Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683

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Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Using the modified i-Tree Eco model to quantify air pollution removal by
urban vegetation
Jiansheng Wu a, Yi Wang a, Sijing Qiu b, Jian Peng b,⁎
a
Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Urban Planning and Design, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China
b
Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• A modified dry deposition model was

used to assess air pollution removal.
• PM2.5 removal rate by urban vegetation
differed across the elevation signifi-
cantly.
• PM2.5 removal mainly depends on LAI,
rather than PM2.5 concentration.
• Evergreen shrubs would be the most ef-
fective vegetation type in the developed
area.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) can pose health problems for humans following urbanization. Because urban veg-
Received 27 January 2019 etation has a large surface area to filter PM2.5 out of the air, it can be an effective long-term way to mitigate air
Received in revised form 26 May 2019 pollution. Various studies have quantified PM2.5 removal by vegetation in cities, but the spatial variability of re-
Accepted 29 May 2019
moval within cities and future scenarios have not been well documented. To ensure more reasonable and effec-
Available online 30 May 2019
tive urban tree planting regimes, we used the spatiotemporal i-Tree Eco model combined with the vertical
Editor: Lidia Morawska distribution of vegetation in a case study in Shenzhen City, China. The results indicated that the PM2.5 removal
by urban vegetation in 2015 was 1000.1 tons, and the average removal rate by vegetation was
Keywords: 1.6 g m−2 year−1. A maximum hourly local air quality improvement of up to 3% could be achieved, with an av-
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) erage of 1%, which differed significantly with elevation. In terms of vegetation type, evergreen shrubs, evergreen
Dry deposition broadleaved forests, and evergreen needle-leaved forests had the highest removal efficiency within b100,
Urban vegetation 100–300, and N300 m, respectively. For five future planting scenarios, by increasing vegetation cover by 5% in dif-
Scenario analysis ferent elevation zones (b100, 100–300, and N300 m), an annual amount of 1220.6–1308 tones could be achieved.
Vertical spatial heterogeneity
Specifically, it was estimated that an increase in evergreen shrubs cover in the developed area (b100 m) would
have the best removal potential.
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

