Cooling Potential of Urban Tree Species during Extreme Heat and Drought: A Thermal Remote Sensing Assessment

The cooling potential of tree species in Central European cities is insufficiently studied during extreme heat and drought, although a stronger surge in heatwaves compared to the global average is observed in this region. Remote sensing-based thermal surveys are an important tool to shed light on the mitigation effects of green infrastructure, but approaches covering extreme events are scarce. In this study, we present a simple, low-cost thermal airborne methodology that covers the current daily heat record in 2022, after the second warmest and third driest spring-to-summer period since 1949, in the medium-sized German city of Forchheim. We found that in spite of record-breaking heat and drought conditions, trees still had a considerable cooling potential with surface temperatures of 2 °C to 6 °C below air temperatures. Tree species were characterized by substantial median differences in tree surface temperatures up to 3.64 °C. Conifers and drought-sensitive broadleaf species showed the highest temperatures during the extreme event, while riparian species with potentially good water provision showed the highest cooling potential. In addition to tree species, imperviousness and tree NDVI were important variables for urban tree surface temperature, showing positive (imperviousness) and negative (NDVI) correlations with tree surface temperatures. Our study provides a methodological remote sensing example for the spontaneous and rapid coverage of extreme events, documenting the benefits of tree species in the urban context.