Green Infrastructure to Reduce the Energy Demand of Cities

Over the past decades, intense urbanization processes resulted in built environments with a severe lack of green spaces and thus with low potential for mitigating the heat stress. Green spaces are the main providers of ecosystem services in cities and play a relevant role, among others, in regulating the local microclimate and in mitigating the Urban Heat Island effect. However, despite their importance, the implementation of green infrastructures still struggles and challenges the lack of available open spaces to be set as new urban green areas. This chapter addresses the potential effectiveness of trees in reducing the energy demand for cooling and heating in buildings located in urban areas. In particular, the research considers different types of spatial configuration of urban fabrics and urban green, and discusses the expected impact of a series of parameters such as the relative position of trees and buildings, the species of trees to be planted, and the availability of space for new tree-planting. The discussion is based on the results available in the literature, and shows that a sound urban planning strategy aimed at designing an effective green infrastructure can significantly reduce the energy demand of urban fabric while providing new green spaces, implementing climate change adaptation strategies and creating a more safety and energy-efficient environment.