⁎ Corresponding author. China has experienced rapid urbanization over the last two decades,
E-mail address: jianpeng@urban.pku.edu.cn (J. Peng). which has been associated with negative environmental effects,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.437
0048-9697/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
674 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683
including episodes of severe fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution
(Shen et al., 2019; Han et al., 2017), which is now ranked as one of the
most serious health threats (Li et al., 2019; Liacos et al., 2012). Previous
studies on PM2.5 have focused on source apportionment (Li et al., 2010),
monitoring, and modeling (Ma et al., 2014). However, PM2.5 concentra-
tions cannot be decreased by solely controlling pollution sources. Other
ways to reduce PM2.5 concentrations must be identified. Urban vegeta-
tion could be a cost-competitive and effective long-term way (Kroeger
et al., 2018; Hirabayashi and Nowak, 2016), to remove particulate mat-
ter of all sizes through dry deposition on branches, stems, and leaves,
and the removal ability is closely correlated with the microstructure of
the leaves (Zhao et al., 2019).
The removal ability differs among vegetation types (Liang et al.,
2016), which can be measured by the deposition velocity, through
wind tunnel experiments (McCready, 1986), field measurements
(Vong et al., 2010), and equation simulations (Petroff et al., 2008;
Vong et al., 2010). However, the deposition velocity only describes the
situation of an airstream passing a single leaf surface instead of a
whole forest (Janhäll, 2015). To estimate the particulate matter depos-
ited under realistic conditions, a dry deposition model was built for
larger scale modeling (Petroff and Zhang, 2010). The Urban Forest Ef-
fects (UFORE) model, the most widely used dry deposition model and
now integrated as i-Tree Eco model, has been used to study the magni-
tude of PM2.5 removal by urban vegetation and estimate the annual re-
moval rate of different vegetation types in cities (Bottalico et al., 2017;
Selmi et al., 2016). It plays an important role in managing urban vegeta-
tion. At a block scale, some studies have used the deposition velocities of
different tree species as a parameter to evaluate the use of green roofs,
green walls for improving urban air quality, and building energy savings
(Jayasooriya et al., 2017; Jeanjean et al., 2017). At a city or larger scale,
Nowak et al. (2013) used the dry deposition and Environmental Bene-
fits Mapping and Analysis Program (BenMAP) models to study the mag-
nitude of air pollution removal by urban vegetation and relative
monetary value in ten cities in the United States. This was extended to
the country scale for the United States (Hirabayashi and Nowak, 2016;
Nowak et al., 2014) and Canada (Nowak et al., 2018).
Although most studies conducted to date have assessed the total
amount of particulate matter removed in one city to emphasize the im-
portance of urban vegetation (Chen, 2014; Zhang et al., 2017) or cap-
tured the horizontal spatial heterogeneity of removal performance to
determine an effective planting regime (Escobedo and Nowak, 2009;
Tallis et al., 2011; Manes et al., 2016; Bottalico et al., 2017), there has
been little attention given to the variation in the vertical distribution
of particulate removal by vegetation with elevation. Specifically, the
vertical spatial heterogeneity of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) removal
by vegetation within a city has never been reported. A city is not only
two-dimensional at the horizontal scale but should also be considered
as a three-dimensional complex. Within the lower troposphere
(b1000 m) across a city, PM2.5 concentrations, topography, meteorolog-
ical factors, human activities, vegetation types, and vegetation function-
ality all exhibit vertical spatial heterogeneity (Li et al., 2018). These
factors significantly affect the dry deposition process, causing the
PM2.5 removal rates by vegetation to change sharply with elevation. De-
termining only the horizontal spatial heterogeneity of PM2.5 removal by
vegetation is not sufficient to develop a reasonable planting plan at the
city scale. Therefore, quantifying the impacts of vertical spatial hetero-
geneity and identifying its main impact factors would enable a better
understanding of the mechanisms controlling dry deposition and pro-
vide a scientific basis for the future vertical planting of urban vegetation
in line with three-dimensional city design. In addition, the i-Tree Eco
model ignores the spatiotemporal variability of leaf area index (LAI)
values for the same vegetation type within the city (Selmi et al.,
2016). LAI values are the key parameter in the model and significantly
influence the results of the estimation. The spatiotemporal dynamics
of the LAI and other parameters that vary with vegetation type should
be taken into account in a modified dry deposition model, which
would better estimate particulate matter removal. Furthermore, a vari-
ety of cities has formulated a plan for their future vegetation cover. For
example, the Great London Area (GLA) is projected to experience a for-
est cover increase from 20% to 30% by 2050 (Tallis et al., 2011). Strate-
gies to determine the future priority locations and vegetation types to
maximize the potential removal are still limited (Bodnaruk et al.,
2017; Kroeger et al., 2018). A future scenario analysis would provide a
way to optimize the total removal amount and strategically plant
urban vegetation in a potential planting area by comparing modeling re-
sults (Haaland and van den Bosch, 2015).
It is unfortunate that air pollution has become increasingly difficult
to control in Shenzhen City (Gong et al., 2012) because it is the most
populous city in China, with over 12 million residents (Lu et al., 2018).
As an important factor to mitigate air pollution, more effective long-
term planting of urban vegetation in limited public green spaces is nec-
essary to maximize the potential benefits to human health. The
Shenzhen City government has announced an ambitious plan to in-
crease urban vegetation cover from the current area (2015) of 35% to
40% by 2020. The type and location of potential vegetation cover is cru-
cial when making city-wide planting strategies. Thus, taking Shenzhen
City as a case study, this study quantified the vertical spatial heteroge-
neity of PM2.5 removal by urban vegetation using a modified dry depo-
sition model and estimated future planting scenarios. The aims of the
study were to: 1) better estimate particulate matter removal using a
modified dry deposition model, 2) quantify the effects of vertical spatial
heterogeneity, and 3) recommend a more effective planning strategy
for urban green spaces.
2. Methodology
2.1. Study area and data source
We selected Shenzhen City (113°46′ − 114°37′E，22°27′ − 22°52′
N) as a study area, located in southeastern China near Hong Kong. The
city is the one of most developed cities in China, with about 12.53 mil-
lion inhabitants in 2017. The climate of Shenzhen City is humid subtrop-
ical, with an average annual precipitation of 1935.8 mm and annual
mean temperature of 23.1 °C. Precipitation is concentrated from April
to October, with this period accounting for about 85% of the annual pre-
cipitation. The elevation in Shenzhen City was up to 914 m and hills cov-
ered over 60% of the city.
The urban vegetation in Shenzhen is composed of at least 337 spe-
cies (Song et al., 2011). Evergreen broad-leaved forests, various shrubs,
and herbaceous plants are present on the main mountains in the east
and southeast areas of the city. Evergreen broadleaf species are over-
whelmingly dominant, including Acacia mangium and Eucalyptus
citriodora, which cover a relatively large area of the city as exotic species
(Song et al., 2011), together with Schefflera octophylla, which is a native
species. The representative shrubs are Rhodomyrtus tomentosa and
Eurya chinensis. There is also N200 km of coastline where mangroves
and coastal plants grow, such as Sonneratia caseolaris and Avicennia ma-
rina (Chai et al., 2019).
Air pollution removal by vegetation in Shenzhen has been estimated
using the dry deposition model (Nowak et al., 2006; Nowak et al., 2018),
which combines environmental data (e.g., air pollution and meteoro-
logical data) with vegetation data (a map of the urban vegetation
cover and LAI data). Hourly concentrations of airborne PM2.5 data in
2015 were obtained from 24 monitoring stations (The National Envi-
ronmental Monitoring Center: http://www.cnemc.cn/) located
throughout Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Huizhou, which are the main cit-
ies in Guangdong Province. Fig. 1 only shows the monitoring stations lo-
cated in Shenzhen City, China. Five-minute meteorological data (wind
speed and precipitation) were collected from the 98 meteorological sta-
tions located in Shenzhen City over a one year period from January 2015
to December 2015 (Shenzhen Meteorological Data System: https://data.
szmb.gov.cn/). Deposition velocities (Vd) for PM2.5 related to wind
 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683 675

Fig. 1. Location of the study area and monitoring stations.

