Mitigating Urban Heat and Enhancing Health through Integrative Green and Blue Space Design

Green and blue spaces (GBS) are widely recognized as natural solutions for mitigating climate change-related hazards. However, within urban settings, these solutions may also have unintended adverse effects. For example, trees may block the wind, trap heat and pollution, or increase the likelihood of allergenicity, while water bodies can contribute to nighttime heat stress by releasing stored heat. Therefore, the extent to which small-scale GBS design balances trade-offs and synergies is not yet clear. Addressing these challenges requires an integrative approach to selecting and designing green and blue elements at the micro-scale.

This study aims to provide design guidelines by developing and testing different design solutions for GBS. Drawing on existing evidence from the literature, we formulated the preliminary design solutions for different defined prototypes of urban canyons (testbeds) in three cities in the Netherlands. We employed ENVI-met software to model and simulate microclimate and pollutant dynamics across various urban scenarios. We then tested the strategic selection and arrangement of elements in different settings for cooling efficiency, pollution absorption, and allergenicity potential.

We expect that this approach will provide an integrative view of the selection and design of urban GBS while refining context-specific design guidelines for the Netherlands, with potential applications in other temperate urban settings. Our findings will offer new insights into the effectiveness of different design strategies, helping landscape and urban designers optimize their designs and mitigate the potential environmental harms while providing climate-responsive, health-promoting urban environments. Additionally, these results help policymakers make informed decisions and assess design alternatives for sustainable urban development.