The allergenic potential of green urban areas in the Macaronesian islands: The case of Funchal City (Madeira)
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Camacho, Irene; Macías de la Rosa, Álvaro; Camacho, Roberto; Grinn Gofron, Agnieszka; Cariñanos González, PalomaEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Allergenic plants Urban green spaces Allergenic index
Date
2024-03-16Referencia bibliográfica
I. Camacho et al. 54 (2024) 101866. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2024.101866]
Sponsorship
University of Granada-Plan Propio for financial support through Pre-Competitive Research Projects Pre-Greenmitigation3 (PP2022.PP34)Abstract
Public gardens are elements that constitute the urban green infrastructure. Such units provide
ecosystem services that are becoming a key concern in urban planning strategies.
In this survey the allergenic potential of two public gardens in Funchal, a city exhibiting subtropical
and Mediterranean climatic features, was assessed. Different allergenic risk scenarios
were considered, and the Allergenicity Indexes recalculated. Results show that the Municipal
Garden exhibits an IUGZA (Index of Urban Green Zone Allergenicity) of 0,39 and Santa Catarina
Park an IUGZA of 0,16, which are considered spaces of moderate and low allergenicity level,
respectively. Among the tested scenarios that could aggravate the IUGZA values, the worst would
be an extension of the pollen season for all species. This might represent an issue considering the
overall trend towards an earlier start and later end of the pollen season from important allergenic
plants in Europe. The assessment of the IUGZA should include all plant biotypes of an urban green
area in subtropical regions as they allow us to infer more precisely on the real risk population is
exposed to. It seems that increasing species diversity can improve the allergenic indexes, but
novel invasive species should be studied to assess their allergenicity level.