., Valente, J., Borrego, C., 2013. CFD modelling of
the aerodynamic effect of trees on urban air pollution dispersion. Sci. Total Environ.
461, 541–551.
Baker, J., Walker, H.L., Cai, X., 2004. A study of the dispersion and transport of reactive
pollutants in and above street canyons—a large eddy simulation. Atmos. Environ. 38,
6883–6892.
Balczó, M., Gromke, C., Ruck, B., 2009. Numerical modeling of flow and pollutant dis-
persion in street canyons with tree planting. Meteorol. Z. 18 (2), 197–206.
Beckett, K.P., Freer-Smith, P.H., Taylor, G., 2000. Particulate pollution capture by urban
trees: effect of species and wind speed. Global Change Biol. 6, 995–1103.
Bell, J.N.B., Treshow, M., 2003. Air Pollution and Plant Life, 2nd ed. John Willey & Sons
Ltd., Chichester, UK.
Brunet, Y., Finnigan, J.J., Raupach, M.R., 1994. A wind tunnel study of air flow in waving
wheat: single-point velocity statistics. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 70, 95–132.
Buccolieri, R., Gromke, C., Di Sabatino, S., Ruck, B., 2009. Aerodynamic effects of trees on
pollutant concentration in street canyons. Sci. Total Environ. 407, 5247–5256.
Buccolieri, R., Salim, S.M., Leo, L.S., Di Sabatino, S., Chan, A., Ielpo, P., de Gennaro, G.,
Gromke, C., 2011. Analysis of local scale tree-atmosphere interaction on pollutant
concentration in idealized street canyons and application to a real urban junction.
Atmos. Environ. 45, 1702–1713.
Calfapietra, C., Fares, S., Manes, F., Morani, A., Sgrigna, G., Loreto, F., 2013. Role of
biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) emitted by urban trees on ozone con-
centration in cities: a review. Environ. Pollut. 183, 71–80.
Cariñanos, P., Adinolfi, C., Díaz de la Guardia, C., De Linares, C., Casares-Porcel, M.,
2016. Characterization of allergen emission sources in urban areas. J. Environ. Qual.
45, 244–252.
Chen, L., Liu, C., Zhang, L., Zou, R., Zhang, Z., 2017. Variation in tree species ability to
capture and retain airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Sci. Rep. 7, 3206.
Dalpé, B., Masson, C., 2009. Numerical simulation of wind flow near a forest edge. J.
Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 97, 228–241.
Defraeye, T., Verboven, P., Derome, D., Carmeliet, J., Nicolai, B., 2013. Stomatal tran-
spiration and droplet evaporation on leaf surfaces by a microscale modelling ap-
proach. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 65, 180–191.
Di Sabatino, S., Buccolieri, R., Pappaccogli, G., Leo, L.S., 2015. The effects of trees on
micrometeorology in a real street canyon: consequences for local air quality. Int. J.
Environ. Pollut. 58, 100–111.
Dupont, S., Brunet, Y., 2008. Edge flow and canopy structure: a large-eddy simulation
study. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 126, 51–71.
EEA, European Environment Agency, 2015. Air Quality in Europe—2015 Report. EEA
Report No 5/2015. EEA, Copenhagen, Denmark. Available online at: http://www.
eea.europa.eu//publications/air-quality-in-europe-2015.
Endalew, A.M., Hertog, M., Gebrehiwot, M.G., Baelmans, M., Ramon, H., Nicolai, B.M.,
Verboven, P., 2009. Modelling airflow within model plant canopies using an in-
tegrated approach. Comput. Electron. Agric. 66, 9–24.
R. Buccolieri et al.
Escobedo, F.J., Nowak, D.J., 2008. Spatial heterogeneity and air pollution removal by an
urban forest. Landsc. Urban Plann. 90, 102–110.
Foudhil, H., Brunet, Y., Caltagirone, J.-P., 2005. A k – ε model for atmospheric flow over
heterogeneous landscapes. Environ. Fluid Mech. 5, 247–265.
Freer-Smith, P.H., Beckett, K.P., Taylor, G., 2005. Deposition velocities to Sorbus aria,
Acer campestre, Populus deltoids X trichocarpa ‘Beaupre’, Pinus nigra and X
Cupressocyparis leylandii for coarse, fine and ultra- fine particles in the urban en-
vironment. Environ. Pollut. 133, 157–167.
Gallagher, J., Baldauf, R., Fuller, C.H., Kumar, P., Gill, L.W., McNabola, A., 2015. Passive
methods for improving air quality in the built environment: a review of porous and
solid barriers. Atmos. Environ. 120, 61–70.