speed and tree species, were obtained from the literature for 17 tree
species (Nowak et al., 2013), including three vegetation types (ever-
green broadleaved, deciduous broadleaved, and evergreen needle-
leaved). For these three vegetation types, the average measured deposi-
tion velocities from the literature was used to estimate the Vd for that
vegetation type at each wind speed. For the Vd of the other vegetation
types, we used the average Vd from all measured velocities in the litera-
ture as a substitute due to data limitations (Table 1). The resuspension
of PM2.5 from trees varied with wind speed, with data acquired from
the literature (Beckett et al., 2000; Nowak et al., 2013; Pullman, 2009).
The range of typical wind speeds in Shenzhen City was mainly between
0 and 6 m/s and was extracted from five-minute wind speed data in
2015 (Shenzhen Meteorological Data System: https://data.szmb.gov.
cn/) using R studio software. In this study, we only summarized Vd
and the resuspension rate based on local wind speeds (Table 1).
The Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) LAI product was generated
from a time-series of Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer
(AVHRR)/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
reflectance data using general regression neural networks (GRNN)
(http://glcf.umd.edu/data/lai/). The data covered the period of
1982–2016, with a spatial resolution of 1 km. A previous study used
LAI data derived from MODIS to estimate the air pollution removal by
trees in Italy (Marando et al., 2016). However, a recent study found
that GLASS LAI had a higher percentage of good quality data and
smoother temporal profiles than MODIS LAI in China (Jin et al., 2017).
Therefore, we obtained 46 GLASS LAI images for 2015, with a temporal
resolution of eight-days. The daily LAI values were estimated from the
relative LAI images of an eight-day period. We assumed the LAI values
were consistent over these eight days. Images for the whole of
Shenzhen City were obtained from the National Remote Sensing Center
of China database, mosaicked, and georeferenced in the WGS 84 UTM
49 N reference system.
Boundary layer height data, with a temporal resolution of 1 h and a
spatial resolution of 0.67° × 0.5° monitored 365 × 24 times in 2015 were
derived from NASA (https://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov) and yielded a map of
the average hourly values of boundary layer height. The annual average
boundary layer height of Shenzhen City (438.8 m) was twice as large at
that in a previous study (200 m in the morning and 100 m in the

Table 1
The average deposition velocities (cm s−1) of PM2.5 and the resuspension rate (%) by wind speed per unit leaf area.

Forest type Latin name Wind speed (m/s)

1 2 3 4 5 6

Evergreen broadleaved Eucalyptus globulu/Ficus nitida 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
Deciduous broadleaved Quercus petrae/Alnus glutinosa/Fraxinus excelsio/Acer pseudoplatanus/Acer 0.03 0.14 0.25 0.38 0.51 0.63
campestr/Sorbus intermedi/Populus deltoides
Evergreen needle-leaved Pseudotsuga menziesi/Pinus nigra/Cupressocyparisx leylandii/Pinus strobu/Tsuga 0.04 0.55 1.06 1.24 1.42 1.60
canadensi/Tsuga japonic/Picea abie
Shrub/Wetland vegetation/Mosaic natural
0.03 0.24 0.45 0.55 0.66 0.76
vegetation/Mosaic tree and shrub
Resuspension rate % 1.5 3.0 4.5 6.0 7.5 9.0
676 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683
evening) (Nowak et al., 2013). A 300-m resolution urban vegetation
map of Shenzhen City was obtained from the European Space Agency
(ESA) GlobCover (http://maps.elie.ucl.ac.be/CCI/viewer/) defined with
the United Nations-Land Cover Classification System (LCCS). Individual
street trees and small patches were excluded from our analysis. Nine
vegetation types (Fig. 2) based on European Space Agency (ESA) classi-
fications were identified: deciduous broadleaved trees (T1), deciduous
shrubs (T2), evergreen broadleaved trees (T3), evergreen needle-
leaved trees (T4), evergreen shrubs (T5), mosaic natural vegetation
(T6), mosaic trees and shrubs (T7), wetland shrubs (T8), and wetland
trees (T9). ASTER GDEM V2 global digital elevation data was derived
from the geospatial data cloud (http://www.gscloud.cn/), with a 30 m
spatial resolution.
2.2. Spatiotemporal dry deposition model
To estimate the annual PM2.5 removal by vegetation and the corre-
sponding removal rate in Shenzhen City during non-precipitation pe-
riods throughout 2015, the analysis proceeded in three stages at the
city-level based on every pixel (area = 1 × 1 km): 1) build the spatio-
temporal pollutant dry deposition model, 2) rescale and map the pa-
rameters for modeling based on a remote sensing dataset and
monitoring station data, and 3) integrate data and provide a quantita-
tive and spatial assessment of air pollution removal.
The hourly pollution removal flux Fd (μg m−2h−1) can be obtained:
Fd ¼ Vd  C
where Vd (m s−1) is the deposition velocity of the pollutant to the leaf
surface and C (μg m−3) is the air pollutant concentration. Maps of
daily (24 h) pollution concentrations of PM2.5 were obtained from 24
monitors for 2015 by ordinary kriging interpolation to represent the av-
erage hourly concentration maps throughout the day (Jerrett et al.,
2006; Mercer et al., 2011; Salata et al., 2017). Maps of daily mean Vd
were estimated from the literature based on local vegetation types
and daily mean wind speed (Table 1). To model the daily mean wind
Fig. 2. Spatial distribution of urban vegetation types in Shenzhen City.
speed maps, the co-kriging method was used with elevation as a param-
eter (Luo et al., 2007). The spatial extent of the interpolation of these pa-
rameters was the boundary of Shenzhen City. These daily maps were all
rescaled to a 1 km cell size to match the 1 km daily GLASS LAI maps used
in the later calculation.
Based on Eq. (2), the annual removal rate Qi (g m−2 year−1) for each
urban vegetation pixeli over the whole year could be estimated as fol-
lows (Nowak et al., 2013; Bottalico et al., 2017):
365

