Fast Fact Library

An analysis of satellite data for 14,000 cities and towns in the United States showed that areas within a 10-minute walk of a park can be up to 6° F cooler than areas further away from parks.

Trust for Public Land and MKThink. (2020). The Heat Is On: With temperatures rising and quality parks too few and far between, communities of color face a dangerous disparity. https://www.tpl.org/sites/default/files/The-Heat-is-on_A-Trust-for-Public-Land_special-report.pdf.

A cross-sectional study of almost 47,000 Australian residents showed that higher percentage of tree cover within one mile of their residence was associated with lower prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and...

Thomas Astell-Burt, and Feng, Xiaoqi. “Urban green space, tree canopy and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases: a multilevel longitudinal study of 46,786 Australians.” International Journal of Epidemiology 49, Issue 3 (2020): 926–933. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyz239.

Trees with small leaf size and high leaf complexity and trees with long "in leaf" periods like evergreens generally make the most effective barriers against roadside pollution and offer the most air quality benefits...

Barwise, Yendle, and Prashant Kumar. “Designing vegetation barriers for urban air pollution abatement: a practical review for appropriate plant species selection” npj Climate and Atmospheric Science 3, no. 12 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-0115-3.

Coastal wetlands provide an average property damage savings of $1.8 million annually per square kilometer of wetland, as determined by a study of property damage caused by 88 tropical storms and hurricanes hitting...

Sun, Fanglin, and Richard T. Carson. “Coastal Wetlands Reduce Property Damage during Tropical Cyclones.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, February 2020. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915169117.

According to a systematic review of research on the relationship between violent crime and urban green space, the presence of parks and other green space reduces urban crime. Potential causes include the role of...

Shepley, Mardelle, Naomi Sachs, Hessam Sadatsafavi, Christine Fournier, and Kati Peditto. “The Impact of Green Space on Violent Crime in Urban Environments: An Evidence Synthesis.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 24 (2019): 5119. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16245119.

Tree cover may improve academic performance. A study of 624 Illinois public high schools showed that tree cover density within a 1-mile radius of schools was positively associated with better ACT scores and college...

Li, Dongying, Yen-Cheng Chiang, Huiyan Sang, and William C. Sullivan. “Beyond the School Grounds: Links between Density of Tree Cover in School Surroundings and High School Academic Performance.” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 38 (2019): 42–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2018.11.001

Researchers studying a Toronto pilot project found that installing a bike lane and removing 136 on-street parking spaces improved the business environment for establishments along the corridor. The number of...

Arancibia, Daniel, Steven Farber, Beth Savan, Yvonne Verlinden, Nancy Smith Lea, Jeff Allen, and Lee Vernich. “Measuring the Local Economic Impacts of Replacing On-Street Parking With Bike Lanes.” Journal of the American Planning Association 85, no. 4 (2019): 463–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2019.1638816

Level of residential neighborhood greenness is associated with less problematic behavior in children, particularly aggressive behaviors and attention problems, according to a study of 1,817 South Korean...

Lee, Mihye, Suejin Kim, and Mina Ha. “Community greenness and neurobehavioral health in children and adolescents” Science of The Total Environment 672 (2019): 381-388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.454.

High-quality visible vegetation, such as that seen through a window at home or at work, can provide relief from noise annoyance (feelings of displeasure with unwanted noise) with a similar effect to reducing noise...

Van Renterghem, Timothy. “Towards explaining the positive effect of vegetation on the perception of environmental noise.” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 40 (2019): 133-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2018.03.007.