Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213

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Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ufug

Quantification of thermal stress abatement by trees, its dependence on

morphology and wind: A case study at Patna, Bihar, India
Venkatesh Raman a, *, Manoj Kumar a, Anjali Sharma a, Dominik Froehlich d,
Andreas Matzarakis b, c
a
Department of Architecture, National Institute of Technology Patna, Ashok Rajpath, Patna, Bihar, 800005, India
b
Meteorological Institute, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, 79085 Freiburg, Germany
c
Research Centre, Human Bio-meteorology, Deutscher Wetterdienst, 79104, Freiburg, Germany
d
Private Researcher, Freiburg, Germany

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Wendy Chen This study attempts to quantify thermal-stress abatement by tress, using the example of Bihar Museum at Patna,
Bihar, India, where around 200 trees, though known as great solar heat attenuators, were felled to accommodate
Keywords: the newly-built museum. The study, with a focus on sensitivity analysis, compares two tree scenarios, at two
Mean radiant temperature (TMRT) input wind-speeds and seeks to identify the individual/synergetic effects of physical attributes of tree-
Physiological equivalent temperature (PET)
morphology, background wind, etc., on cooling by trees, through simulations, using freely available model
SkyHelios Pro
SkyHelios Pro. SkyHelios allows for the spatial/temporal analysis of the thermal changes at a point of time and
Thermal stress
Urban morphology space. The ‘area-mean’ rise in mean radiant temperature (TMRT) is found 1.9 ◦ C and in physiological equivalent
temperature (PET) 1.1 ◦ C, by 28 % trees-removal (area-wise), at noon at 0.5 m/s input wind-speed. TMRT
reduction by trees is found directly related to their canopy-size/cluster-density, and inversely to background
wind-speed. PET reduction is directly related to the canopy-size/ cluster-density at lower wind-speeds and
inversely at higher. The study is limited to daytime (noon) hours. Based on the detailed outputs from SkyHelios
simulations, recommendations for passive cooling of urban outdoors in terms of tree size, layout-density, built-up
morphology, and background wind-speed are formulated.

1. Introduction
Deterioration in the urban outdoor thermal environment, especially
in tropical/ sub- tropical areas (Vailshery et al., 2013) is adversely
affecting human life, putting additional stress on the urban ecosystem
and energy use. It can be tackled by measures like modifications of
building- morphology (Amirtham et al., 2015), materials, and inclusion
of urban green (Eniolu Morakinyo and Lam, 2016). Local thermal
bio-climate depends largely upon urban green (L. Shashua-Bar et al.,
2011), and ground coverage, shading (Asaeda and Ca, 2000; Dimoudi
and Nikolopoulou, 2003; Lin et al., 2010; Matzarakis and Rutz, 2010)
and the presence of vegetable masses are crucial effectors of the sur­
rounding microclimate (Masmoudi and Mazouz, 2004). However, trees
are more effective climate moderators than the other green elements
(El-Bardisy et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2016). Shading by trees, considering
human psychological/ aesthetic aspects, “has an elevated significance”
in mitigating solar heat outdoors (Lee and Mayer, 2013; H. Mayer et al.,
2009), especially in tropical/ sub-tropical urban areas (Asaeda and Ca,
2000). Trees, by shortwave radiation (SWR) attenuation through
shading, can reduce mean radiant temperature (TMRT) (Potchter et al.,
2010), one of the key determinants of thermal sensation (Lee and Mayer,
2013; Matzarakis et al., 2010; C. L. Tan et al., 2013), and can moderate
the air and ground surface temperature (GST) in the shaded areas
(Armson et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2016) thus reducing heat storage and
convection (Matzarakis et al., 2010). However, apart from the positive
effects, trees also cast some negative effects on human thermal comfort
in tropical/ sub-tropical areas (Brown and Gillespie, 1995; Park et al.,
2012) by the emission of longwave radiations (LWR) (C. L. Tan et al.,
2013; Zheng et al., 2018) and by airflow impedance in street canyons
and open courts, regardless of its type (El-Bardisy et al., 2016; Park et al.,
2012). But the overall effect of trees remains highly positive as the
negative effects are overweighed by the solar attenuation through
shading (Zheng et al., 2018). Thus trees are gaining importance in urban
planning, for improved human thermal comfort in urban areas by

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jrdarchitects@gmail.com (V. Raman).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127213
Received 25 November 2020; Received in revised form 9 April 2021; Accepted 3 June 2021
Available online 5 June 2021
1618-8667/© 2021 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
V. Raman et al.
Fig. 1. (a) Stages of this study (b) Topographic elevation map of Patna showing elvations as per the color index basemap source: topographic-map.com.
passive mitigation of thermal stress intensity (Potchter et al., 2010).
The positive and negative effects of trees, depending on their arbo­
real and physical characteristics (Berry et al., 2013; El-Bardisy et al.,
2016), need to be understood for designing landscapes with the best
cooling effects. Whereas ample studies relate to the arboreal properties
(e.g. leaf area density/index, leaf-shape/size/ reflectance, transpiration,
leaf surface temperature, root distribution, etc.) and layout patterns
(Abdi et al., 2020; Atwa et al., 2020; Li et al., 2018; Zheng et al., 2018),
limited information is available on the physical/ geometrical properties
of trees affecting human thermal comfort (L. Kong et al., 2017), espe­
cially in sub- tropical areas (Zheng et al., 2018). Further, the thermal
effect of trees in the streets located in hot-humid environments is re­
ported to depend relatively more on their canopy coverage and planting
density than “on other species characteristics” (Limor Shashua-Bar et al.,
2009); and the same needs to be explored further.
On the other hand, in an era of global warming when the trees (for
their heat abatement and other environment-friendly properties) need
to be preserved and spread further, are being continuously replaced by
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Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213
buildings in course of the development of modern cities, especially in the
developing countries (F. Kong et al., 2016). Recently, at Patna, the
capital city of Bihar, India, around 200 trees have been felled to
accommodate the newly built ‘Bihar Museum’ building. The
de-vegetation is apprehended to have substantially increased the ther­
mal stress in the area. This needs a quantitative assessment to provide
the decision-makers, knowledge to help improve thermal comfort in
urban outdoors by greening.
Moreover, a substantial reason for a lack of studies relating to the
quantification of street trees impact on outdoor thermal comfort, in
terms of “thermo-physiologically significant indices” (Helmut Mayer
and Matzarakis, 2006), specifically in India (Indraganti, 2010; Jain and
Pathak, 2019), is the difficulties in determining the atmospheric pro­
cesses and the required parameters (Matzarakis et al., 2010) at the street
level of built-up urban areas which represent one of the most complex
challenges in urban environments (Hwang et al., 2011). The application
of microclimatic models, for analyzing urban environments, can prove
to be more promising (Hwang et al., 2011) by providing a more
V. Raman et al. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213

