Investigating the Effects of Air Pollution on Plant Species Resistance in Urban Areas

Context: Air pollution is a serious concern for environmental and human health, especially due to increasing the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of air pollution on plant species resistance in urban areas. Evidence Acquisition: This narrative review was conducted by searching the databases of Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Springer. Sixty-five articles were screened by reading their abstracts and full texts. In the end, 12 relevant papers published from 1993 to 2021 were finally selected. Results: The literature review showed that the green spaces created by municipalities in different areas of the city included a set of trees and shrubs compatible by the climate, grass, soil, and water of the region, leading to a significant improvement in air quality. Based on the results, urban green space has the ability to reduce the amount of artificially produced pollutants, and the use of natural potential of trees can improve the quality of the environment depending on various factors such as the climatic condition of the region and the density and amount of vegetation cover. Conclusions: The most effective ways to reduce health and economic costs include reducing the emission of pollutants from cars and industries, extending urban green space, educating citizens, and organizational planning and cooperation. The findings of this study may have important implications for selecting plant species for vegetation traffic barriers.