TY - JOUR
T1 - Optimization of residential green space for environmental sustainability and property appreciation in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona
AU - Wang, Chuyuan
AU - Turner, V. Kelly
AU - Wentz, Elizabeth A.
AU - Zhao, Qunshan
AU - Myint, Soe W.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was based upon work supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under grant number NA12OAR4310100 and is supported the ongoing Central Arizona Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP-LTER) program at Arizona State University that is funded by the National Science Foundation under grant number BCS-1026865 . Dr. Qunshan Zhao from the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) at the University of Glasgow received support from the UK Economic and Social Research Council under grant number of ES/L011921/1 and ES/S007105/1 . We also would like to thank the Gurobi Optimizer for providing a free academic license for solving the integer programming problems and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/4/1
Y1 - 2021/4/1
N2 - Cities in arid and semi-arid regions have been exploring urban sustainability policies, such as lowering the vegetation coverage to reduce residential outdoor water use. Meanwhile, urban residents express concerns that such policies could potentially impact home prices regardless of the reduced water costs because studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between vegetation coverage and home values. On the other hand, lower vegetation coverage in arid and semi-arid desert regions could increase surface temperatures, and consequently increases energy costs. The question is therefore where the point in which residential outdoor water use can be minimized without overly increasing surface temperatures and negatively impacting home values. This study examines the impacts of spatial composition of different vegetation types on land surface temperature (LST), outdoor water use (OWU), and property sales value (PSV) in 302 local residential communities in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona using remotely sensed data and regression analysis. In addition, the spatial composition of vegetation cover was optimized to achieve a relatively lower LST and OWU and maintain a relatively higher PSV at the same time. We found that drought-tolerant landscaping that is composed of mostly shrubs and trees adapted to the desert environment is the most water efficient way to reduce LST, but grass contributes to a higher PSV. Research findings suggest that different residential landscaping strategies may be better suited for different neighborhoods and goal sets can be used by urban planners and city managers to better design urban residential landscaping for more efficient water conservation and urban heat mitigation for desert cities.
AB - Cities in arid and semi-arid regions have been exploring urban sustainability policies, such as lowering the vegetation coverage to reduce residential outdoor water use. Meanwhile, urban residents express concerns that such policies could potentially impact home prices regardless of the reduced water costs because studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between vegetation coverage and home values. On the other hand, lower vegetation coverage in arid and semi-arid desert regions could increase surface temperatures, and consequently increases energy costs. The question is therefore where the point in which residential outdoor water use can be minimized without overly increasing surface temperatures and negatively impacting home values. This study examines the impacts of spatial composition of different vegetation types on land surface temperature (LST), outdoor water use (OWU), and property sales value (PSV) in 302 local residential communities in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona using remotely sensed data and regression analysis. In addition, the spatial composition of vegetation cover was optimized to achieve a relatively lower LST and OWU and maintain a relatively higher PSV at the same time. We found that drought-tolerant landscaping that is composed of mostly shrubs and trees adapted to the desert environment is the most water efficient way to reduce LST, but grass contributes to a higher PSV. Research findings suggest that different residential landscaping strategies may be better suited for different neighborhoods and goal sets can be used by urban planners and city managers to better design urban residential landscaping for more efficient water conservation and urban heat mitigation for desert cities.
KW - Evapotranspiration
KW - Green space
KW - Land surface temperature
KW - Optimization
KW - Outdoor water use
KW - Property sales value
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U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144605
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144605
M3 - Article
C2 - 33383515
AN - SCOPUS:85098721489
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 763
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 144605
ER -