Trees are not always a miracle cure for improving air quality

Master's project series (7). Donato Kofel has quantified the positive and negative effects of trees on outdoor air quality in Geneva Canton. His method can be used by city planners to design their large-scale planting programs more effectively. For his EPFL Master's project in environmental sciences and engineering, Donato Kofel delved into the world of geographic information systems (GIS), a type of advanced mapping software. "These maps convey a lot of information in a single image, in a way that lets people grasp it all immediately," he says. For his Master's project at the end of his degree program, Kofel developed a new way to use the GIS application to study how trees in Geneva Canton are affecting the region's air quality. His work formed part of the broader URBTREES study being carried out by three labs at EPFL's School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC): the Extreme Environments Research Laboratory, headed by Julia Schmale; the Plant Ecology Research Laboratory, headed by Charlotte Grossiord; and the Design Studio on the Conception of Space, headed jointly by Dieter Dietz and Daniel Zamarbide.