Urban Trees Improve Health, Reduce Crime

By Shanna Edberg
October 28, 2015

Planting trees in urban areas and neighborhoods provides many benefits for the environment and local community. Urban greenery is not only beautiful, but also lowers stress, pollution, noise, and heat levels. Studies have shown that neighborhoods with trees experience less crime, and tree cover is also associated with improved cardio, skin, and lung health. Lower-income and minority neighborhoods enjoy less tree cover than their counterparts and could greatly benefit from focused planting efforts.

**Climate Protection: **Sequesters carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the atmosphere and soil; provides shelter for wildlife **Energy & Mobility: **Decreases energy needed for cooling **Resilience: **Lowers flood risk and wind speed** Food & Water: **Improves water quality by absorbing pollutants from the air and soil** Jobs & Assets: **Increases property values by reducing crime and beautifying the neighborhood** Health, Well-Being, & Safety:** Reduces stress, lowers temperatures, suppresses noise, improves air quality** Connection: **Fosters opportunities for outdoor recreation and environmental education

This post is part of a series on examples of ​multisolving​, or climate-smart policies that simultaneously work to mitigate climate change while providing co-benefits such as the ones described above. The multiple benefits analysis was done using the ​FLOWER framework​.