• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.323-331
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• 2018

This study was conducted to examine the effects of constructing streetside urban forests on particulate matter (PM) content in pedestrian paths and open spaces created between the main streets and buildings in a high-rise, high-density urban area. The study site is a 70m-wide open space between Busan City Hall and Jungang-street in Busan, Korea. The results showed that the density of PM differences between the open space and the adjacent main street were small in regions without linear trees and shrub rows during both the weekdays and weekend. On the other hand, the areas with linear trees and shrub rows were found to have significantly higher concentrations of PM compared to the roadway. In particular, sections with linear trees and shrub rows had higher PM levels both on roads and in adjacent open space, indicating that the composition of linear trees and shrub rows increased the concentration of PM in the off-street open space in areas with wide space between the roadway and building. The impact was more significant in the open space than the roadway. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that PM generated by vehicles flows through the roadside shrubs by rapid wind flow but does not disperse widely in the pedestrian paths where the wind flow was reduced. In this study, we found that the roadside tree and shrub walls slowed the flow of wind, causing vehicle-emitted PM to accumulate if a wide open space was created between the road and building, resulting in higher concentration of PM in the open space. We confirmed that the distance between the road and building was a critical factor for constructing linear trees and shrub rows to reduce PM generated by vehicle traffic.