The presence of trees in urban settlements can have many benefits for the city and the people. However, trees were not always crucial to the urban landscape until recently, when there were calls for green spaces.
Today, urban planners passionately advocate for street trees because of their impact on quality of life and urban management. Incorporating street trees in urban development offers many environmental, economic, and social benefits, though the magnitude and value of trees in urban centers remain unknown to many.
This article looks at several benefits of planting street trees in 2023.
Table of Contents
Community Identity
Today, neighborhoods, buildings, or developments are named after trees. Common examples include Oakridge or Maple Grove, which celebrate the effect of street trees and create a sense of identity. One of the urban planning goals is place-making, where you create a place that engages the community in local ways.
You can foster a place that encourages community engagement and interaction by creating green spaces through state trees. They support his engagement by making it easy for people to relax outside, do errands on foot, and walk through the shade. So, find an artisan tree nursing with mature trees for sale that can provide different tree varieties for a community identity.
Air Quality Improvement
Many cities worldwide have experienced high levels of air pollution emitted from human activities like burning fossil fuels and vehicle exhaust fumes. This air pollution can lead to several health issues, such as cardiovascular disease and asthma, and can reduce the quality of life in the city.
The presence of trees and other greenery in urban areas can positively impact residents’ well-being. Leaves from trees can purify the air from pollutants, which helps reduce exposure to hazardous substances and improve air quality.
They absorb air pollutants and clean the air particles while giving off oxygen, which is crucial to air quality. Street trees can also improve air quality in urban centers by removing atmospheric gasses and converting carbon dioxide into oxygen.
Temperature Regulation
Trees and other plants in the city can help cool the environment and reduce urban heat islands. Trees with a large leaf cover can lower surface and air temperatures through evapotranspiration, which reduces peak summer temperatures.
These street trees will be most efficient when planted strategically, such as around buildings or pavement in parking lots. As a result, this can help reduce their energy use because shade from trees will reduce the demand for air conditioning.
The cooling effect of street trees comes primarily from shading and transpiration, which take heat energy from the environment for evaporation to lower the surrounding temperature. These green spaces in the city provide an opportunity for healthy and active lifestyles.
Beauty
Street trees provide an easy way to beautify almost any street in the city because healthy trees are aesthetically pleasing. They introduce the natural elements to a hardscape-focused area, helping to frame and separate spaces visually. Street trees create variations in color, texture, and height in a visual landscape that will beautify a city.
Trees create green spaces that can positively impact your physical and mental health. For example, when there is green space, people are likely to be physically active such as walking or riding a bicycle, which improves physical health.
Street trees can also help promote mental health, with a tree canopy helping lower the rates of psychological distress. People are less likely to fall into depression when connected to nature.
The beautification of street trees can positively influence the psychological health of city dwellers. For example, trees can create a calming effect and improve people’s mental health while encouraging more people to spend time outside, potentially leading to a more active lifestyle.
Stormwater Management
Besides their immense social and aesthetic value, trees provide quantifiable economic and ecological value to urban centers. Street trees can be essential components of managing stormwater in urban areas. These trees direct precipitation into the ground through the trunk floor and absorb rainfall through the roots, making them an invaluable sustainability asset.
The presence of trees in the streetscape can reduce the amount of stormwater runoff because trees capture and store rainfall in their canopy to reduce stormwater runoff and later release this water back into the atmosphere.
Incorporating trees into urban stormwater management involves planting trees as practical elements in urban biofiltration systems. They also occupy less space than biofiltration systems, which helps with cities’ constraints. Therefore, planting street trees is one of the best ways to manage stormwater in urban centers dominated by concrete.
Increased Property Values
Trees affect property values as they mature, thanks to their beauty, health effects, and flood mitigation. Studies have shown that properties near new tree plantings increase value by 10%. This is because having trees around helps improve physical and mental health by reducing stress. For example, trees near a residential property can reduce energy costs through windbreaks and climate moderation effects.
Habit Creation
Street trees can also help promote regional biodiversity because birds, butterflies, chipmunks, and other local fauna need habitat. Street trees provide a canopy and habitat for many wildlife species. These wildlife species depend on trees for habitat, using them for food, protection, and shelter.
For example, the street trees bear berries that are food for many bird species and also offer nesting sites for animals and birds.
Bottom Line
Street trees can be crucial in promoting health and well-being for urban dwellers. They provide a host of benefits, including environmental, aesthetic, economic, and safety benefits, making them a priority for city planning. Planting urban trees provides a source of beauty and can also impact the environment.
A few well-placed trees can provide several benefits, such as erosion control, flood control, air cleaning, and climate calming. It can also impact the mental and physical health of residents and the beauty of a city.
