Green Spaces for Summer Cooling: Case Study of Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Abstract

Urban vegetation is an effective urban feature to protect citizens from urban warming. The aim of this study is to assess the temperature in the urban ‘cooling islands’ in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to keep them cool in summer. The area of the tree canopy, planting density, spatial structures and microclimatic data were observed in 30 green zones over three summer months to determine their thermal overheating. The observed data was then compared with the daily weather forecasts. The results show that while large tree canopies are crucial for maintaining a cool microclimate through shading, small shrubs, and lawns, which are popular in local landscaping, are not effective. Planting density is weakly related to a cool microclimate in green spaces. The best cooling results are achieved when the tree canopy shades more than 75% of the area. These results provide new insights for the development of more sustainable strategies and standards for the design and maintenance of cool green spaces in Tashkent and other Central Asian cities with similar climates.