Gill, S.E., Handley, J.F., Ennos, A.R., Pauleit, S., 2007. Adapting cities for climate change:
the role of the green infrastructure. Built Environ. 33 (1), 115–133.
Green, S.R., 1992. Modellilng turbulent air flow in stand of widely-spaced trees. Phoenics
J. 5, 294–312.
Gromke, C., Blocken, B., 2015a. Influence of avenue-trees on air quality at the urban
neighborhood scale. Part I: quality assurance studies and turbulent Schmidt number
analysis for RANS CFD simulations. Environ. Pollut. 196, 214–223.
Gromke, C., Blocken, B., 2015b. Influence of avenue-trees on air quality at the urban
neighborhood scale. Part II: Traffic pollutant concentrations at pedestrian level.
Environ. Pollut. 196, 176–184.
Gromke, C., Ruck, B., 2012. Pollutant concentrations in street canyons of different aspect
ratio with avenues of trees for various wind directions. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 144,
41–64.
Gromke, C., Buccolieri, R., Di Sabatino, S., Ruck, B., 2008. Dispersion study in a street
canyon with tree planting by means of wind tunnel and numerical investigations
evaluation of CFD data with experimental data. Atmos. Environ. 42, 8640–8650.
Gromke, C., Blocken, B., Janssen, W., Merema, B., van Hooff, T., Timmermans, H., 2015.
CFD analysis of transpirational cooling by vegetation: case study for specific me-
teorological conditions during a heat wave in Arnhem, Netherlands. Build. Environ.
83, 11–26.
Gromke, C., Jamarkattel, N., Ruck, B., 2016. Influence of roadside hedgerows on air
quality in urban street canyons. Atmos. Environ. 139, 75–86.
Grote, R., Samson, R., Alonso, R., Amorim, J.H., Cariñanos, P., Churkina, G., Fares, S., Le
Thiec, D., Niinemets, Ü., Mikkelsen, T.N., Paoletti, E., Tiwary, A., Calfapietra, C.,
2016. Functional traits of urban trees in relation to their air pollution mitigation
potential: a holistic discussion. Front. Ecol. Environ. 14, 543–550.
Haaland, C., van den Bosch, C.K., 2015. Challenges and strategies for urban green-space
planning in cities undergoing densification: a review. Urban For. Urban Green. 14,
760–771.
Hong, B., Qin, H., Lin, B., 2018. Prediction of wind environment and indoor/outdoor
relationships for PM2.5 in different building-tree grouping patterns. Atmosphere
9, 39.
Huang, C.W., Lin, M.Y., Khlystov, A., Katul, G., 2013. The effects of leaf area density
variation on the particle collection efficiency in the size range of ultrafine particles
(UFP). Environ. Sci. Technol. 47, 11607–11615.
Incropera, F.P., Lavine, A.S., DeWitt, D.P., 2011. Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
Transfer. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated.
Janhäll, S., 2015. Review on urban vegetation and particle air pollution—deposition and
dispersion. Atmos. Environ. 105, 130–137.
Jeanjean, A.P., Hinchliffe, G., McMullan, W.A., Monks, P.S., Leigh, R.J., 2015. A CFD
study on the effectiveness of trees to disperse road traffic emissions at a city scale.
Atmos. Environ. 120, 1–14.
Jeanjean, A.P.R., Monks, P.S., Leigh, R.J., 2016. Modelling the effectiveness of urban
trees and grass on PM2.5 reduction via dispersion and deposition at a city scale.
Atmos. Environ. 147, 1–10.
Jeanjean, A., Buccolieri, R., Eddy, J., Monks, P., Leigh, R., 2017. Air quality affected by
trees in real street canyons: the case of Marylebone neighbourhood in central London.
Urban For. Urban Green. 22, 41–53.
Kalansuriya, C.M., Pannila, A.S., Sonnadara, D.U., 2009. Effect of roadside vegetation on
the reduction of traffic noise levels. In: Proceedings of the Technical Sessions, 25,
1–6. Institute of Physics, Sri Lanka, 2009. . Available online at: http://www.
academia.edu/2273952/Effect_of_roadside_vegetation_on_reduction_of_traffic_noise_
levels.
Katul, G.G., Mahrt, L., Poggi, D., Sanz, C., 2004. One-and two-equation models for canopy
turbulence. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 113, 81–109.
Krayenhoff, E.S., Santiago, J.L., Martilli, A., Christen, A., Oke, T.R., 2015.
