(Re)Designing Urban Parks to Maximize Urban Heat Island Mitigation by Natural Means

Urban trees play a key role in mitigating urban heat by cooling the local environment. However, benefit that can provide is influenced differences species traits and site-specific environmental conditions. Fifteen dominant tree parks from Mexico City were selected considering physiological (i.e., transpiration stomatal conductance) aesthetic morphological characteristics. Species’ performance was measured to explore potential of reduce load. Data collected over 4-week period months April May 2020, warmest driest year City. We used Thermal UrbaN Environment Energy (TUNEE) balance model calculate each number individuals necessary air temperature. The highest midday registered for Liquidambar styraciflua L. (0.0357 g m?2 s?1) lowest Buddleja cordata H.B.K (0.0089 s?1), representing an energy consumption 87.13 21.69 J s?1, respectively. Similarly, conductance recorded styraciflua., whereas B. cordata. Based on rates characteristics, we developed proposal outline 50 × m park community) consisting six with 19 individuals, according TUNEE model, proposed arrangement temperature up 5.3 °C. Our results help planners (re)design mitigate while increasing diversity parks.