Urban greening strategies for mitigating heat exposure and enhancing bird diversity

Urbanization impact local climate by replacing green spaces with anthropogenic structures, which can increase heat exposure and diminish biodiversity. Minimizing these threats is required to maintain sustainable cities and communities globally, though the effectiveness of urban greening have not been broadly explored. Here, we analyze data from 1,039 cities worldwide to assess associations between urban greening and bird diversity. Urban greening was associated with 23–34% lower extreme heat exposure for birds when green-space quantity or quality was higher. Expanding green cover by 5–10% of total urban area showed the largest reductions, while higher green-space quality was also associated with lower heat exposure and greater bird diversity. Across cities worldwide, these greening scenarios were associated with 2–3% higher bird diversity. Our findings suggest that adopting urban greening practices would support and enhance urban biodiversity worldwide, a crucial component in the development of sustainable cities and communities. Research across 1,039 cities worldwide shows that improving the amount, quality and placement of urban green space could reduce birds’ extreme heat exposure by 34 to 39% and increase urban bird diversity by 2 to 4%.