Q i ¼ ∑ j¼1 F dij  LAI ij  T ij  1−Rij ð2Þ
where Fdij (μg m−2 h−1) is the hourly pollution removal flux for pixeli in
dayj; LAIij (m2 m−2) is the LAI value for pixeli in dayj from the remote
sensing dataset for the corresponding date; Tij (hour) is the time with
no precipitation for pixeli in dayj, depending upon the daily mean mag-
nitude of precipitation, which can be estimated by co-kriging with a to-
pographic index (Diodato, 2005; Sarangi et al., 2005). If the daily mean
magnitude of precipitation events was N0.2 × LAIij mm (Nowak et al.,
2013), all particles were assumed to be removed from the leaves and
the time with no-precipitation dropped to zero. Otherwise, the time
with no precipitation was assumed to be 24 h. During non–
precipitation periods, PM2.5 is often resuspended to the atmosphere
from leaf surfaces (Nowak et al., 2013; Pullman, 2009; Schaubroeck
et al., 2014). Rij is the resuspension rate of pixeli based on the local
wind speed and vegetation type, and was summarized from the litera-
ð1Þ ture (Table 1). The daily pollutant deposition for an annual series was
integrated to obtain the annual removal rate Qi for pixeli.
To calculate the total amount of PM2.5 removed for vegetation type k
(see Section 3.1), the removal rate was integrated to the map showing
the cover of each vegetation type:
n
Total PM 2:5 removalk ¼ ∑i¼1 Q ik  S ð3Þ
where n is the number of pixels of vegetation type k and S is the area of a
pixel (km2).
 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683 677

To calculate the average PM2.5 removal rate for vegetation type k, Table 2
total PM2.5 removal was normalized to the map area according to the re- Current vegetation cover and five future scenarios for Shenzhen City.

spective vegetation type: Scenario Elevation range (m)

Total 0–100 100–300 N300

Total PM2:5 removalk
Average PM 2:5 removal ratek ¼ ð4Þ
nS Max potential cover
Potential area km2 1972.0 1557.0 313.0 102.0
As a % of the total area 100 79 16 5
To compare the effect of air pollution removal by vegetation in
Current tree cover
Shenzhen City with other studies, the hourly change in PM2.5 concentra- Current area km2 690.2 395.2 214.0 81.0
tions and the hourly air quality improvement were also calculated as As a % of the total area 35 20 11 4
follows: Scenario 1: SP
(Same proportional increase)
m Total area km2 788.8 451.7 244.6 92.5
Total PM 2:5 removal ¼ ∑i¼1 Q i  S ð5Þ
As a % of the total area 40 23 12 5
Scenario 2: DA
Total PM 2:5 removal (Planted on developed area)
ΔP t ¼ ð6Þ
24  365ðhour per yearÞ Total area km2 788.8 493.8 214.0 81.0
As a % of the total area 40 25 11 4

