LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Engineering students from Cornell University are coming to Kentucky to observe how trees near highways can mitigate pollution and improve human health.
Doctoral candidates Khaled Hashad and Bo Yang, along with undergraduate researcher Dan Shaw, are developing a computational fluid dynamics model for the Green Heart project. Their effort will include the planting of 12,000 trees in Louisville over five years.
They plan to observe the space between trees in mitigating pollution from the highway, finding the best species and assembling a model to determine which trees belong where.
The Cornell team will examine leaf density, turbulence and how trees affect the flow of air from highways to neighborhoods, and determine if trees grown in a streamline shape will reduce pollution.