Parametrization of drag and turbulence for urban neighbourhoods with trees. Bound.
Layer Meteorol. 156, 157–189.
Lalic, B., Mihailovic, D.T., 2004. An empirical relation describing leaf-area density inside
the forest for environmental modeling. J. Appl. Meteorol. 43, 641–645.
Leung, D.Y.C., Tsui, J.K.Y., Chen, F., Yip, W.K., Vrijmoed, L.L.P., Liu, C.H., 2011. Effects
of urban vegetation on urban air quality. Landsc. Res. 36, 173–188.
Li, Z.J., Miller, D.R., Lin, J.D., 1985. A first-order closure scheme to describe counter-
gradient momentum transport in plant canopies. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 33, 77–83.
Lin, M.-Y., Khlystov, A., 2012. Investigation of ultrafine particle deposition to vegetation
branches in a wind tunnel. Aerosol Sci. Technol. 46, 465–472.
Litschke, T., Kuttler, W., 2008. On the reduction of urban particle concentration by ve-
getation—a review. Meteorol. Z. 17 (3), 229–240.
Liu, J., Chen, J.M., Black, T.A., Novak, M.D., 1996. E – e modelling of turbulent air flow
downwind of a model forest edge. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 77, 21–44.
Livesley, S.J., McPherson, E.G., Calfapietra, C., 2016. The urban forest and ecosystem
services: impacts on urban water, heat, and pollution cycles at the tree, street, and
city scale. J. Environ. Qual. 45, 119–124.
Massman, W., 1987. A comparative study of some mathematical models of the mean wind
structure and aerodynamic drag of plant canopies. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 40,
179–197.
Mochida, A., Tabata, Y., Iwata, T., Yoshino, H., 2008. Examining tree canopy models for
CFD prediction of wind environment at pedestrian level. J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn.
96, 1667–1677.
64
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 37 (2019) 56–64
Moonen, P., Gromke, C., Dorer, V., 2013. Performance assessment of large eddy simu-
lation (LES) for modelling dispersion in an urban street canyon with tree planting.
Atmos. Environ. 75, 66–76.
Moradpour, M., Afshin, H., Farhanieh, B., 2017. A numerical investigation of reactive air
pollutant dispersion in urban street canyon with tree planting. Atmos. Pollut. Res. 8,
253–266.
Nazarian, N., Kleissl, J., 2016. Realistic solar heating in urban areas: air exchange and
street-canyon ventilation. Build. Environ. 95, 75–93.
Nowak, D.J., Crane, D.E., Stevens, J.C., 2006. Air pollution removal by urban trees and
shrubs in the United States. Urban For. Urban Green. 4, 115–123.
Nowak, D.J., Hirabayashi, S., Bodine, A., Hoehn, R., 2013. Modeled pm 2.5 removal by
trees in ten us cities and associated health effects. Environ. Pollut. 178, 395–402.
Nowak, D.J., Hirabayashi, S., Doyle, M., McGovern, M., Pasher, J., 2018. Air pollution
removal by urban forests in Canada and its effect on air quality and human health.
Urban For. Urban Green. 29, 40–48.
Peters, K., Eiden, R., 1992. Modelling the dry deposition velocity of aerosol particles to a
spruce forest. Atmos. Environ. 26, 2555–2564.
Pugh, T.A.M., MacKenzie, A.R., Whyatt, J.D., Hewitt, C.N., 2012. Effectiveness of green
infrastructure for improvement of air quality in urban street canyons. Environ. Sci.
Technol. 46, 7692–7699.
Rasanen, J.V., Holopainen, T., Joutsensaari, J., Ndam, C., Pasanen, P., Rinnan, A., et al.,
2013. Effects of species-specific leaf characteristics and reduced water availability on
fine particle capture efficiency of trees. Environ. Pollut. 183, 64–70.
Raupach, M.R., Bradley, E.F., Ghadiri, H., 1987. A Wind Tunnel Investigation into
Aerodynamic Effect of Forest Clearings on the Nesting of Abbott’s Booby on
Christmas Island Internal Report. CSIRO Centre for Environmental Mechanics,
Canberra 21 pp.
Rosenfeld, M., Marom, G., Bitan, A., 2010. Numerical simulation of the airflow across
trees in a windbreak. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 135, 89–107.
Roy, S., Byrne, J., Pickering, C., 2012. A systematic quantitative review of urban tree
benefits, costs, and assessment methods across cities in different climatic zones.
Urban For. Urban Green. 11, 351–363.