ΔP t Scenario 3: CFA
ΔC μg=m3 ¼ ð7Þ (Planted on commercial forest area)
BL  A Total area km2 788.8 395.2 312.6 81.0
As a % of the total area 40 20 16 4
ΔP t Scenario 4: DA&BL
ΔC ð%Þ ¼ ð8Þ
ΔP t þ C  BL  A (Planted on developed area & bare land)
Total area km2 788.8 472.8 214.0 102.0
where total PM2.5 removal (tons) is the annual amount of PM2.5 removed As a % of the total area 40 24 11 5
Scenario 5: CFA&BL
by the urban vegetation in the study area, m is the number of pixels of
(Planted on commercial forest area & bare
urban vegetation, ΔPt (μg) is the hourly dry deposition of urban vegeta- land)
tion, ΔC (μg m−3) is the change in the PM2.5 concentration, BL (m) is the Total area km2 788.8 395.2 291.6 102.0
annual mean boundary layer height, A (m2) is the area of urban vegeta- As a % of the total area 40 20 15 5
tion cover which equals to m multiplying S, and ΔC (%) is the annual air
quality improvement in terms of the PM2.5 mass in the atmosphere and
is equal to the measured annual concentration C (μg m−3) multiplied by zones (Table 2). In the first scenario SP (same proportional increase),
BL and A. all vegetation cover in the three elevation zones (b100, 100–300, and
N300 m) increased at the same proportional rate and the total particu-
2.3. Scenario setting late removal was estimated. Under scenario DA (developed area), vege-
tation cover was only increased in the developed areas (b100 m), with
The Shenzhen City government has announced an ambitious plan to the vegetation cover in other areas left unaltered. In the third scenario
increase urban vegetation cover from the current area ratio (2015) of CFA (commercial forests area), the vegetation cover was only increased
35% to 40% by 2020. This could be achieved by the planting of vegetation in the 100–300 m area in the commercial forest area. In the fourth sce-
on impervious surfaces or by encouraging the planting of trees and nario BA&DA (bare land area & developed area), the potential planting
shrubs in commercial forests and bare land, namely the potentially area in bare land areas (N300 m) was insufficient to meet the demand
available land area corresponding to three categories of vertical eleva- for 5% growth in vegetation cover (from 35% to 40%). Therefore, the re-
tion: developed areas (b100 m), commercial forests areas maining increase in tree cover occurred in the developed area (b100 m).
(100–300 m), and bare land areas (N300 m) in Shenzhen City. To esti- In the fifth scenario BA&CFA (bare land area & commercial forests area),
mate the vegetation type and the planting location that would offer after returning the bare land to vegetation cover above 300 m, the re-
the greatest mitigation potential, we ran models for future scenarios maining tree cover was obtained by returning commercial forests area
from the perspective of the vertical spatial heterogeneity of urban to natural vegetation in the 100–300 m area. The vegetation type with
vegetation. the best PM2.5 removal rate in different elevation zones was assumed
In previous scenario simulations (Tallis et al., 2011), the vertical het- to be planted in the different scenarios (more details in Section 3.2),
erogeneity of the removal potential of vegetation in a city has often been and we assumed that the newly planted areas will reach a normal can-
ignored. For example, it has been reported that coniferous forests are opy size by 2020 through transplanting.
very effective at removing particulate matter from the urban atmo-
sphere, and are therefore recommended in urban areas (Manes et al., 3. Results
2016). However, there has been no discussion regarding the differences
in PM2.5 removal rate of coniferous forests between low-elevation and 3.1. Removal of PM2.5 by urban vegetation
high-elevation regions in urban areas, especially in mountainous cities.
In our scenario simulations, we firstly estimated the PM2.5 removal rate The total amount of PM2.5 removed by urban vegetation in 2015 was
of different vegetation types in three elevation zones (b100, 100–300, 1000.1 tons, the average amount removed per unit leaf area of vegeta-
and N300 m), and identified the vegetation with the highest PM2.5 re- tion was 1.6 g m−2 year −1, and the best annual improvement in local
moval rate in each elevation zone (see Section 3.2). We then designed air quality was 3% by pixel, with an average of 1%. The highest PM2.5 re-
future scenarios by changing the proportion of potentially available moval rate of 3.89 g m−2 year−1 was found in the east of Shenzhen City,
land area in different elevation zones to vegetation cover. In the differ- where there was continuous urban vegetation, including a large nature
ent scenarios, vegetation type with the highest PM2.5 removal rate reserve, with high levels of green vegetation cover that was protected
was assumed to be planted in the potentially available land area and by the local ecological conservation policy (Lin, 2017). Lower PM2.5 re-
the total amount of particulate removed was then estimated (see moval rates were found in the middle and western developed zones,
Section 3.3). where small scattered green patches and cropland have replaced most
