Scrubbing the Air with Trees- London's BRIDGE Program

Estimating the removal of atmospheric particulate pollution by the urban tree canopy of London, under current and future environments (Abstract, Matthew Tallis, Gail Taylor, Danielle Sinnett, Peter Freer-Smith, Landscape and Urban Planning, Sep. 1, 2011)

Also discussed here: How Trees Clean the Air in London (ScienceDaily, Oct. 5, 2011)

And here: The BRIDGE programme (sustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism)

From London comes research on the capability of trees in an urban setting to remove PM10 from the air through accumulation of it on their leaves or needles. The article under review also presents a method to estimate how future implications of climate change on air pollution may be mitigated using urban tree growth. Previous research on the link between trees and pollution suggested that some trees when exposed to heavy pollution, particularly near heavy traffic, add volatile organic chemicals to the pollution.



Key Quotes:

“the urban trees of the Greater London Authority (GLA) area remove somewhere between 850 and 2000 tonnes of particulate pollution (PM10) from the air every year.. representing between 0.7% and 1.4% of PM10 from the urban boundary layer”

“the methodology allows the prediction of how much pollution will be removed in the future as the climate and pollution emissions change”

“a mixture of trees, including evergreens such as pines and evergreen oak, would have the greatest benefit to future air quality in terms of PM10 removal”

“Trees which have leaves the whole year are exposed to more pollution and so they take up more”

“the targeting of tree planting in the most polluted areas of the GLA and particularly the use of street trees which have the greatest exposure to PM10, would have the greatest benefit to future air quality”

Related articles

• New study shows how trees clean the air in London (eurekalert.org)
• Traffic Air Pollution and Health Impacts in Urban Italy (pollutionfree.wordpress.com)
• Cities of World Ranked by Exposure to Particulates (pollutionfree.wordpress.com)
• Urban Forests = Cleaner, Cooler Air (dirt.asla.org)
• G-Tree - Help Plant More Trees in Town (iheartpgh.com)
• London's Low Emissions Zone will force vans and minibuses off roads (guardian.co.uk)
• 'Urban ecology' for downtown open spaces (edmortimer.wordpress.com)
• Tree cover in Vancouver drops slightly (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Bosco Verticale: the world's first vertical forest (gizmag.com)