Salim, S.M., Chan, A., Cheah, S.C., 2011. Numerical simulation of atmospheric pollutant
dispersion in tree-lined street canyons: comparison between RANS and LES. J. Build.
Environ. 46, 1735–1746.
Salim, M.H., Schlünzen, K.H., Grawe, D., 2015. Including trees in the numerical simu-
lations of the wind flow in urban areas: should we care? J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn.
144, 84–95.
Salmond, J.A., Tadaki, M., Vardoulakis, S., Arbuthnott, K., Coutts, A., Demuzere, M.,
Dirks, K.N., Heaviside, C., Lim, S., Macintyre, H., McInnes, R.N., Wheeler, B.W.,
2016. Health and climate related ecosystem services provided by street trees in the
urban environment. Environ. Health 15 (1), 36.
Sanchez, B., Santiago, J.-L., Martilli, A., Palacios, M., Kirchner, F., 2016. CFD modeling of
reactive pollutant dispersion in simplified urban configurations with different che-
mical mechanisms. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 16, 12143–12157.
Santiago, J.L., Martin, F., Martilli, A., 2013. A computational fluid dynamic modeling
approach to assess the representativeness of urban monitoring stations. Sci. Total
Environ. 454–455, 61–72.
Santiago, J.L., Krayenhoff, E.S., Martilli, A., 2014. Flow simulations for simplified urban
configurations with microscale distributions of surface thermal forcing. Urban Clim.
9, 115–133.
Santiago, J.L., Martilli, A., Martin, F., 2017a. On dry deposition modelling of atmospheric
pollutants on vegetation at the microscale: application to the impact of street vege-
tation on air quality. Bound. Layer Meteorol. 162, 451–474.
Santiago, J.L., Borge, R., Martin, F., de la Paz, D., Martilli, A., Lumbreras, J., Sanchez, B.,
2017b. Evaluation of a CFD-based approach to estimate pollutant distribution within
a real urban canopy by means of passive samplers. Sci. Total Environ. 576, 46–58.
Santiago, J.L., Rivas, E., Sanchez, B., Buccolieri, R., Martin, F., 2017c. The impact of
planting trees on NOx concentrations: the case of the Plaza De La Cruz neighborhood
in Pamplona (Spain). Atmosphere 8, 131.
Sanz, C., 2003. A note on k −ε modeling of vegetation canopy air-flows. Bound. Layer
Meteorol. 108, 191–197.
Seinfeld, J.H., Pandis, S.N., 2006. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: From Air Pollution
to Climate Change. Wiley-Interscience ISBN-13: 978-0471720188 ISBN-10:
0471720186.
Sini, J.-F., Anquetin, S., Mestayer, P., 1996. Pollutant dispersion and thermal effects in
urban street canyons. Atmos. Environ. 30, 2659–2677.
UN-Habitat, 2016. Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures. World Cities
Report 2016. United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Nairobi,
Kenya. Available online at http://wcr.unhabitat.org/main-report.
Van den Berg, M., Wendel-Vos, W., van Poppel, M., Kemper, H., van Mechelen, W., Maas,
J., 2015. Health benefits of green spaces in the living environment: a systematic
review of epidemiological studies. Urban For. Urban Green. 14, 806–816.
Vos, P.E., Maiheu, B., Vankerkom, J., Janssen, S., 2013. Improving local air quality in
cities: to tree or not to tree? Environ. Pollut. 183, 113–122.
Vranckx, S., Vos, P., Maiheu, B., Janssen, S., 2015. Impact of trees on pollutant dispersion
in street canyons: a numerical study of the annual average effects in Antwerp,
Belgium. Sci. Total Environ. 532, 474–483.
White, E.J., Turner, F., 1970. A method of estimating income of nutrients in a catch of
airborne particles by a woodland canopy. J. Appl. Ecol. 7, 441–461.
Wilson, J.D., Flesch, T.K., 1999. Wind and remnant tree sway in forest cutblocks. III. A
windflow model to diagnose spatial variation. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 93, 259–282.
Yang, B., Raupach, M., Shaw, R.H., Paw, U.K.T., Morse, A.P., 2006. Large eddy simulation
of turbulent flow across a forest edge Part I: flow statistics. Bound. Layer Meteorol.
120, 377–412.
Yoshida, S., Ooka, R., Mochida, A., Murakami, S., Tominaga, Y., 2006. Development of
three dimensional plant canopy model for numerical simulation of outdoor thermal
environment. In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Urban Climate
(ICUC 6). Goteborg, Sweden, June 12–16.