Fig. 2. Aerial (Google Earth imagery) and street views of the Bihar Museum (BM) site: (a) The site along with the vicinity, its location in Patna Urban Agglomeration
(PUA) and a map of India showing Patna, (b) ‘2010 scenario’ with all the existing trees, buildings in the vicinity (c) 2019 scenario with remaining trees, buildings in
the vicinity and constructed BM building, and, CL1- CL4 - street views of the site corresponding to the camera locations/ directions shown (by arrowheads) in
figure (c).

comprehensive assessment of the processes and parameters in the most
economical way possible, as against the piecemeal analysis usually
facilitated by empirical methods, which may lead to incorrect conclu­
sions (Limor Shashua-Bar et al., 2009). In this context, SkyHelios Pro, a
very fast model, can be a crucial tool in analyzing the different micro­
climatic, diurnal, and morphological variations with a high resolution,
within a very short time, and with most of the output parameters that
affect human thermal comfort.
The present study aims to quantify the net thermal changes (only)
due to the removal of trees in the area, using freely available model
SkyHelios, in terms of the most critical variable mean radiant temper­
ature (TMRT) (Kántor and Unger, 2011), and physiological equivalent
temperature (PET) (Höppe, 1999). The study is comparative, more
focussed on sensitivity analysis, attempts to simultaneously identify the
individual and synergetic effects of more effective physical attributes of
trees (e.g., canopy-coverage, planting-density, tree-size, entwined
buildings, etc.), and background wind-speed on the cooling potential of
trees. However, thermal changes in the area, due to construction of the
museum building, and dependence of cooling potential of trees, on their
arboreal properties/ species, are excluded from the scope of this study.
This is done by a methodology, also adopted in the past by Limor Sha­
shua-Bar et al. (2009), i.e. by comparing the model simulation outputs of
two tree scenarios– one, containing all the trees (before felling), and the
other, containing a lesser number of trees (after felling, but excluding
the museum building from the scenario), considering (hypothetically)
the existence of both at the same given time/ date, at same selected
parcel of the site. Of the two tree-scenarios compared, ‘all-the-trees’
scenario existed in the remote past (around 2010) whereas

