100 Moreno-García and Baena: The Microclimatic Effect of Green Infrastructure this cooling effect. The Barcelona Green Infrastruc- ture and Biodiversity Plan 2020 (Parés et al. 2013) sets out a long-term plan of action in order to achieve green infrastructure, its connectivity, and the conser- vation of biodiversity. So it is very interesting from a scientific point of view, as well as for the improve- ment of urban climates, to further investigate the ther- mal effects of parks and the trees they contain (taking into account the effects of density, size, and species). The municipality of Barcelona in the northeast of and has a population of 1,604,555 Spain is 102.2 km2 inhabitants (2015), so its population density is very high at 15.706 inhabitants/km2 surface per capita is very low at 7.0 m2 , and the urban green (Hernández 2017). In the urban continuum, except the peripheral zone, there are few parks. Only Ciutadella Park has a notable surface area of 31.1 ha. The high urban den- sity of Barcelona produces some environmental prob- lems: air pollution, dense traffic, noise, etc., as well as high temperatures at night in the central neighbor- hoods due to a frequently intense urban heat island. The UHI effect has been investigated in numerous Mediterranean cities (Moreno-García and Serra - Pardo 2016). An early study on the UHI intensity in Barcelona (Moreno-García 1994) showed that the average difference between urban and rural tempera- ture was +1.4°C (2.52°F)(+2.9°C [5.22°F]) referring to the average daily minimum, while the maximum UHI intensity exceeded 8°C (14.4°F). The average UHI intensity was slightly greater during winter months. After the important urban transformation of the city due to the 1992 Olympic Games, a new study about the possible differences in the UHI of the pre- and the post-Olympic city was made (Martín-Vide et al. 2003). The analysis of the new measurements and results did not seem to lead to a significant variation in the intensity of its UHI, partly because of the pop- ulation stability in the metropolitan area and the decrease in the population of the city itself. The new buildings constructed have tended to produce a more uniform behavior in the surface thermal field. A recent study of the UHI of Barcelona’s metropolitan area based on temperature differences between urban and non-urban meteorological stations, urban tran- sects, and the sky view factor has confirmed the high intensity of its UHI, with the core in the central neigh- borhood, depending on the weather types (Martín- Vide et al. 2015). Another study has focused on the intensity of the UHI in Barcelona and its impact on the cooling ©2019 International Society of Arboriculture demand of residential buildings (Salvati et al. 2017). The experimental analysis in this work is based on temperature data from rural and urban weather sta- tions and field measurements at street level. The max- imum average UHI intensity was found to be 2.8°C (5.04°F) in winter and 1.7°C (3.06°F) in summer, reaching 4.3°C (7.74°F) at street level. The objective of this article is to improve the knowledge of the cool effect at night of the biggest park in the city of Barcelona. For this purpose, a pilot study recording temperatures inside and outside the park was carried out from December of 2014 to March of 2015. The recording period coincides approxi- mately with the period of the year with a greater intensity of the heat island in Barcelona. The compar- ison of the values recorded inside and outside will give us a picture of the magnitude of the park’s cool- ing effect. This effect depends mainly on the weather type, which has been studied for the nights analyzed. METHODS Study Area: the Ciutadella Park Barcelona is located in the eastern Mediterranean coast of Spain and has a Mediterranean climate (Csa, Köppen type). The annual mean precipitation is 600 mm and the rainiest season is autumn. The mean tem- perature in July and August is 25°C (77°F) and 10°C (50°F) in January. The Ciutadella historic park is located in the east- ern part of Barcelona, close to the sea, between the new quarter of Vila Olímpica, built for the Olympic Games of 1992, the Ensanche, a central district of new construction from 19th century, and the down- town area (Figure 1). Its location corresponds to the place where Felipe V ordered the building of a great military citadel in the year 1715. In 1869, the general Prim ceded this space for the city with the condition that it was used as a public park. The slogan of the winning project to convert it into a public park was: “The gardens are to the city what the lungs to the human body.” A zoo occupies half of the ground. The park includes differentiated areas such as a large cen- tral square with a monumental fountain (The Water- fall), a “great lake,” a tree-lined walkway, and several ornamental gardens, among others. Some of the old military buildings and pavilions today house different public services. The park has a considerable variety of trees and plant species. Among the most abundant tree species
May 2019
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