We ran models for five future scenarios to determine the effect of of the original urban forest, leading to lower LAI values in the developed
PM2.5 removal by increasing vegetation cover in different elevation zones, and thus the potential total amount of PM2.5 removed by urban
678 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683
vegetation was clearly reduced. The same phenomenon was reported
by Manes et al. (2016), who found that the proportion of green cover
and LAI values varied within cities, which significantly influenced the
estimation of total pollution removal capacity and the removal rate
using a dry deposition model.
The annual removal of PM2.5 varied from 587.9 tons by evergreen
broad-leaved vegetation to 1.3 tons by wetland shrubs (Fig. 3). The rea-
son why evergreen broad-leaved forest accounted for the highest PM2.5
removal was that it occupied the largest area, more than one-fifth of the
total vegetation cover. The annual average PM2.5 removal rate of vegeta-
tion within the city followed the order of: evergreen shrubs N evergreen
needle-leaved forest N evergreen broadleaved forest N deciduous
broadleaved forest N mosaic trees and shrubs N mosaic natural vegeta-
tion N wetland trees N wetland shrubs N deciduous shrubs. The ever-
green vegetation types were more effective than deciduous vegetation
based on higher annual PM2.5 removal and average removal rates. The
removal performance of needle-leaved vegetation was slightly better
than that of broad-leaved vegetation in our results. Fig. 4 showed the es-
timated spatial distribution of pixels in which urban vegetation re-
moved PM2.5 (g m−2) in Shenzhen City, where there was a spatial
heterogeneity in the vegetation PM2.5 removal rate. Compared with
the map of urban vegetation types (Fig. 2), it could be seen that there
were different PM2.5 removal rates in different areas for certain types
of urban vegetation. There was a trend for the PM2.5 removal rate to in-
crease from northwest to southeast, which was similar to the pattern of
elevation across Shenzhen City (Fig. 1).
3.2. Removal of PM2.5 with elevation
Fig. 5 showed that the trend in the annual PM2.5 removal rate
(g m−2), average LAI, and PM2.5 concentrations were generally linked
with elevation. It was interesting to note that, with an increase in eleva-
tion, the PM2.5 removal rate and the LAI values displayed an increasing
trend. The relationship between the PM2.5 removal rate and LAI yielded
an R2 value of 0.6 (p b 0.005), and the relationship between the removal
rate and elevation was similarly strong (R2 = 0.6, p b 0.005). In contrast,
Fig. 3. Annual PM2.5 removal (tons) and average removal rates (g m−2) per leaf area by urban vegetation type.
the relationship between elevation and PM2.5 concentrations (R2 = 0.2,
p b 0.005) were weakly negative. As we discussed before when
explaining the dry deposition model, the PM2.5 removal rate was calcu-
lated by both the pollution concentration and the LAI values. Based on
the regression analysis among these factors, the results indicated that
as elevation varied, the PM2.5 removal rates were more affected by the
LAI values than PM2.5 concentrations (Manes et al., 2016).
By combining a map of vegetation types and elevation data, we esti-
mated the average PM2.5 removal rate by urban vegetation (g m−2) and
vegetation cover (km2) at different elevations (Fig. 6). In general, as the
elevation increased, the PM2.5 removal rate of most vegetation types in-
creased. The total vegetation cover of all vegetation types was largest in
the 100–300 m elevation zone, but then dropped to its lowest level in
the area above 300 m.
It was found that the removal rate of different vegetation types var-
ied with elevation. For evergreen shrubs (T5), the average removal rate
was the highest in the whole study area but only located below 100 m.
Evergreen broadleaved forests (T3) were widely distributed across the
different topographic zones and achieved the best PM2.5 removal rate
above 300 m. Evergreen needle-leaved forests (T4) also achieved a rel-
atively high removal rate in the area above 300 m compared to other
vegetation types in the same terrain. Wetland trees (T9) were also an ef-
fective vegetation type below 100 m, and were dominated by man-
groves, which represented a small arbor community that grew along
the coast. In addition to the assessment of habitat provision among
mangrove ecosystems, their PM2.5 removal performance should also
be addressed in future studies. Compared with the other types of vege-
tation in the same elevation zone, it was noteworthy that evergreen
shrubs (T5), evergreen broadleaved forests (T3), and evergreen
needle-leaved forests (T4) had the highest removal efficiency within
the b100, 100–300, and N300 m elevation zones, respectively. The area
(km2) covered by the different vegetation types also varied with topog-
raphy. Due to its suitability or previous planting schemes, evergreen
shrubs and wetland vegetation were only present below 100 m. Ever-
green broadleaved forests, the most common vegetation type in
Shenzhen City, occupied the largest area in all elevation zones. The
 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683 679

