Rural belts around cities can reduce urban temperatures by over 0.5°C
The key to cooling ‘urban heat islands’ may lie in the countryside, according to a new study from scientists at the University of Surrey's Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) and Southeast University (China).
![Tower blocks in a city, viewed from nearby green fields](/sites/default/files/styles/1200xauto/public/2024-07/Untitled%20design%20%2852%29_0.png?itok=qYLu1Tb_)
Using 20 years of data, researchers showed how nearby rural areas could bring a city’s temperature down. The biggest cooling effects happen where the rural ring around a city extends for at least half the city’s diameter.
As warm air rises in a city, it creates a layer of low pressure close to the ground. This sucks cooler air in from surrounding rural areas. This process is greatly shaped by the size of a city, and the land cover of neighbouring rural areas.
![Map of the Beijing region, segmented into urban and rural belts](/sites/default/files/styles/1200xauto/public/2024-07/urban_heat_islands_chart_1.png?itok=p6i3FPVU)
To find out exactly how, scientists compared the areas around 30 Chinese cities between 2000-2020. Satellite data told them how warm the ground was, and how the land was used.
The study is published in the journal Nature Cities.
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