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Urban cooling and energy-saving effects of nature-based solutions across types and scales

Nature Cities volume 2, pages 1194–1204 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The escalating global demand for urban cooling has increased the need to integrate nature-based solutions (NBS) into urban planning. These strategies help mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce energy use associated with buildings. Despite growing interest in NBS, comparative evidence on their climate-specific and scale-dependent performance remains limited. We conduct a systematic meta-analysis of 373 peer-reviewed studies (2013–2025) spanning all 16 Köppen–Geiger climate zones. The results reveal that NBS reduce daytime temperatures by 2.04 ± 0.17 °C during hot periods and lower annual cooling loads by 1.32 ± 0.06% globally. Green infrastructure outperforms blue infrastructure in both thermal regulation and energy savings across most climates. The spatial scale also critically shapes outcomes, as neighborhood-scale NBS deliver the strongest cooling effects (−2.22 ± 0.25 °C) while building-scale strategies yield optimal energy savings (8.62 ± 0.78%). These climate- and scale-dependent patterns provide actionable guidance for prioritizing NBS to strengthen urban energy resilience.

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Fig. 1: Global characteristics and meta-analysis results of NBS publications.
Fig. 2: Mechanisms of NBS and their multiscale impacts.
Fig. 3: Impact of NBS categories on cooling effects and energy savings in a global context.
Fig. 4: Impact of NBS scales on cooling effects and energy savings.
Fig. 5: Analysis of NBS effectiveness across scales and impacts on urban climate.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are provided in Supplementary Material 4 and are also available on request from the authors.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science and Foundation of China under grant nos. 52394223, 52208011 and 72001160. This study also received support from the National Research Foundation of Korea, with a grant funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science and ICT) (grant no. 2022R1C1C1004953), and the National Research Foundation of Korea, with a grant funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Education) (grant no. 5120200113713). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

    Hailu Wei, Xiaohang Bai, Qinhui Lu, Jiyuan Wu, Fengmin Su & Wei Wang

  2. Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Tianzhen Hong

  3. School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

    Qinran Hu

  4. City Energy Lab, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Steven Jige Quan

  5. Environmental Planning Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Steven Jige Quan

  6. School of Architecture, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, China

    Zhixing Luo

  7. School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Yilong Han

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Contributions

Conceptualization by H.W. and W.W. Data collection and main analyses by H.W. and J.W. Data preprocessing and validation by F.S. Guidance and interpretation by X.B. and Q.L. Supervision and project insights by W.W. and S.J.Q. Paper structure and editorial support by Q.H., T.H., Z.L. and Y.H.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wei Wang or Steven Jige Quan.

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Nature Cities thanks Aman Gupta, Aicha Zekar and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Wei, H., Bai, X., Lu, Q. et al. Urban cooling and energy-saving effects of nature-based solutions across types and scales. Nat Cities 2, 1194–1204 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00349-0

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