Glasgow city centre avenues to help combat climate change impact

University researchers have found that Glasgow City Council's Avenues Programme could potentially eliminate the local warming expected in the city centre over the next three decades.

The largest project of its kind in the UK with an investment of £115 million, the Avenues Programme, will transform 21 streets in Glasgow city centre into tree-lined 'avenues'. In doing so, the Programme aims to reduce traffic, promote active travel, improve connectivity and improve air quality.

Research by Glasgow Caledonian University has found that the project could also improve the city's local climate and eliminate the urban overheating that is expected over the next 30 years due to climate change and urban growth.

The researchers say that one of the major climate-change risks for Glasgow is overheating, particularly in the city centre, where there is an alarming increase in the extent of urban heat islands (UHIs) – when buildings and roads absorb and retain heat, and, in the absence of adequate tree cover, become significantly hotter than surrounding areas.

However, the research has demonstrated that the Avenues Programme and the introduction of urban green infrastructure (UGI), such as trees and greens, could eliminate these hot spots.

The work was undertaken as part of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programme - Master of Urban Climate and Sustainability (MUrCS) – which is led by Glasgow Caledonian. It was co-authored by Oksana Ananyeva, a recent graduate of the programme, and Professor Rohinton Emmanuel, Director of Glasgow Caledonian's Built Environment Asset Management Research Centre (BEAM) and MUrCS Programme Leader.

Professor Rohinton Emmanuel said: "Temperature 'hot spots' in the city are highly localized in the city centre area. Therefore, small, isolated patches of vegetation would not be effective for cooling these clusters of overheated areas. The 'Avenues Programme' as a whole, could eliminate the 'hot spots' in the city centre, depending on the type of trees, and their placement patterns, providing much needed climatic co-benefits in our rapidly changing climate."