Salud Ambiental de los parques españolesaproximación al potencial alergénico de espacios verdes urbanos.
- Paloma Cariñanos
- Manuel Casares-Porcel
- Consuelo Díaz de la Guardia
- María Jesús Aira
- Marzia Boi
- Cristina Cardador
- Belén Elvira-Rendueles
- José María Maya-Manzano
- Rosa Pérez-Badía
- David Rodriguez de la Cruz
- Francisco Javier Rodriguez-Rajo
- Jesús Rojo Úbeda
- Estefanía Sánchez-Reyes
- José Sánchez Sánchez
- Rafael Tormo-Molina
- Ana Mª Vega-Maray
- Fernández Rodríguez, Santiago
ISSN: 1697-2791
Year of publication: 2016
Issue Title: Aerobiología
Volume: 16
Issue: 1
Pages: 33-42
Type: Article
More publications in: Revista de Salud Ambiental
Abstract
Urban parks are green infrastructure elements that should contribute to improving the quality of life and well-being of citizens. In this work there are presented the results of applying a new index to estimate the potential allergenicity of parks located in 20 Spanish cities. This index, which considers intrinsic biological and biometric parameters of existing plant species in parks, allows the allergenic risk thereof to be calculated on a scale ranging from 0 to 1, depending on whether to the park’s allergenicity is zero or has a high risk for the population. The parks selected for this study have different typologies, sizes, species richness and biodiversities, which has yielded highly variable index values. Almost half of the analysed parks have an index value higher than 0.30, a threshold considered having a moderate to high risk, and therefore, enough to cause allergy symptoms in the population. Conversely, most of the parks had an index value below this threshold, so that the risk of suffering allergies is low or very low. The formula also allows the species that most contribute to the resulting value for allergenicity to be known, which are those having an anemophillous strategy of pollination, extended periods of flowering, and a referenced high allergenicity. These requirements are met by all species of the Betulaceae, Cupressaceae and Moraceae families, and to a lesser extent by Oleaceae and Platanaceae. It can be concluded that the development of an index to estimate the allergenicity of urban green spaces constitutes a useful tool to minimize the impact of pollen allergy on the population