Impact of urban park's tree, grass and waterbody on microclimate in hot summer days: A case study of Olympic Park in Beijing, China

Urban heat island (UHI) often cause negative impact and has been linked to heart stroke rate, morality, human comfort, energy consumption and air pollution. Fortunately, urban green spaces have been considered as an effective element to mitigate UHI through their cooling effect. However, further empirical research is necessary in order to efficiently guide the design and planning of urban green space. We observed the impacts of urban park's tree, grass and waterbody on microclimate inside the Olympic park of Beijing during summer days. The results indicated that, on average, the park was 0.48-1.12 °C cooler during the day, as well as increased air humidity 2.39-3.74% and reduced human comfort index 1.02-2.43 to generate more comfortable thermal environment. Urban park's cluster trees with short ground vegetation generated higher cooling effect than single trees, grass and waterbodies; proper irrigation regime enhanced the cooling effect of grasses, even the irrigated grass have similar cooling effect with small waterbody on sunny, windless summer days. Therefore, we advise to increase undergrowth coverage and grass irrigation management in order to take advantage of cooling effect of urban parks.