3
V. Raman et al.
Fig. 3. SkyHelios generated models showing all the four simulated sub-scenarios, i.e. AOI-1 and 2 (refer Section 2.4) each in (a) “2010 scenario” (all-trees) and (b)
“2019-clip scenario” (Hypothetical, excluding BM Building), and a panoramic view looking north of ‘As Existing’ scenario’ i.e. (c) “2019-bm scenario”.
‘lesser-trees-without-museum-building’ is a hypothetical scenario, thus,
both are ‘inaccessible’ for empirical measurements. Model simulations,
particularly useful for such situations, provided to “overcome the
operable limitations of field measurements” and get a “holistic spatial”
scenario (Sun et al., 2017) of the interest domains, like in many past
studies (Eniolu Morakinyo and Lam, 2016; Fröhlich and Matzarakis,
2013; Perini and Magliocco, 2014). Thus, the study also shows possi­
bilities against temporal and situational limitations of physical access to
the interest domains. The possible model run errors are supposed to be
neutralised due to the comparative nature of the study.
Thus, the main objective of this study is to quantify the thermal
changes taking place at the Bihar Museum site due to the removal of
trees, spatially, at the site in the horizontal direction at a given point of
time/ date, in terms of, i) Cumulative mean changes, and, ii) Spatial
distribution of changes caused by different landscape formations at the
site, thus identifying the individual and synergetic effects of the various
drivers of thermal changes, e.g. physical properties of trees,
morphology, and the background wind speed, etc., on the cooling po­
tential of trees.
2. Methodology
The whole study mainly consists of the following stages:
A Study-site selection/ inspection
B Literature review: on the thermal behavior of trees, its investigation
methods, etc.
C Data collection and processing, consisting of i) Morphological data
collection, ii) Vectorization of morphological data, iii) Meteorolog­
ical data collection, and iv) Simulation input date/ time selection
D Simulations design, comprising of a total of eight simulations
incorporating four morphological sub-variants at two input wind
speeds each
E Simulations run in SkyHelios Pro
F Comparison of outputs and rasterization of compared results using
ArcMap software, and,
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Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213
G Interpretation of results; conclusions and recommendations for pas­
sive cooling of outdoors.
A flow-chart (Fig. 1a) briefly elucidates the processes followed in the
study.
The topography of Patna: Patna (25◦ 34’-25◦ 39’ N, 85◦ 02’-85◦ 14’ E,
57 m AMSL) is situated on the southern bank of river Ganges, and close
to the confluence of two major rivers with the Ganges, i.e. Gandak on the
north, and Sone on the west including a relatively thinner Punpun on the
south (Fig. 1b). The Ganges, abutting the city on the north and east,
brings forth a relatively cooled summer breeze from N/ N-E. Patna has
saucer shape topography (Thakur and Tripathi, 2021) consisting of a
fertile flat expanse of (alluvial) land, void of hills and forests. According
to Köppen climate classification (Cwa), Patna has a Humid Subtropical
climate. It has dry summers (RH 30–40 %) with temperatures soaring up
to 44 ◦ C (April to June) and humid monsoons (RH 75–85 %, July to
October). Insolation may go up to more than 900 W/m2 during peak
summers. The wind is westerly/ south-westerly, 0–4 m/s (mostly calm)
from November to February, and mostly easterly, 2–6 m/s (occasionally
up to 12 m/s) during summers/ monsoon, (India Meteorological
Department, 2019). The city falls in the risk zone of floods and cyclones
(Tripathi and Singh, 2021). The city observed the highest temperature
during the last decade on Saturday, 15th of June 2019 (45.8 ◦ C) and was
designated the hottest place in India, on Sunday, the 16th of June 2019
(P. Tripathi, 2019).
2.1. The morphology – two variants for the study
The study site: Patna Urban Agglomeration has a population base of
more than 2 million (Chandramauli, 2011). The site of Bihar Museum is
located in the heart of the city at a nodal Bailey Road–Boring Road
junction and is circumscribed on the three sides by major roads (Fig. 2a).
The site had been plush with greenery till 2011 (Fig. 2b), however, 200
trees of different sizes have been felled to accommodate the museum
building (Fig. 2c). Thus, the morphologies concerning this study con­
sisted mainly of two ‘tree-scenarios’ – one containing all the trees (past)
and the other containing lesser trees (present) including the
V. Raman et al.
museum building but for our comparisons, we have considered the
present scenario with lesser number of trees only, excluding the museum
building from the scenario, to identify the net cooling provided by the
(felled) trees, as detailed below:
1 The past scenario (or “2010 scenario” - as named herein) refers to the
situation before the start of construction of the Bihar Museum (BM)
building containing all the trees, some smaller structures within the
site, and the neighboring buildings. The imagery is extracted from
Google historical imagery dated 15.06.2010 (Fig. 2b).
2 The present scenario is explained by considering two morphological
sub-variants –
A. “2019-bm scenario” (as named herein) refers to the present existing
situation containing the BM building, the remaining lesser number of
trees (after felling) at the site, and the surrounding buildings as existing
today. This is the ‘real present’ scenario (Figs. 2c, 3 c).
B. “2019-clip scenario” (as named herein) is “2010 scenario” devoid of
the (removed) trees (compare Fig. 3a-b), a hypothetical scenario adop­
ted in simulations to identify the net thermal effect of only the removal
of the trees.
Simulations have been run for, and the results compared between the
scenarios 1) “2010 scenario” (Figs. 3a) and 2 B) “2019-clip scenario”
(Fig. 3b). However, scenario 2A containing museum building has been
shown here (Fig. 3c), only for an understanding of the real present, as
existing today.
2.2. Applied model
Simulations for the spatial analysis were conducted in Sky Helios Pro
(Fröhlich and Matzarakis, 2018) and results were analyzed in ArcMap
10.4.1. The Sky Helios Pro model, an extended version of SkyHelios
(Matzarakis and Matuschek, 2010), is a diagnostic micro-scale model for
the calculation of sky view factor (SVF), sunshine duration, global ra­
diation, wind speed, wind direction, mean radiant temperature (TMRT -
considering reflections), as well as the three thermal indices, perceived
temperature (PT), universal thermal climate index (UTCI), and physio­
logical equivalent temperature (PET) spatially and temporally resolved
with low computation time in complex environments (Fröhlich, 2016;
Fröhlich and Matzarakis, 2018). The spatial input data for Sky Helios
can consist of many different file formats supported by the Geospatial
Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) and their combination. All function­
alities that involve wind information, do require vector files only, e.g.
polygon shapefiles and point shapefiles for buildings and trees (Fröhlich
and Matzarakis, 2018).
2.3. Input data selection
A 3 -hourly synoptic dataset derived from Ogimet (Ogimet entrance,
2019) was used in this analysis. Additionally, global radiation and
cloudiness data for Patna were obtained from the India Meteorological
Department (IMD) Pune (India Meteorological Department, 2019). All
data correspond to the meteorological station at Patna, located around 3
km west of the BM site. 12 P.M. (noon), 15th of June 2019 was the
hottest time/ day of the decade on record (P. Tripathi, 2019), whereas
PET reduction by trees has been reported to be maximum between
12:00− 13:00 h in a study in subtropical China (Zheng et al., 2018).
Hence, all the simulations correspond to noon, 15th of June 2019.
The study aims to quantify the mean cooling that would have been
provided by the removed trees, at noon, 15th of June 2019, if they were
(not felled, but) present, at that time/ date, at their original place.
Simulation outputs of two tree-scenarios have been compared (one, with
‘all trees’, and the other with a lesser number of trees: Refer section 2.1),
by considering an existence (hypothetical) of the two, in the same
selected boundaries of the site (defined by AOI’s, section 2.4), at the
same time (noon, 15th of June 2019), and incorporating the same
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Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213
Table 1
Synoptic data from Ogimet for noon on the 15th of June`2019 at Patna.
Meteorological data on 15th of June 2019 at noon.
Time Ta v wd RH G cc
Noon. 45.4 4.0 0.5* 360◦ 15.5 915.0 00
0.5* m/s arbitrary wind speed presumed for additional simulation, Ta – Air
temperature (◦ C), v – wind speed (m/s), wd - Wind direction (360◦ -north), RH-
Relative Humidity (%), G - Global Radiation (W/m2), cc – Cloud cover (Octas).
background meteorological data, as prevailing on that time/ date
(Table 1).
This method is advocated/ adopted by Shashua-Bar et al. (2009);
Fröhlich and Matzarakis (2013), etc., to achieve more ‘comprehensive’
and ‘correct’ results as against the empirical methods. The use of the
same background weather data and same site-boundary for the two
compared tree scenarios, to achieve valid comparison results (in terms of
mean thermal changes manifested by changes in trees- scenarios), is
necessitated by the fact that the cooling potential of trees substantially
depends on the background weather conditions, as reported in many
past studies, e.g., (de Abreu-Harbich et al., 2015; Dimoudi and Nikolo­
poulou, 2003; Perini and Magliocco, 2014; L Shashua-Bar and Hoffman,
2000), whereas, comparisons involving tree-scenarios at different loca­
tions, usually facilitated by empirical methods, are suspected to be
“misleading” (Limor Shashua-Bar et al., 2009) due to possible changes in
surrounding morphological features that also affect the cooling potential
of trees.
Background wind speed (i.e. wind speed at 10 m AGL) corresponding
to this date is 4.0 m/s however simulations were conducted for an
additional arbitrary wind-speed 0.5 m/s also, to compare the effect of
background wind-speed on cooling provided by trees, in the given
morphological formations. Vector inputs consisting of polygon shape­
files for buildings [Attributes: height (old buildings within site 2.5–3.0
m, neighboring buildings up to 27 m), transparency (0.1), albedo (0.3),
emissivity (0.8)], and point shapefiles for trees [Attributes: tree height
(5.0–26.0 m), trunk length (3.0–4.5 m), trunk diameter (0.2− 0.9 m),
crown radius (3.0–14.0 m), transparency (0.9), albedo (0.2), emissivity
(0.98) and tree type (leafy)] were applied for the simulations. Building
data of Bihar Museum was received from the Building Construction
Department Govt. of Bihar while that for the surrounding buildings and
existing trees were collected through site measurements, visual survey,
Google imagery, etc. The ground, in the two simulated scenarios, is
considered uniform with the same properties, i.e., LW emission coeffi­
cient of 0.94 and SW albedo of 0.2. Any morphological element other
than trees, non-identical in the two compared scenarios (e.g. pavements,
museum building, etc., affecting the changes in the thermal environ­
ment) have been excluded from the simulations to enable assessment of
the net mean thermal changes only due to the removal of trees. Google
Earth imagery was used to create shapefiles of adjacent buildings and
trees. Shapefiles for “2010 scenario” were derived from Google histori­
cal imagery dated 15.06.2010. All spatial input files were projected in
metric projection system WGS 84, UTM zone 45 N (SRID no 32,645).
Spatial simulations have been conducted with 1m × 1m grids with a
camera height of 1.1 m for all.
2.4. Areas of interest (AOI‘s)
Bihar Museum site consists of approximately 350m × 125m. Two
areas of interest (or, AOI’s) were judiciously selected from the site
(Fig. 4) with different tree-building configurations, to optimize the
simulation time with a moderate resolution, and to enable comparison/
identification of the role of tree/ canopy-size, layout density, and of the
entwined buildings, on cooling potential of trees. Each AOI, incidentally
different in size, contained important nodal locations with high human
frequentation in the area. One, named as AOI-1 measuring 160m ×
160m (thus 25,600 grids each 1m × 1m) contained the entrance to the
V. Raman et al.
Fig. 4. Location of areas of interest AOI-1 and AOI-2 at the Bihar Museum site, showing the buildings in the vicinity including BCD, Bailey Road and, the existing and
removed trees.
Bihar Museum, and the other, named as AOI-2, measuring 146m × 92m
(thus 13,432 grids each 1m × 1m), contained the entrance to Building
Construction Department (BCD), Government of Bihar. The area (crown-
top view) of felled trees at AOI-1 is 7165.0 m2 (i.e. 28 % of the area of
AOI-1), whereas, at AOI-2, it is 2685.0 m2 (i.e. 20 % of the area of AOI-
2). Total 8 simulations have been run incorporating the two AOI’s, each
at the two tree scenarios, “2010 scenario” and “2019-clip scenario”, and
each at input wind–speed 4.0 m/s and 0.5 m/s, to identify the effect of
changes in morphology and background wind-speed.
2.5. Quantities analyzed
Among the various parameters affecting thermal comfort outdoors (i.
e. PET), wind and TMRT are influenced the most by urban morphology
(Taleghani et al., 2015), whereas, air temperature (Ta), reported “hav­
ing a distinctly lower significance” in hot sunny daytime studies with
higher insolation conditions, is least sensitive to morphology (Ali-Tou­
dert et al., 2005; Lee and Mayer, 2013). Humidity, due to advective
mixing, is also morphologically ‘inert’, hence our study, being limited to
daytime only and focussing on thermal implications of morphology,
examines TMRT and PET.
2.5.1. Mean radiant temperature (TMRT)
Mean radiant temperature is the key factor affecting human thermal
sensation and comfort under sunny conditions and an essential param­
eter in the assessment of the PET index which is used in this study. TMRT
can’t be measured directly. It can be calculated from several measured
parameters (Kántor and Unger, 2011), or it can be calculated by
small-scale modeling (Matzarakis et al., 2007, [Matzarakis et al., 2010]
2010). Depending on the radiation fluxes it can be determined by
various methods, equations, but all of them bear uncertainties (Chen
et al., 2014). The most convenient way, thus, is through numerical
modeling (Fröhlich, 2016).
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Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213
2.5.2. Physiological equivalent temperature (PET)
PET enables people to compare the integral effects of complex
thermal conditions outside with their experience indoors (Höppe, 1999;
H. Mayer and Höppe, 1987). It takes into account all the four environ­
mental parameters influencing thermal comfort, e.g. air temperature,
wind speed, humidity, and mean radiant temperature. PET has been the
profusely used index for outdoor thermal assessments (Cohen et al.,
2012; Lin et al., 2010) and has been adopted by the German guidelines
for urban and regional planners (VDI, 1998). Hence this index was
adopted for this study.
3. Results
Simulation results consisted of many thermal sensation parameters.
The changes in the two most important of these i.e. TMRT and PET are
discussed here in detail. Spatial distributions of TMRT and PET for the
two scenarios have been compared by deducting the grid-wise values of
the “2010 scenario” from the corresponding grid values of the “2019-clip
scenario”. Henceforth, the prefix ‘Δ’ before a parameter (e.g. ΔTMRT,
ΔPET, ΔTs, etc.) will always represent the changes in the parameter
corresponding to “2019-clip scenario minus 2010 scenario”.
3.1. Cumulative changes in TMRT and PET – the effect of wind speed and
morphology
Absolute mean TMRT’s and PET’s in the 2010 scenario were found in
the range of 67.9–72.2 ◦ C and 57.8–62.0 ◦ C respectively, at the two
AOI’s, at different input wind speeds, whereas the same in 2019clip
scenario were found higher due to the felling of trees, i.e., ranging from
69.1 to 74.1 ◦ C and 58.3–63.0 ◦ C. Thus, the felling of trees has been
found to cause an overall rise in the mean TMRT in the range of 0.9–1.9 ◦ C
and PET of 0.3–1.1 ◦ C in the two AOI’s at different wind speeds. Cu­
mulative area-wise means of ΔTMRT and ΔPET in AOI-1 and AOI-2, at
V. Raman et al. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213