Fig. 4. Spatial distribution of PM2.5 removal by urban vegetation in Shenzhen City.

second most widely planted vegetation type across the entire study area for PM2.5 removal were not maximized in each elevation zone, except
was evergreen needle-leaved forests. Based on the current vegetation for in the 100–300 m zone. The potential for PM2.5 removal was limited
cover, we found that the areas covered by the most effective vegetation due to the previous planting scheme. To enable PM2.5 removal by

Fig. 5. Changes in the PM2.5 concentration, LAI, and removal rate with elevation. The locally weighted linear regression method was used to fit curves.
680 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683
Fig. 6. The PM2.5 removal rate (g m−2) and area (km2) of different elevation zones based on urban vegetation. For each elevation zone (b100, 100–300, N300 m), the removal rate is shown
as a color-coded bar that represents a particular vegetation type. The dark blue points show the trends in vegetation cover with elevation among the different vegetation types. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
vegetation to be fully effective, a new planting scheme is needed based
on the results of this study.
3.3. Removal of PM2.5 by the current and future vegetation cover
The total annual amounts of PM2.5 removed by dry deposition for
current and future scenarios are illustrated in Fig. 7. With an equal addi-
tional expansion to the current urban canopy in scenario SP, by 2020 the
total annual deposition of PM2.5 was estimated to be 1276.9 tons,
equating to a 27.68% increase. Under scenario DA, planting dedicated
to increasing the evergreen shrubs canopy in the developed area
(b100 m) offered a slight advantage in terms of increased deposition
over the other canopy types: 1308 tons (30.79% above 2015 level).
Implementing a 40% vegetation canopy cover under scenario CFA,
where evergreen broadleaved forest was the most effective vegetation
type planted in the 100–300 m zone, would result in an annual capture
of 1220.6 tons (22.04% above 2015 level). Under Scenario DA&BL, bare
land would be returned to evergreen needle-leaved vegetation above
Fig. 7. Estimated annual PM2.5 removal for the current and five future scenarios. In
scenario SP (same Proportion), vegetation cover across all elevation zones increased at
the same proportional rate. In scenario DA (developed areas), vegetation cover
increased in the developed areas (b100 m), with the vegetation cover in other areas left
unaltered. In scenario CFA (commercial forest area), the vegetation cover only increased
in the area of commercial forest at 100–300 m. In scenario DA&BL (developed area &
bare land), the potential planting area was in bare land areas (N300 m) and the
developed area (b100 m). In the CFA&BL scenario (commercial forest area & bare land),
vegetation cover was increased in both bare land areas (N300 m) and commercial forest
area (100–300 m).
300 m and evergreen shrubs would be planted to ensure that vegetation
cover remains in developed areas. Pollution removal was estimated to
be 1300.8 tons, which was 30.07% higher than in 2015. Under Scenario
CFA&BL, all bare land above 300 m was returned to evergreen conifer-
ous forest, while the remaining vegetation cover was evergreen
broadleaved forest planted as a substitute for existing commercial for-
ests. The pollution reduction was estimated to be 1232.1 tons (23.19%
above 2015).
Of the five scenarios considered in this study, scenario DA, which in-
creased the proportion of evergreen shrubs in the developed area
(b100 m), had the greatest potential for atmospheric PM2.5 mitigation
due to the more concentrated pollutant exposure and relatively high
LAI in the area.
4. Discussion
4.1. Annual PM2.5 removal and air quality improvement
This study developed a spatiotemporal method to visualize the
amount of PM2.5 removed by urban vegetation. The method was based
on a large amount of remote sensing data, monitoring site data, spatial
interpolation and geographical information system (GIS) analysis. The
dry deposition model considered the spatiotemporal dynamics of LAI
and other key parameters with the variability of vegetation type,
which was a new approach to accurately estimate air particulate re-
moval at the city-level.
Despite the absence of in situ validation of the resutls, our results
were still in line with other studies in China and other countries,
which used the dry deposition model. Our calculation of pollution re-
moval indicated the total deposition of PM2.5 to be 1000.1 tons for the
dry deposition model (Fig. 3), which was similar to the 772 tons of
PM10 deposition estimated in previous studies in Beijing City (Yang
et al., 2005). This approach indicated an annual PM2.5 removal rate of
1.6 g m−2 year−1 by urban vegetation in Shenzhen City for the annual
PM2.5 concentration of 30 μg m−3 in 2015. Our results compared well
with the PM2.5 removal rate of 2.6 g m−2 year−1 by vegetation in Beijing
City, with an annual PM2.5 concentration of 100 μg m−3 in 2012, and the
removal rate of 3.1 g m−2 year−1 by a Scots pine stand in Belgium, with
an annual PM2.5 concentration of 40 μg m−3 in 2014, after considering
resuspension (Chen, 2014; Schaubroeck et al., 2014). The annual air
quality improvement in terms of PM2.5 obtained in this study was
equivalent to a PM2.5 reduction of about 1% and was comparable to
levels reported in the Sichuan Basin (1.14%) and the boreal forest in
northeastern China (0.92%) (Zhang et al., 2017).
 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683
4.2. Elevation, vegetation types, LAI, and PM2.5 removal
This study considered the impact of vertical spatial heterogeneity on
the efficiency of PM2.5 removal by vegetation with elevation. We found
that the PM2.5 removal rates of vegetation increased with elevation in
Shenzhen City due to the increase in LAI values (Fig. 5) and the impact
of vegetation types (Fig. 6). Previous studies have shown that LAI values
had a strong positive relationship with the PM2.5 removal rates (Nowak,
2006; Bottalico et al., 2017; Manes et al., 2016) and were in keeping
with our study in which LAI values indicated the growth of vegetation
in Shenzhen City and were seen as a good proxy for the removal rates
of vegetation. Furthermore, our results also indicated that LAI values
and elevation were positively correlated (Fig. 5). We speculated that
as elevation increased, the rate of photosynthesis would increase and
the negative effects of high temperatures would decrease, which further
improved the LAI values of individual vegetation type (Manes et al.,
2016; Song et al., 2014). Also, human disturbance and forest crown den-
sity are the key factors influencing changes in LAI values. There was a
range in elevation from 0 to 914 m across the study area, with the eco-
logical red line policy in Shenzhen City for forest cultivation strictly im-
plemented above 100 m. As a result, few human disturbances were
above 100 m leading to the growth of dense forests. This has also led
to high LAI values, attributing to the increased PM2.5 removal rates.
However, PM2.5 removal was also limited by vegetation type and the
adaptability of different species across the elevation gradient. Decidu-
ous trees and shrubs have lower PM2.5 removal rates (averagely
0.41 g m−2 year−1) through deposition due to the shorter in-leaf sea-
son, which results in lower average LAI values than evergreen and
needle-leaved vegetation (Bottalico et al., 2017), in all elevation zones.
Trees were more efficient at PM2.5 removal than most of the shrubs in
Fig. 6. We found an exception for evergreen shrubs, with a high mean
removal rate (2.9 g m−2 year−1), which was only at a low elevation
due to its adaptation to the environment. This vegetation maintained
a large foliage density and high LAI throughout the year they could ef-
fectively reduce the wind speed and resuspension rate (Beckett et al.,
2000). The presence of leaf epicuticle waxes, which was a particular
morphological characteristic of the evergreen shrubs in Shenzhen City,
allowed this type of leaf surface to perform as an effective air pollution
