Greater local cooling effects of trees across globally distributed urban green spaces

Urban green spaces (UGS) are an effective mitigation strategy for urban heat islands (UHIs) through their evapotranspiration and shading effects. Yet, the extent to which local UGS cooling effects vary across different background climates, plant characteristics and urban settings across global cities is not well understood. This study analysed 265 local air temperature (TA) measurements from 58 published studies across globally distributed sites to infer the potential influence of background climate, plant and urban variables among different UGS types (trees, grass, green roofs and walls). We show that trees were more effective at reducing local TA, with reductions 2–3 times greater than grass and green roofs and walls. We use a hierarchical linear mixed effects model to reveal that background climate (mean annual temperature) and plant characteristics (specific leaf area vegetation index) had the greatest influence on cooling effects across UGS types, while urban characteristics did not significantly influence the cooling effects of UGS. Notably, trees dominated the overall local cooling effects across global cities, indicating that greater tree growth in mild climates with lower mean annual temperatures has the greatest mitigation potential against UHIs. Our findings provide insights for urban heat mitigation using UGS interventions, particularly trees across cities worldwide with diverse climatic and environmental conditions and highlight the essential role of trees in creating healthy urban living environments for citizens under extreme weather conditions.