With the world warming, cities are feeling like ovens more than ever. But scientists just discovered a cool new way to help: surrounding cities with a ring of green land. It’s a simple idea with big potential to help keep city dwellers comfortable and healthy. Let us look at how this green solution works and why it’s important for our urban future.
Cities Are Too Hot
Cities are usually much hotter than the surrounding countryside. That’s because of something called the “urban heat island” effect. Cities contain buildings, roads, and cars that trap heat, so they warm up more than the surrounding countryside.
This excess heat is unhealthy for city dwellers. It can make them ill, notably during hot summers. With climate change making the world warmer, that’s getting worse.
A Green Solution
Experts have found out a new way to cool down cities. They say that having a ring of rural land around the city can help make it cooler. This green ring can lower the temperature in the city center by more than half a degree Celsius.
How Does It Work?
The green ring functions in the following manner:
– It should be rural land, forests, farmland, or even lakes.
– The minimum coverage area that the green ring should cover should at least be half of the city’s size.
– This ring supplies cooling air into the city and reduces the temperature level.
What Kind of Land Works Best?
They found that some types of land were better coolers than others:
– Extensive areas are more effective than small ones.
– Forests are good coolers.
– A few large lakes are more effective than several small ponds.
How Far from the City Should the Green Ring Be?
The green ring should lie 10-15 kilometers away from the edge of the city, where it can best cool the city.
Why Is This Important?
Cities do not have any more space to expand further for parks and trees. This innovative concept shows that we could do a lot with land use outside cities to cool down the cities. It could make a big difference for people living in hot cities.
What’s Next?
For this study, the scientists looked at 30 cities in China. They believe that their ideas could work elsewhere in the world, too. But, they say, more studies are needed to be sure.
Against the backdrop of a warming planet, cooling our cities is of high relevance. That makes this green ring idea of great help in making the cities cooler and healthier to live in.