Table 2
Comparison of the effects of changes in morphology and wind speed on cumulative ΔTMRT and ΔPET – as per SkyHelios Pro output; values in parentheses below ΔTMRT
and ΔPET values show the absolute mean temperatures corresponding to (2019-clip scenario – 2010 scenario).
Comparison of the effects of changes in morphology and wind speed on cumulative ΔTMRT and ΔPET

AOI-1 AOI-2 Effect of change in morphology

Comparison (Area of removed trees / area of AOI-1 = 0. 28) (Area of removed trees / area of AOI-2 = 0. 20)
Criteria
Input wind speed, v (m/s) Effect of change in Input wind speed, v (m/s) Effect of change in At v = 0.5 m/ At v = 4.0 m/
0.5 4.0 ‘v’ 0.5 4.0 ‘v’ s s
Parameters of change
(A) (B) (A/B) (C) (D) (C/D) (A/C) (B/D)

Cumulative 1.9 1.2 1.7 0.9

1.58 1.88 1.12 1.33
mean (74.1–72.2) (69.1–67.9) (73.9–72.2) (70.2–69.3)
Max. 18.0 16.1 18.3 17.6
ΔTMRT (◦ C)
Min. − 7.7 − 9.0 − 5.4 − 7.0
Range
25.7 24.2 1.06 23.6 24.6 0.96 1.09 0.98
(max–min)
Cumulative 1.1 0.5 1.0 0.3
2.20 3.33 1.10 1.66
mean (62.9–61.8) (58.3–57.8) (63.0–62.0) (59.6–59.3)
Max. 11.6 11.9 12.9 11.8
ΔPET (◦ C)
Min. − 8.1 − 9.6 − 3.9 − 7.8
Range
19.7 21.5 0.92 16.8 19.7 0.85 1.17 1.09
(max–min)
Cumulative
ΔTs (◦ C) 5.7 4.4 1.30 3.6 2.0 1.80 1.58 2.20
mean
ΔLW (W/ Cumulative
− 38.2 − 38.2 No change − 20.9 − 20.9 No change 1.83 1.83
m2) mean

different wind speeds (v), have been compared in Table 2. The values in
parentheses below each ΔTMRT and ΔPET value in Table 2, provide the
absolute mean values corresponding to (2019clip scenario – 2010
scenario).
3.1.1. Effect of wind speed on cumulative changes
From Table 2, it is evident that the overall area-wise mean ΔTMRT’s at
‘v’ = 0.5 m/s are higher than those at 4.0 m/s, in a ratio of 1.58 in AOI-1,
and 1.88 in AOI-2 (Columns ‘A/B’ and ‘C/D’). The corresponding
ΔPET’s have ratios of 2.20 in AOI-1, and 3.33 in AOI-2. This shows that
tree shades are more effective in thermal-stress reduction, despite higher
thermal stresses, at lower wind speeds. This is because of relatively
higher changes in mean surface temperatures (ΔTs Table 2) at lower
wind speeds due to reduced advection cooling of unshaded surfaces
(Akbari, 2002). Notably, a change in the input ‘v’ has a greater effect on
the mean ΔTMRT and ΔPET in AOI-2 than in AOI-1 (Compare cols. A/B,
C/D Table 2). This is because ΔTMRT and ΔPET are directly related to
ΔTs and conform to the ratio of (wind dependent) changes in mean ΔTs
(Cols. A/B, C/D Table 2) while LWR and SWR are unaffected by changes
in wind speed.