filter to capture PM2.5 (Janhäll, 2015). Furthermore, the height of a typ-
ical evergreen shrub was within the range of a pedestrian's respiratory
layer, so their effect on the removal of industrial emissions, automobile
exhaust, and road dust was more pronounced than for other vegetation
types (Nowak et al., 2006). Because tree species are considered to be
more efficient at removing air pollution, the majority of studies have fo-
cused on trees rather than shrubs, which have been largely neglected.
Our results were in agreement with those of Sæbø et al. (2012) and
Manes et al. (2016), which highlighted the important role of evergreen
shrubs in PM10 and O3 removal. Evergreen shrubs such as R. tomentosa
and E. chinensis in Shenzhen City were the most efficient vegetation
type for PM2.5 removal in developed areas, followed by evergreen
needle-leaved and evergreen broadleaved vegetation.
Climatic conditions may also affect deposition rates by affecting
vegetation productivity (Tallis et al., 2011), which is particularly ev-
ident in the evergreen needle-leaved species. A previous study found
that evergreen needle-leaved trees were the most effective species
for the removal of air particulate matter in all elevation zones of cit-
ies (Sæbø et al., 2012), based on study area that was mostly located
in middle and high latitudes, with temperate climate and four dis-
tinct seasons. Our research area, Shenzhen City, is characterized by
subtropical monsoon climatic conditions, with long, hot and humid
summer. The extreme heat is likely to exert a negative effect on veg-
etation growth, especially for evergreen needle-leaved trees at a low
elevation (Grant et al., 2005). Therefore, our results demonstrated
that evergreen needle-leaved forests were the most effective at trap-
ping particulate matter in the N300 m elevation zone in subtropical
zones.
681
4.3. Future scenario implications
The results showed that extending the area of evergreen shrubs in
areas of high pollution exposure offered the greatest potential for
PM2.5 removal from the atmosphere (Fig. 7). For major or local road-
ways, the middle lanes and parkways should be used to increase the
vegetation cover. The planting design may allow the dispersion (“can-
yon”) effect to be minimized by avoiding long unbroken lines of vegeta-
tion or preventing the crown from closing over the roads (Hofman et al.,
2013; Jeanjean et al., 2017; Xue and Li, 2017). Planting in the developed
area would also be possible though green rooftops and green walls
which also confers long-term benefits to public health and urban vital-
ity. Although a green roof can be constructed or vertical greening tech-
nologies can be implemented in residential and industrial buildings,
practical issues around waterproofing and drainage technology, and
the consequent costs should also be determined in further studies
(Guo et al., 2019).
Considering the costs and limited urban land resources in the devel-
oped area, the planting strategy of scenario DA&BL could also be ap-
plied, i.e., to mainly plant evergreen needle-leaved forests in potential
planting areas above 300 m, and then plant evergreen shrubs in the de-
veloped area. This greening strategy minimizes the negative effects of
disrupting the everyday lives of urban residents when rebuilding
green infrastructure, and promotes urban economic development. Ac-
tually, practical greening programs will not only rely on building-scale
developments but also city-level actions; more engineers, urban de-
signers, and landscape architects need to be encouraged to develop
urban green planting and infrastructure programs (Guo et al., 2019).
4.4. Uncertainties
While the spatial and temporal variability of environmental param-
eters (e.g., air pollutant concentrations and meteorological conditions)
and vegetation parameters (e.g., LAI values, resuspension rate, deposi-
tion velocity, and the spatial distribution of vegetation types) were
taken into account to enhance model adoption in Shenzhen City or
other cities, there were some limitations in this study due to the uncer-
tainties of the parameters adopted in the model.
Firstly, the spatial map of vegetation distribution relied primarily on
the ESA GlobeCover map, which has a resolution of 300 m. Although its
uncertainty was indicated to be no N30% (Congalton et al., 2014), for a
better spatially explicit estimation of deposition and tree planting
plan, a finer remote sensing resolution is needed to distinguish different
tree species rather than vegetation categories. In the future, airborne
laser radar could be used to identify the different tree species over a
small scale (Bottalico et al., 2017).
Secondly, the uncertainty of GLASS LAI data for different biome types
was unknown, although a previous study showed that GLASS data had a
strong linear relationship with MODIS (R2 = 0.855), which showed a
relative uncertainty for vegetation of no N20% (Xiao et al., 2014). On
the other hand, GLASS produces a more continuous LAI map than
other products due to the annual neural network approach and is
more suitable for the estimation of long-term sequences on a spatial
scale (Fang et al., 2013).
Thirdly, based on literature review, this study summarized the Vd of
different vegetation types, but more local dry deposition velocities need
to be assessed for a range of climate zones and vegetation types need to
be assessed more accurately to estimate air pollution removal rates.
Wind tunnel experiments are also needed to further validate the results
(Freer-Smith et al., 2004; Ji and Zhao, 2018).
Lastly, according to the uncertainty analysis of the Kriging interpola-
tion, the results of cross validation to assess the method performance
showed that average Root Standard Mean Error (RSME) values of
daily PM2.5 concentration, precipitation, and wind speed were 4.1, 0.1,
and 0.7, respectively. The performance of the Kriging interpolation
was consistent with that of other studies (Lin et al., 2018; Luo et al.,
682 J. Wu et al. / Science of the Total Environment 688 (2019) 673–683
2007; Diodato, 2005). Despite these limitations, we proposed a method
to quantify urban particulate removal within a city and determine its
horizontal and vertical spatial heterogeneity, providing an important
reference for the construction of urban green infrastructure and the
control of PM2.5 air pollution. Compared with other studies that have
used more expensive measuring instruments and conducted long-
term field sampling, our research provides an applicable alternative
based on remote sensing and monitoring dataset, and could be easily
extended to other cities.
5. Conclusion
The potential effect of urban vegetation in Shenzhen City on the re-
moval of PM2.5 from the atmosphere was assessed using a spatiotempo-
ral dry deposition model. The annual PM2.5 removal by vegetation in
Shenzhen City was 1000.1 tons in 2015. The range of average air quality
improvements estimated in the five scenarios used here was 1.4–1.5% in
line with the estimate for the Three-North Shelter Forest Program in
northern China, at 1% (Zhang et al., 2017). The data reported here sug-
gested that there was a vertical spatial heterogeneity of the removal
rates by urban vegetation, due to the variation in elevation across the
city, which affected the growth of vegetation as characterized by LAI
values. With an increase in elevation, both the PM2.5 removal rate by
vegetation and LAI values increased. The results indicated that under a
subtropical monsoon climate, evergreen shrubs, evergreen broadleaved
and evergreen needle-leaved forests had the highest removal efficiency
of all the vegetation types involved within the b100, 100–300, and
N300 m elevations, respectively. Expanding urban vegetation cover
would have a positive impact on air quality by removing PM2.5, and
planting new evergreen shrubs in developed areas (b100 m) would re-
sult in the greatest removal potential.
Acknowledgments
This research was financially supported by the Science, Technology
and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality (No.
JCYJ20170412150910443).
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