The influence of changing location of trees in urban green spaces on insolation mitigation

Urban areas are often overheated, which potentially results in a range of negative effects on the urban micro climate. One way to mitigate urban overheating is to provide shading by tall vegetation (trees). Simulations of insolation with different tree locations were used for insolation mitigation in previous research. However, in urban green spaces potential tree locations can be selected with greater freedom. Therefore, the method for selecting tree locations has to rely on optimization, as there are many possible combinations of locations. The aim of this paper is to devise an approach for insolation mitigation by changing the location of trees in urban green spaces. The approach uses input data that describe the geometry of the built environment and the geometry of trees, as well as climate and weather data (direct radiation, diffuse radiation and cloud cover). The algorithm is applicable to any location and urban environment. The approach uses the Evolutionary algorithm, a method based on natural selection suitable for solving optimization problems. The evolutionary approach is compared to the simulation of average insolation values and the simulations and selection of random tree locations. It is also applied to a real-world example. The results indicate that the proposed approach can be used to mitigate insolation in urban green spaces.