FAIRFAX, Va., July 21 -- George Mason University issued the following news release:
What difference does a tree make? That's what George Mason University researcherLuis Ortiz wanted to find out-before it was planted. Cities increasingly experience extreme heat that poses danger to anyone outside. The urban environment, even on a very small scale, can either help alleviate the problem or make it vastly worse.
"We teach students the fundamentals of how the broader weather interacts with very, very local aspects of the built environment," said Ortiz, who teaches in George Mason'sJ. Shukla Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences. "By very, very local, I mean, what happens if I put a certain tree in one location, or if I apply a...