Investigating the effect of the cooling ecosystem service of urban green infrastructure on the mitigating of environmental heat load and energy efficiency in the metropolitan of Tabriz

This research evaluated the effects of green infrastructure cooling ecosystem service on mitigating urban heat islands in Tabriz metropolitan areas. In this way, the mitigation capacity of the heat islands of Tabriz in all three periods of 1984, 2002, and 2022 was evaluated in 5 classes, from the best case to the worst case, using the urban cooling model of the InVEST software. The results showed that Tabriz condition in 1984, i.e., 15.47% in the class of 0.69 to 0.83%; in 2002, 15.63% in the class of 0.66 to 0.90%; and in 2022, 13.93% in the class of 0.69 to 0.83%, was able to mitigate heat islands. In other words, the Tabriz metropolitan did not perform well in mitigating heat islands in all three periods and is in the worst condition. In all three time periods, the mitigation pattern of heat islands in Tabriz has been consistent with the pattern of agricultural land use and green space of all three types of cluster, block, and fragmented patterns. The pattern of mitigation of heat islands in Tabriz in 2022, unlike in 1984 and 2002, was more fragmented and less than cluster and block type, indicating that Tabriz's green infrastructure has gradually become fragmented and smaller. In 1984, 2002, and 2022, Tabriz Metropolitan had 226,640, 562,269, and 1,263,294 megawatt hours of energy savings due to the mitigation of heat islands due to urban green infrastructure.