“It is preferable to have more small arboreal green spaces than one large green space. They work best in the section of the heat island” which is centered on the ridges of Conchada, Alta Universidade and Montes Claros, António Rochette, professor and researcher at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Coimbra, told Lusa.

The professor at the Department of Geography and Tourism has published scientific articles on the subject and supervised three master's theses (by Vítor Parada, Márcia Silva and Joana Neves) that complete the study of the urban fabric of the right bank of the old city and its relationship with green and blue spaces, and how these influence Coimbra’s microclimates.

The work carried out allowed us to conclude that the Botanical Garden, like the Jardim da Sereia, is an “almost permanent fresh air cell”, but, when we analyse how this fresh air influences the temperature of the surrounding area, we arrived at the conclusion that “the fresh air of Botânico is limited” to no more than approximately 100 meters from the area.

“In the past, it was thought that the larger the green space, the larger its area of influence would be”, noted António Rochette, noting that the lack of influence of the Botanical on the temperature of its surrounding area may also be related to the morphology of the terrain, with studies planned in other areas to understand whether the behaviour is similar or not.

The studies developed draw attention to “the case of Sá da Bandeira”, in which the trees that provide shade along the avenue “cause a break in this heat island”.

“The heat island is broken there”, he stressed.