We may have grown up in homes with room for veggies, trees and lawn for kids to play on but as urban areas are becoming denser, there is less space for each garden to accommodate all of these uses. 

One of the values of trees is the impact they have on urban heat island effect (UHI effect). UHI effect means that areas with more buildings and harder surfaces warm up more during the day and radiate that heat back into the local environment at night.

Warmer overnight temperatures pose a risk to older people and people in poor health. Trees have the ability to reduce UHI effect by shading the hard surfaces and through reducing temperatures by transpiration.

Case study

Lisa has noticed that one of her 4 solar panels falls into shade each afternoon but not the others. She cannot move it to a better location as there is simply not room. 

Lisa has heard that solar panels are wired like Christmas lights, if one is not working, the whole string fails. Lisa engages an electrician with experience in solar panels to install micro-inverters into her system.

Now when that one solar panel experiences shade, the others keep generating electricity.