Fig. 5. SkyHelios output showing a) Changes in TMRT (◦ C) and b) Changes in PET (◦ C) 2019-clip scenario’ minus ‘2010 scenario at AOI-1; points of reference with
numbers relate to text descriptions.

7
V. Raman et al.
Fig. 6. SkyHelios output showing ΔTMRT at AOI-2.
3.1.2. Effect of morphology/ layout density, tree-size on cumulative
changes
The mean ΔTMRT’s at the two AOI’s are generally expected to be
proportionate to the removed trees’ area
(El-Bardisy et al., 2016) in the respective AOI’s. The ratio of
percentage-wise areas of removed trees
(say ‘ART’) at the two AOI’s is 1.4 (= 28/20, Refer para 2.4), i.e.
ART-AOI-1 / ART-AOI-2 = 1.4… (1)
Whereas,
ΔTMRT-AOI-1 / ΔTMRT-AOI-2 = 1.12 (‘A/C’ Table 2) (2)
Comparing (1) and (2) above, we get,
ΔTMRT-AOI-1 / ΔTMRT-AOI-2 < ART-AOI-1 / ART-AOI-2,
or, ΔTMRT-AOI-1 / ART-AOI-1 < ΔTMRT-AOI-2 / ART-AOI-2. . (3)
In-equation (3) shows that the mean ΔTMRT per unit area of removed
trees (ART) is greater at AOI-2 than at AOI-1. This shows a better
thermal-stress reduction potential of the removed trees at AOI-2 than of
those at AOI-1. This is because of differences in tree sizes, layout den­
sities, etc. at the two AOI’s. A sparser layout of smaller (removed) trees
at AOI-1 consisting of many sunlit open spaces of various sizes in be­
tween, as against the closely dense layout of those in AOI-2, becomes a
better reservoir of LWR, causing relatively higher mean TMRT’s at AOI-1
in the past scenario (or, lower mean ΔTMRT). Further, the ratio of means
ΔTMRT AOI-1 / ΔTMRT AOI-2 increases to 1.33 at v = 4 m/s, as a result of a
higher ratio of ΔTs AOI-1 / ΔTs AOI-2 at this wind speed (Cols. ‘A/C’, ‘B/D’
Table 2). This is caused by a relatively greater drop in overall wind speed
in AOI-1 at v = 4 m/s.
3.2. Spatial distribution of changes in TMRT and PET – the effect of
changes in morphology
The changes have been explained by selecting representative points
at different morphological formations e.g. shading (by trees of different
sizes), open areas, surrounding surfaces, etc. (Figs. 5, 6). For space
constraints, the data shown correspond to the simulations with input v =
4 m/s only. The morphology dependent ΔTMRT and ΔPET values show
two types of changes, as per SkyHelios results –
• Positive changes (at areas shaded by the erstwhile trees), and,
• Negative changes (at areas exposed to solar radiations in both sce­
narios, past, and present)
8
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213
3.2.1. Positive changes
The TMRT was found to be lower, ranging 6.9–16.1 ◦ C, in the 2010
scenario directly under the erstwhile trees where there was low access to
direct solar radiation. The TMRT changes varied depending on various
factors as below –
a) Effect of buildings
At AOI-1 - The highest ΔTMRT occurs at point 67 (16.1 ◦ C) followed
by points 2, 51–55, 59, and 61–63 (10.4–15.7 ◦ C) (Fig. 5a), all under
erstwhile trees and very close to buildings. The ΔPET distribution is
analogous to the pattern of ΔTMRT distribution in the area. The highest
ΔPET thus occurs again at point 67 (11.9 ◦ C) followed by points 54,
61–63 (9.5–11.6 ◦ C), etc. (Fig. 5b).
This shows that areas located on or closer to hard surfaces (Arnfield
et al., 1999) can be best benefitted by tree-shading in terms of cooling.
This is because of higher ΔSWR and ΔLWR due to reflections from, and
increased surface temperatures of the east- facing walls. No tree-shaded
building existed in AOI-2 hence this aspect was examined in AOI-1 only.
b) Effect of tree-size on its cooling potential
ΔTMRT at the tree-shaded ground areas (without buildings) ranges
from 8.1 (point 42) to 11.3 ◦ C (point 71) at AOI-1 and from 7.0 (central
zone of N-E cluster) to 17.6 ◦ C (point 13) at AOI-2. The higher ΔTMRT
range at AOI-2, containing the highest ΔTMRT of all (17.6 ◦ C, at point
13), is found under the largest/densest tree cluster in the northern part
(Fig. 6). The higher range of ΔTMRT’s at AOI-1 (excluding those near
shaded buildings), occurs at points 71–74 (9.3–11.3 ◦ C), again under the
largest tree-crown (Fig. 5a). Overall results in the two AOI’s indicate a
higher cooling potential of larger trees/clusters. This is because of
higher ΔLWR (negative) and ΔTs’ under larger trees. This explains the
cumulative mean finding in in-equation (3) (Section 3.1.2).
c) Zonal TMRT/PET variations under a tree and their dependence on
the tree size and clustering
• Effect of the zone under a tree
Points in the central areas of a tree shade are found to have usually
0.3–2 ◦ C lower ΔTMRT’s in comparison to the points on the peripheries of
the same tree (Figs. 5, 6). This can be seen at –
AOI-1: Points 6− 7-8 (9.2− 8.2–9.2 ◦ C), 21− 22-23 (9.2− 8.6–10.2 ◦ C),
41− 42-43 (8.4− 8.1–9.2 ◦ C) and at points 71–73-74 (11.3− 9.3–11.0 ◦ C)
(Fig. 5a), put up in the order ‘peripheral-central-peripheral’ (Corre­
sponding ΔTMRT values in the parentheses), and, at- AOI-2: Points 1− 2-3
(9.5–8.0–9.5 ◦ C), 15− 16-17 (10. 5–8.3–9.5 ◦ C) and 26− 27-28
(11.0− 9.9–12.2 ◦ C) - same order as above. Similar relationships can be
seen between more such points (Fig. 6). Analogous to ΔTMRT, ΔPET
values also, under a tree, are lower at central areas than at the peripheral
ones, as can be seen at the above-mentioned points (Fig. 5b). This shows
that the peripheral areas of trees are cooler than the central ones. A
higher concentration of LW radiations in the central areas with lower
SVF than at the peripheries is created by an ‘umbrella effect’ by the tree
crown resulting in its lower dissipation above into the cooler sky (Lai
et al., 2017). However, the degree of these changes depends on the
crown radius, trunk length, and the layout conditions of the trees, as
discussed below.
• Effect of crown radius and trunk length
At AOI-1, notably, the differential between the ΔTMRT‘s of central
and peripheral zones is highest at points 71–73 (11.3 ◦ C-9.3 ◦ C = 2.0 ◦ C)
associated with the highest changes in ΔSVF lying under one of the
largest trees in AOI-1 whereas it is lowest at points 14–15 (10.1 ◦ C - 9.8
◦
C = 0.3 ◦ C) (lowest changes in ΔSVF), under one of the smallest trees. In
a middle-sized tree, this difference is around 1.2 ◦ C (Fig. 5a). It shows
that the central-peripheral ΔTMRT‘s differential is directly related to the
crown radius of the tree. Further, at AOI-1 at points 6–7, under a tree
with input crown radius of 11 m, the ΔTMRT/ ΔPET differences (i.e. 1.0/
0.3 ◦ C) are less than half of that at points 71–73 (i.e. 2.0/ 0.9 ◦ C), under
V. Raman et al.
another tree (crown radius- 12 m). An increase of 1 m (ᴝ10 %) crown
radius seems to increase ΔTMRT/ ΔPET by twice (ᴝ100 %), however, this
is primarily because of a shorter input trunk length (3.5 m) of the latter
tree (crown radius 12 m) than the former (4.5 m), showing that the
differences are inversely but more prominently related to the trunk
length of the tree. This is again, because of the difference in LWR
dispersion to the cooler sky at two zones caused by different SVF’s (Lai
et al., 2017), a function of crown radius and trunk length
simultaneously.
• Effect of the layout - isolated versus clustered trees
Further to para’s above, the peripheral points under a tree are ex­
pected to have generally uniform ΔTMRT’s (with sun overhead: Refer
para 2.3) as it happens at AOI-1 at points 6–8 (9.2 ◦ C-9.2 ◦ C) and 14–16
(10.1 ◦ C – 10.2 ◦ C) (Fig. 5a). But some tree shades have notable differ­
ences between the ΔTMRT’s at their peripheral points e.g. at points
47− 45 (11.0 ◦ C-9.1 ◦ C), 23− 21 (10.2 ◦ C-9.2 ◦ C) and 43− 41 (9.2 ◦ C-8.4
◦
C), etc. (Fig. 5a). ΔPET’s also differ analogously at these point-pairs
(Fig. 5b). This is because points 45, 21, and 41 (with lower ΔTMRT’s),
‘overcast’ by neighboring trees in the 2010 scenario have lower SVF’s
