Nature-based Solutions to Mitigate Vehicular Traffic Pollution Beyond SUMPs

The research was aimed at defining an innovative nature-based approach to effectively tackle vehicle emissions by considering the role of urban green areas, relying on the capacity of trees to absorb pollutants. The project combined two datasets describing the city of Milan (Italy) in relation to public trees inventory and private transport pollutants. A series of open and proprietary data was collected and analyzed to develop a GIS model, including green areas and traffic volumes. The main outcomes of the research are: (i) developing a GIS model linking public greenery environmental performance with vehicle-related PM2.5 emissions, allowing analysis, mapping and visualizations of datasets; (ii) defining green spaces provision in terms of trees necessary to absorb the rate of pollutants emitted by vehicles. Such integrated data-driven research could support decision makers in the integrated planning of SUMPs and Urban Green Infrastructures (UGI) to leverage on their co-benefits for climate change mitigation and adaptation.