Green smart cities: Living healthily with every breath

Abstract

Fifty-four percent of the world's population lives in big cities and it is projected to increase to nearly 70% by 2050s. Rapid and dense urbanization leads to smart cities which improve the quality of lives of the citizens. Therefore, development of smart cities is becoming vital. The quality of the citizens is affected by many factors including poor air quality, increased pollutants and microclimates called urban heat islands. The URBAN GreenUP project, initiated in June 2017, is a project funded under the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme. The main objective of the project is the development, application and replication of re-naturing Urban Plans in a number of European cities. In this study, measurement of nature-based solutions for mitigation of urban heat island effect and improvement of air quality for Urban GreenUP project in Izmir, will be introduced.