with lesser dissipation of LWR at these points (Lai et al., 2017) resulting
in higher TMRT‘s (lower ΔTMRT‘s). Points 6–8 and 14–16 cited above in
relatively isolated conditions having no external ‘blockades’ are having
uniform LWR dissipations thus almost uniform peripheral ΔTMRT’s. This
shows that isolated trees in comparison to ‘loosely’ clustered trees, with
open spaces in between, are more effective in reducing the thermal
stresses.
3.2.2. Negative changes – open to sky areas
The ΔTMRT in the open areas with direct solar access was found to be
maximum 0 ◦ C (on the north of Bailey Road) to minimum -9.0 ◦ C (point
58) in AOI-1 (Fig. 5a). At AOI-2, the ΔTMRT varied from a maximum of
0.0 to a minimum of -7.0 ◦ C. The most cooled area in 2019-clip scenario
due to the removal of trees is the N–W zone of AOI-2 (Fig. 6). Cooling at
other points extends till down S/S-E of the area, however, ΔTMRT is
negligibly small from points 31–36 (-0.5 to -0.05 ◦ C). ΔPET follows the
pattern of ΔTMRT. The changes varied depending on various factors as
below:
a) Effect of buildings/ windshields
At AOI-1, the lowest ΔTMRT (-9 ◦ C) was found at unshaded point 58
(Fig. 5a) lying close north of a building and south of a large tree cluster.
At AOI-2, the lowest ΔTMRT (-7.0 ◦ C) was found at point 18 lying close
north of the BCD building. This is because the removal of trees resulted
in a reduction of LWR (Zheng et al., 2018) and reflected SWR
(contributed from the trees) at the points. Also, a better advection
cooling of the surfaces took place due to increased wind at the points,
especially due to the removal of trees on the windward side (El-Bardisy
et al., 2016), i.e. on the north of the points (simulation wind input north)
(e.g. at point 58: ΔLW = -56.1 W/m2, ΔSW = -56.8 W/m2, ΔTs = -7.6 ◦ C,
Δv =0.6 m/s). Other unshaded points located in the vicinity of
(removed) trees (e.g. points 1, 10–12, and 65–66 at AOI-1) also show
lower (negative) ΔTMRT’s in comparison to the ground areas distant
from trees, for similar reasons. ΔPET follows the pattern of ΔTMRT. This
shows that unshaded areas wind-shielded by buildings etc. and/or sur­
rounded by trees, especially from the upwind side can be thermally most
stressful and removal of surrounding trees relieves the stresses.
b) Effect of the proximity of the point to the trees and size of open
areas
In a specific open area, the unshaded points lying closer to a tree
show lower ΔTMRT’s (and ΔPET’s) in comparison to the distant ones for
reasons cited above (para a.), e.g. ΔTMRT’s in AOI-1, at tree-abutting
points 29 and 31 (-2.8 and -4.5 ◦ C) are lower than at distant point 30
(-2.5 ◦ C) and again at points 33 and 37 (-3.8 and -2.8 ◦ C), are lower than
at point 35 (-2.3 ◦ C). ΔTMRT’s gradually reduce from point 24 towards
27, and from 48 towards 50, and further north, due to gradually
9
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213
reducing ΔLWR at the points, as they get farther from trees. Another
implication of this ‘proximity-to-tree’ effect is that ΔTMRT’s are found to
be lower in relatively smaller open areas, surrounded by trees. Points 35,
30, and 39 in AOI-1, lying in gradually diminishing sizes of open areas
are found showing gradually lowering ΔTMRT’s (-2.3> -2.5> -5.4 ◦ C
respectively) (Fig. 5a). This section of the results shows that unshaded
open areas, surrounded by trees, can be thermally more stressful in
comparison to those in a treeless condition and the stress is inversely
related to the size of the open spaces.
4. Discussion
This study quantitatively examined the cumulative and spatial (dis­
tribution of) changes in thermal stresses contributed by the removed
trees at Patna, India in terms of PET and TMRT using microclimatic model
SkyHelios Pro. We have estimated the cooling effect of trees by the
arithmetic difference between each grid’s simulation outputs with and
without trees, as comparing the tree-shaded areas with the nearby un­
shaded areas can bring forth misleading results (Limor Shashua-Bar
et al., 2009) due to changes in the adjoining surfaces, morphology, etc.
Individual and synergetic roles of sizes of trees/ layout densities, area of
the plantations (El-Bardisy et al., 2016), morphology, and input wind
speeds (i.e. background wind speed, at 10 m height) on changes in TMRT/
PET have been examined, as discussed below.
We have found tree-shades as great heat sinks alleviating the summer
day-time heat stress through solar attenuation (Lee and Mayer, 2013; H.
Mayer et al., 2009; L. Shashua-Bar et al., 2011; Zheng et al., 2018), as L
Shashua-Bar and Hoffman (2000) also found trees responsible for about
80 % of the total cooling.
4.1. Overall area-mean changes in TMRT and PET
4.1.1. Effect of wind speed
Overall mean TMRT and PET reduction in the area by trees is higher at
lower input wind speeds, when thermal stresses become comparatively
higher due to reduced advection cooling of surfaces (Arnfield et al.,
1999). The changes in mean TMRT’s/ PET’s at 0.5 m/s were found
1.6–3.3 times higher than those at 4.0 m/s. The occurrence of higher
TMRT’s at lower wind speeds has been established in a study in Indonesia
(Sangkertadi and Reny, 2016) and India (Amirtham et al., 2015),
whereas, a more prominent cooling effect of trees at higher thermal
stress conditions has been also reported by other previous studies, e.g.,
(de Abreu-Harbich et al., 2015; Perini and Magliocco, 2014; Sha­
shua-Bar and Hoffman, 2000). Cooling by vegetation is found decreased,
at higher wind speeds, also by (Dimoudi and Nikolopoulou, 2003). A
comparative study in Israel and Germany has established that “hotter
the area’s microclimate, stronger is the trees’ mitigating effect”
(Potchter et al., 2010). Thus our findings corroborate the previous
findings.
4.1.2. The combined effect of wind speed, canopy size, and layout density
(denser vs. sparser clusters/ isolated trees)
Mean TMRT reduction per unit area of (removed) trees, especially at
lower input wind speed (i.e. at v = 0.5 m/s), is found to be greater by
wider-canopy/ denser tree clusters (at AOI-2). Previous studies have also
confirmed a greater cooling potential of higher and wider canopied trees
(Potchter et al., 2006) and that “clusters of trees can increase the cooling
effect of one tree” (de Abreu-Harbich et al., 2015). Mean PET reduction
per unit area of (removed) trees is also found greater by wider-canopy/
denser tree clusters, but only at lower wind speed. Contrarily, at higher
input wind speed (i.e. at v = 4.0 m/s), mean PET reduction was found
greater (despite a lesser mean TMRT reduction), by isolated trees/ sparser
clusters (at AOI-1).
Previous studies have found greater PET reduction by individual
trees than that by clusters (de Abreu-Harbich et al., 2015), whereas Li
et al. (2018) have shown, a greater PET reduction by sparser tree clusters
V. Raman et al.
than that by the denser ones, both without referring to the related
background wind speed. Our findings agree with these findings but only
at higher background wind speeds (ᴝ 4.0 m/s). The PET reduction
performance by the two cluster types is reversed at lower/ no wind (ᴝ
0.5 m/s) conditions. Thus, the PET reduction potential of trees ‘oscil­
lates’ as a function of wind speed and canopy-size/ layout-density, as it
is directly related to the canopy-size/ cluster-density at lower wind
speeds and inversely at higher.
4.2. Spatial distribution of changes
4.2.1. Maxima and minima of changes
Spatially, maximum TMRT reductions were found occurring, again at
lower wind speed input, at the largest/densest tree cluster-shaded area
in AOI-2, and also at tree-shaded skin areas of buildings (Arnfield et al.,
1999; Berry et al., 2013) (at AOI-1). The maximum TMRT reductions in
our case (18.0/18.3 ◦ C, at v = 0.5 m/s and 16.0/17.6 ◦ C at 4.0 m/s, at
