By: Journey Cole
In most major cities here in the United States and even across the world air pollution is a major issue. What if we could fix the air pollution issue with the use of urban trees and shrubs. A study that was done in the United States decided to try if adding urban trees would help with air pollution. Why use urban trees and shrubs? Well urban trees and shrubs offer the ability to remove gaseous air pollution but they also can help with airborne particles.In this study to test this hypothesis they actually removed urban trees and shrubs in major cities to see what kind of effect it would have on the air pollution. For this they calculated the air pollution with urban trees and shrubs then they started the process of removing the trees and shrubs. Once the trees and shrubs were removed every hour they took data to see what effect it was having on the air pollution.
| Pollutant | Removal (t) | Value ($ × 106) |
|---|---|---|
| O3 | 305,100 | 2,060 |
| (75,000–390,200) | (506–2635) | |
| PM10 | 214,900 | 969 |
| (84,000–335,800) | (378–1514) | |
| NO2 | 97,800 | 660 |
| (42,800–119,100) | (289–804) | |
| SO2 | 70,900 | 117 |
| (32,200–111,100) | (53–184) | |
| CO | 22,600 | 22 |
| na | Na | |
| Total | 711,300 | 3828 |
| (256,600–978,800) | (1,249–5158) |
This table showed the value of air pollution when the trees were removed. The values were much higher compared to when trees where there. This was very interesting because who knew that urban trees and shrubs made such an impact on helping control air pollution. Having urban trees and shrubs is helping improve our environment sustainability by keeping air pollution down. However there could be a trade off for having too many urban trees and shrubs is that we won't be able to expand but expanding can also prevent us from having and keeping urban trees and shrubs.
References:
Nowak, D., Crane, D., and Stevens, J. 2016. Air pollution removal by urban trees and shrubs in the United States. Science Direct. doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2006.01.007
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