Urban greening effectively curbs warming in Chinese cities

Urban greening effectively curbs warming in Chinese cities | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Urban greening effectively curbs warming in Chinese cities Tingting Bai, Lin Yang, Yuyu Zhou, Bin Chen, Yongze Song, Yuan Yuan, and 12 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2948704/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Urban greening (UG) affects local climate by altering surface energy balance, while long-term UG cooling potential, patterns, and contribution to curbing urban warming remain unclear. Here we designed an novel statistical model with universal applicability to evaluate the cooling potential of UG (CPUG) and created the first CPUG map for China. By exploring the trends in observed and simulated urban surface temperatures (UST), we quantified the CPUG of 0.20 ± 2.02 K pver the past two decades, which slowed down the warming trend by 14.17% in Chinese cities. We found that the CPUG varied significantly between the urban core and sprawl areas. Specifically, the CPUG in the urban core was approximately 1.01 ± 1.53 K, and it contributed to curbing urban warming by 56.08%, which was more than 7.2 times higher than in the sprawl areas, where the CPUG was only 0.14 ± 1.95 K and contributed to curbing urban warming by 9.93%. We further revealed that urbanization and major ecological restoration projects are the key factors influencing CPUG, emphasizing the need for anthropogenic vegetation management to curb urban warming. The proposed model in this study provide a powerful tool for quantitatively assessing the impact of long-term UG trends on urban warming. The results of the study are an important reference for building climate-adaptive cities. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate-change mitigation Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology/Urban ecology Scientific community and society/Geography Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files DongthesupplementaryinformationsubmittedtoNCITIES.pdf Supplementary information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2948704","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":202483318,"identity":"064ef087-d0ec-45c8-b934-a98f10fab478","order_by":0,"name":"Tingting Bai","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northeastern University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tingting","middleName":"","lastName":"Bai","suffix":""},{"id":202483319,"identity":"d0c073d9-59d9-427a-af44-9d0be36e9d25","order_by":1,"name":"Lin Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Nanjing 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