AOI-1/AOI-2) are higher than the maximum TMRT reduction of 14.8 ◦ C
found in Guangzhou, China by (Zheng et al., 2018), but lower than 32.8
◦
C, found by (Lee and Mayer, 2013) in Freiburg (albeit the background
wind speed, affecting TMRT reductions, is not referred). The prime reason
for the difference may be the higher ambient air temperature in our case
(45.4 ◦ C) (Potchter et al., 2010) than that in Guangzhou, China (ᴝ35.0
◦
C), and the other background/ morphological conditions in Freiburg.
We found PET reductions ranging between 12.9 to -9.6 ◦ C with means
ranging from 0.3–1.1 ◦ C at different wind speeds in different morphol­
ogies. Air temperature has been the focus of most past studies of vege­
tation effect on urban microclimate (de Abreu- Harbich et al., 2015) and
little is reported on PET reduction by trees in sub-tropical areas (Zheng
et al., 2018). Some of those reported are, from a park in Beijing, China,
ranging 15.6 to -8.4 ◦ C and spatial means of 0.8–4.1 ◦ C (Sun et al.,
2017), a maximum of up to 17.5 ◦ C in Campinas, Brazil (de
Abreu-Harbich et al., 2015) and another maximum of 15.7 ◦ C in Frei­
burg (Lee and Mayer, 2013). Potchter et al. (2010), in a comparative
study have found PET reduction of 13 ◦ C at temperate Freiburg and 20
◦
C at hotter Beer-Sheva by comparing tree-shades with other unshaded
areas (with possible morphological variations). The corresponding
background wind speeds could not be found for the studies cited above.
Given a high dependence of the trees’ PET reduction potentiality on the
wind speed, and other meteorological and morphological conditions, a
comparison may not be appropriate without a detailed examination of
these factors.
4.2.2. Effect of LWR, crown radius, trunk length, and layout (Isolated tree
vs. Loosely clustered)
Transpiration cooling mostly occurs at the topmost layers of the trees
(Oke et al., 1989) and central parts of the crowns are substantial res­
ervoirs of LWR as they intercept both advected sensible heat and LWR
emitted from the surroundings (Kjelgren and Montague, 1998; Oke,
2002). LWR in most cases (75 %) in tree-shaded areas have been found
higher than that in the surrounding unshaded areas, by up to 55 W/m2
by (Zheng et al., 2018). The LWR is blocked by the tree-crown from
dissipation into the cooler sky above (Lindberg and Grimmond, 2011)
since the dissipation directly depends on SVF conditions (Lai et al.,
2017; Oke et al., 1989). We have found an LWR difference of 28− 30
W/m2 corresponding to an SVF difference of 0.25 (e.g. points 71–73,
45–47) which is close to that found by Lai et al. (2017) (i.e. LWR change
of 10 W/m2 per SVF change of 0.1). Following findings from our in­
vestigations corroborate these previous findings:
a) Isolated trees vs. loosely clustered trees - Isolated trees show
greater TMRT and PET reduction than the loosely clustered trees (usually
with entwined open spaces ≤ crown horizontal diameters) due to vari­
ations in LWR under the two. Loosely clustered trees intercept more
LWR than the isolated trees, from the irradiated surrounding ground
which is hotter due to relatively reduced wind (El-Bardisy et al., 2016),
than the ground surrounding isolated trees, added that isolated trees
10
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213
having higher SVF, dissipate more LWR (Lai et al., 2017; Z. Tan et al.,
2015), thus are cooler than the clustered ones.
b) Unshaded areas near trees - As a consequence of LWR dispersion
from the tree crowns at the human level in horizontal directions (Zheng
et al., 2018), the unshaded areas lying closer to a tree (lower SVF) (Lai
et al., 2017; Oke et al., 1989) have higher TMRT’s/ PET than the distant
ones or those in a treeless condition. TMRT/ PET at unshaded areas near
trees is directly related to the number of surrounding trees and inversely
to the distance from the trees. The worst thermal conditions may arise if
the area is surrounded on all the sides by trees, and further is wind
shielded by solid objects like buildings, etc., from the upwind side.
Vegetated areas, during daytime hours, have been found warmer than
the surrounding built-up areas in some previous empirical studies also,
e.g. (Grimmond et al., 1996; Potchter et al., 2006).
c) Different zones under a tree - Further, unlike most of the past
studies treating the shaded area under a particular tree as an isothermal
zone, we examined individual tree-shaded areas for the grid-wise vari­
ations in the TMRT and PET and found that these are lower at the pe­
ripheral zones (higher SVF) as compared to the central ones (lower SVF)
of the same tree-shade. This is due to differences in LWR accumulation at
the two zones (e.g. TMRT up to 2.0 ◦ C and PET 0.8 ◦ C affected by a dif­
ference of 28.3 W/m2 in LWR). Further, the differences (between central
and peripheral zones’ LWR) are directly related to the (horizontal)
crown radius and inversely but more prominently to the trunk length of
the tree. However, since our simulation results are for noon (sun over­
head), this interrelationship may change in forenoon and afternoon
hours (lower sun altitudes) when the peripheries under a tree get access
to solar rays.
5. Conclusions and recommendations
Tree shades have been found great heat sinks and the removal of
trees has added to the thermal stress at the Bihar Museum area with a
rise in mean PET of 0.3–1.1 ◦ C and mean TMRT of 0.9–1.9 ◦ C depending
on different background wind speeds and morphologies. Tree shades are
found more effective in thermal-stress reduction with larger crowns/
closely compact clusters (overlapping crowns), and, at lower back­
ground wind speeds. PET reduction, again is better achieved by larger/
denser tree clusters but only at lower wind speeds. At higher wind
speeds, isolated trees/ sparser clusters are found providing better PET
reduction. Thus PET reduction by trees fluctuates as a function of cluster
density and the background wind speed. Quantification of different
layout densities involving various tree geometries/ sizes, at various
background wind speeds at different microclimatic zones giving
maximum PET reduction, could make an interesting future study.
However, isolated trees are found providing better cooling than the
loosely clustered ones, containing open spaces in between. The open
spaces surrounded by trees become ‘ponds’ of accumulated LW radia­
tions, the density of accumulations increases with decreasing size of the
open spaces. Generally, any unshaded location in the vicinity of a tree is
found to be hotter than that in a treeless condition, and the same, if lying
in wind shielded conditions can be thermally most stressed. Areas
closest to hard surfaces are the best beneficiaries of tree shading in terms
of cooling. To sum up, larger trees/ denser clusters are an unquestion­
able option for areas with low/ no wind conditions whereas areas with
higher wind conditions require meticulous planning of trees in terms of
layout, tree-size/ geometry, prevalent wind speed, and direction,
entwined morphology, buildings, etc. Computer model simulations (e.g.
SkyHelios) can be used for analyzing the different parameters, and for
shading analysis, etc. Further studies are required, incorporating more
varieties of tree sizes/ geometry, layout density, patterns corresponding
to various morphological formations in different microclimates/ wind
speeds to identify the relationship among these, to find out the ‘coolest
proportions’. A study of the diurnal/ annual cycles of TMRT and PET
reduction performance by trees incorporating the above variables would
be highly solicited, which we could not take up in this study due to space
V. Raman et al. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213

