"Leaf it to the Trees": Assessing the Cooling Effects of Tree Canopy on Campus Microclimates

Authors

• Andrea Sophia Realyvasquez, St. Mary's University

Files

Publication Date

Spring 2026

Keywords

Urbanization, St. Mary's University, microclimates, sustainability, shade

Contributor

Mitchell, Evelynn (Faculty Mentor)

Description

Urban heat island (UHI) effects are becoming increasingly common worldwide, with lived experiences and media coverage highlighting the negative consequences of urban development for humans and the environment. Urbanization, like many other aspects of society, should not remain stagnant and outside the scope of innovation. Understanding the interplay between urban morphology and temperature distributions is crucial in informing effective policy development (AbbegCoproski et al. 2024). tion to a political approach to reducing surface temperatures, there is the social aspect of difficulty in evading UHI in microclimates. University campuses are among the many areas that struggle to overcome old infrastructure and move towards more sustainable built environments (Veblen 2024 Feb 6). There are equally difficult but plausible solutions that college and university campuses can implement to improve UHI mitigation, given their access to a microclimate status. Incorporating real-world benefits from scientific findings is important when presenting to not only groups like a university board, but also to those that have a broader reach, like government officials. To investigate how the St. Mary’s University campus is influenced by UHI effects, a temperature survey was conducted to observe the changes in the microclimates across campus by observing ground and air temperatures. It is believed that places across campus with a higher tree density would have a more noticeable difference in cooler air temperatures due to the shade they provide on nearby walkways. It is hypothesized that surface temperatures would be significantly higher in areas with partial shade and little to no shade.

Collection

Culminating Research Experiences

Format

PDF

Medium

Poster

Size or Duration

1 page

City

San Antonio, Texas

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Realyvasquez, Andrea Sophia, ""Leaf it to the Trees": Assessing the Cooling Effects of Tree Canopy on Campus Microclimates" (2026). Culminating Research Experiences. 1.
https://commons.stmarytx.edu/culresexp/1