The cooling potential of various vegetation covers in a heat-stressed underserved community in the deep south: Birmingham, Alabama

The urban population is expected to grow significantly in the coming years and reach 70% of the world population by 2050, which poses a significant challenge for urban development and planning. Urban heat islands and heat waves already cause considerable stress to urban com-munities, with disadvantaged communities at the forefront of this issue. Adding vegetation and green covers is one of the strategies to improve street-level thermal comfort. This study quantifies the effects of different vegetation types on the microclimate of a mixed-residential-industrial area. The three primary scenarios for this study are existing vegetation in various canopy widths, native shade-tree species in their mature sizes, and a built environment including only grass cover. The role of the existing built environment with different vegetation covers along with human biometeorological parameters, including mean radiant temperature (Tmrt), physiological equiv-alent temperature (PET), and universal thermal climate index (UTCI) was evaluated to measure thermal comfort by employing a computational fluid dynamic (CFD)-based microclimate model. The results show that tree types and characteristics determine the thermal comfort pedestrians feel in the daytime. The study will provide insights on effective green cover scenarios to maintain a more comfortable pedestrian environment for future intervention.