Effect of tree canopy cover on air pollution-related mortality in European cities: an integrated approach

作者：Pierre Sicard, Ionuț-Silviu Pascu, Ștefan Petrea, Ștefan Leca, Alessandra De Marco, Elena Paoletti, Evgenios Agathokleous, Vicent Calatayud · 发表于：The Lancet Planetary Health · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/s2542-5196(25)00112-3 · 被引用次数：22 · 研究领域：Urban Green Space and Health、Plant responses to elevated CO2、Urban Heat Island Mitigation

Background In urban areas, fine particles (PM 2·5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), and tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) are the most harmful air pollutants for human health. Urban greening is seen as a strategy for co-benefitting air quality, climate, and citizens' wellbeing. We aimed to estimate the changes in tree cover, the mortality burden attributable to air pollution, and the mortality that could be potentially prevented by increasing tree coverage in European cities. Methods We did a quantitative health impact assessment to estimate the effect of mean tree cover on air pollutants levels and PM 2·5 -related, NO 2 -related, and O 3 -related mortality (all ages) in 744 European urban centres, with more than 50 000 inhabitants, across 36 countries. We did all analyses at the city-wide scale. Findings Between 2000 and 2019, the mean tree coverage increased by 0·76 percentage points, with 73·5% of the urban centres showing greener coverage, whereas mortality burdens declined by on average 3·39% (SD 0·28) in all urban centres. In 2019, about 25% of the total population lived in areas with a mean tree canopy coverage over 30%. Compared with the current tree cover, each five percentage point increase in tree canopy cover could facilitate an air quality improvement of 2·8% for annual PM 2·5 mean concentrations, 1·4% for annual NO 2 mean concentrations, and 1·2% for summertime mean of the daily maximum 8-h O 3 concentrations. Interpretation We estimated that each five percentage point incre...