A holistic framework for assessing co-benefits of street-scale green infrastructure interventions

A holistic framework for assessing co-benefits of street-scale green infrastructure interventions Core urban areas tend to be
made up of street canyons and are among the most polluted urban environments due to the restricted dispersion of traffic
emissions by the surrounding buildings. The use of green infrastructure (GI) such as roadside hedges, trees, and green
walls/roofs in urban areas can help to abate the exposure to traffic emissions and also offer many other co-benefits
including heat amelioration, noise reduction and increased biodiversity. However, all these benefits are very sensitive to the
local context, and poorly planned GI can worsen situations or achieve limited co-benefits. Therefore, this project will use a
combination of experiments, modelling and literature review to address the following questions: What are the trade-offs
between pollution abatement and other co-benefits provided by GI (cooling, noise mitigation and biodiversity)? Are
there different trade-offs at different scales (street scale to city scale)?... Are these trade-offs completely context-specific,
or can generalisable relationships be derived to help planners make the best use of GI? All the knowledge generated
through the answers to the above questions will be used to develop an easy to use evidence-based assessment
framework that helps to plan multiple co-benefits for small scale GI features, accounting for local contexts, which is sorely
needed in urban area planning.