Fig. 7. Recommendations for the tree-layouts giving best cooling performance.

limitations. 5 For plantations in a new urban settlement, a meticulous design in

Recommendations for the architects, urban planners, and policy­ terms of the physical and arboreal properties of the trees, proper
makers for judicious landscape design (Also refer to Fig. 7): spacing, alignment, corresponding to the geographical location,
background microclimatic conditions, e.g. wind, humidity, radia­
1 The wind parallel sides of buildings, streets parallel to the most tions, etc. will yield better cooling.
prevalent wind (with higher permeability of wind) should be planted
with isolated/ sparser cluster trees, more on the west of buildings for Funding
N–S winds and on the equator side for E–W winds.
2 The downwind side of buildings (in windy areas) or high-density This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
urban blocks (with lower winds) can have better comfort condi­ agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
tions with denser trees layout where the longest possible trunk and a
wide shallow crown will enforce maximum solar protection, mini­ Declaration of Competing Interest
mum long wave accumulations, and also a better humidity disper­
sion at the human level during sultry monsoons in the area. The authors report no declarations of interest
3 Avoid sparser tree clusters, allowing solar access in between, espe­
cially with shorter trunks on the close upwind side of the buildings as Acknowledgment
this will augment thermal stress by wind retardation, and increased
long-wave radiation accumulation near the building. Sparser tree The authors are thankful to Mr. Padmanabh, Patna, India, for his
clusters should be avoided in low wind zones, e.g. streets normal to valuable assistance during work, in ArcMap data extraction/ tabulation
the prevalent wind, smaller parks surrounded by tall buildings, etc. and proofreading, etc.
4 Building walls (especially on the lower wind side) exposed to sum­
mer sun, paved courtyards, pathways, etc. shall be the best benefi­
ciaries of shading, preferably by higher-trunk, wider-crown trees.

11
V. Raman et al. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 63 (2021) 127213

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