Planting more trees in urban areas to lower summertime temperatures could decrease deaths directly linked to hot weather and heatwaves by a third, researchers said Wednesday.
Modelling found that increasing tree cover to 30 percent would shave off 0.4 degrees Celsius locally, on average, during hot summer months, they reported in The Lancet.
The study is the first to project the number of premature deaths due to higher temperatures in cities that could be prevented by additional tree cover, said lead author Tamara Iungman, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. Cities record higher temperatures than surrounding suburbs or countryside due to the so-called urban heat island effect.
Today, cold conditions still cause more deaths in Europe than hot weather. But climate models project that heat-related illness and death will present a bigger burden to health services within a decade. On average, the temperature in cities was 1.5C warmer during summer 2015 than in the surrounding countryside. The city with the highest difference -- 4.1C -- was Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
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