Mapping and assessment of pollutant removal by urban trees in Rome

Lina Fusaro and colleagues from the La Sapienza University of Rome have mapped the removal of PM10 and ozone by urban trees in Rome, one of the EnRoute city labs, as well as at regional level. They combined high resolution remote sensing data with measured pollutant concentrations to estimate the physical removal of pollutants by trees.  A damage cost approach was used to estimate the monetary value associated to pollutant removal. The overall pollution removal accounted for 5123 and 19,074 tonne of PM10 and O3, respectively, with a relative monetary benefit of 161 and 149 Million euro for PM10 and O3, respectively.  

Relevance for EnRoute:

Pollutant removal by trees is a key indicator to assess regulating ecosystem services. The growing availability of remote sensing data (Copernicus, MODIS) to map urban green space and to map the leaf area index of urban vegetation (an important parameter for calculating removal rate) allows a consistent mapping of this indicator for all cities at European level.