The allergenic potential of green urban areas in the Macaronesian islands: The case of Funchal City (Madeira) Camacho, Irene Macías de la Rosa, Álvaro Camacho, Roberto Grinn Gofron, Agnieszka Cariñanos González, Paloma Allergenic plants Urban green spaces Allergenic index 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. 2024-07-17T09:15:06Z 2024-07-17T09:15:06Z 2024-03-16 journal article I. Camacho et al. 54 (2024) 101866. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2024.101866] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/93174 10.1016/j.uclim.2024.101866 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ open access Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional Elsevier