Urban green spaces are considered an appropriate way to reduce urban heat island effects and provide comfort to the nearby occupants. In addition to cooling the actual space, urban green spaces are also able to influence the surrounding area, and this phenomenon is called the urban green space cooling effect. The most important issues with regard to the cooling effects of urban green spaces are the intensity and density of the cooling, which can play a major role for urban designers and planners in dealing with urban heat island. This article reviews the latest studies that have examined the cooling effects of urban green spaces in recent years. Based on the method of evaluation of their samples, the studies are divided into three groups. The first category consists of research into a set of urban green spaces in one part of or in an entire city, mainly conducted through remote sensing and satellite maps. The second category investigates city parks or several urban parks with recognizable shapes and locations. In this section, information was mainly gathered by virtue of field observations. The third category relates to studies in which a part of urban space according to different scenarios of green space placement was modeled by simulation. The results of the present study illustrate that the highest cooling effect distance and cooling effect intensity are for large urban parks with an area of more than 10 ha; however, in addition to the area, the natural elements and qualities of the urban green spaces, as well as climate characteristics, highly inform the urban green space cooling effect.
Keywords: Energy; Environmental science.