Abstract
It is often claimed that green walls (GW) and living wall systems (LWS) have a positive effect on urban air pollution problems if their plants composition is optimal (design of the LWS). An in-depth review of the knowledge on plants traits maximizing GW effects on air pollution shows that these might be hasty conclusions: there are still some important knowledge gaps. Robust conclusions can only be drawn for particulate matter (PM): the other pollutants are not analyzed by a sufficient number of studies. It can be concluded that leaves with hairs/trichomes are the most effective to capture PM. The rougher and the smaller the leaf is, the more PM it catches. The analysis of the plant composition of six LWS in Belgium indicated that these LWS supported a plant community dominated by only a few species, which do not exhibit in majority the most effective traits to maximize their PM capture. Regarding climbing plants, only three out of seven commonly used creepers in Belgium present hairs/trichomes on their leaves. Studies conducted on other pollutants and other traits are required to optimize the GW plant composition and to maximize their effects on air quality.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available due to their current usage for the FSO-program MURVERT to create decision support tools for green walls implementation. The data are however available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Lucie Rivière and Marie Lassuie for their help and advice. They also thank the owners and managers of the studied green walls.
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This study was supported by the Walloon Region through the “First Spin Off” program MURVERT.
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Anaïs Hellebaut, Sylvain Boisson and Grégory Mahy contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Anaïs Hellebaut. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Anaïs Hellebaut, and Sylvain Boisson and Grégory Mahy commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Anaïs Hellebaut, Sylvain Boisson and Grégory Mahy read and approved the final manuscript.
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Hellebaut, A., Boisson, S. & Mahy, G. Do plant traits help to design green walls for urban air pollution control? A short review of scientific evidences and knowledge gaps. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 81210–81221 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23439-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23439-1