The team from the University of Leicester’s Department of Physics and Astronomy found that trees have a regionally beneficial impact by increasing turbulence and reducing ambient concentrations of road traffic emissions – by seven per cent in Leicester City at pedestrian height on average.
While previous studies have suggested that trees trap pollution by constructing wind flow in street canyons, the new study focuses on the effectiveness of trees at dispersing road traffic emissions on a city scale.
The study was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the University of Leicester and Bluesky International Ltd and is published in the journal Atmospheric Environment.
PhD researcher Antoine Jeanjean from the University of Leicester’s Department of Physics and Astronomy who led the research said: “Predicting the concentration of air pollutants is essential for monitoring air quality in cities. We focused the study on the city centre of Leicester where you have a high density of buildings and traffic.