Why Is It Cooler Around Trees?

#trees #nature #environmentalscience

We instinctively know that if we go under a tree when its hot, we'll feel cooler. But...why? How does this cooling work?

Trees cool the air through two processes: 1) intercepting sunlight and 2) transpiration cooling. In this video, we see how they work.

Timestamps:
00:00 A conversation with Superman
00:47 Trees and their superpowers
01:33 How effective is a tree's cooling? A case study in Bengaluru, India
02:41 The two cooling processes
02:55 The first process: Intercepting sunlight
03:40 Are some trees better at cooling the air?
04:06 The second process: What is transpiration cooling and how does it work?
05:29 Trees are a special case
05:58 Combating the urban heat island

For the full text of this video: https://eco-intelligent.com/2020/05/2...

For the Bengaluru study by Vailshery, Jaganmohan and Nagendra 2013: https://tarjomefa.com/wp-content/uplo...

Other studies you can refer to:
1. Kurn, D., S. Bretz, B. Huang, and H. Akbari. 1994. The Potential for Reducing Urban Air Temperatures and Energy Consumption through Vegetative Cooling (PDF) (31 pp, 1.76MB). ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Pacific Grove, California.


2. Coutts, A.M., White, E.C., Tapper, N.J. et al. Temperature and human thermal comfort effects of street trees across three contrasting street canyon environments. Theor Appl Climatol 124, 55–68 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-14....


3. Moufida and Djamel, 2012. Impact of vegetation on thermal conditions outside, Thermal modeling of urban microclimate, Case study: the street of the republic, Biskra. Energy Procedia 18 (2012) 73 – 84. DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2012.05.019.


4. Pandit and Laband, 2010. Energy savings from tree shade. Ecological Economics 69 (2010) 1324–1329. DOI:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.01.009.