Urban Heat Island-Morphology Coupling Induced Pollen Pollution Exposure Mechanisms and Public Health Prevention in High-Density Cities

Rapid urbanization and greening efforts in cities worldwide have undeniably improved living standards, but they have also brought an unintended challenge: increased pollen pollution. Allergenic pollen, a common airborne bioaerosol, is now recognized as a significant environmental pollutant with growing implications for population health. The global rise in respiratory diseases such as allergic rhinitis and asthma—affecting up to 5–7% of susceptible populations in some regions—underscores the urgent need to understand and manage this evolving public health threat. Recent research highlights that urban form and climate dynamics play a critical role in shaping the intensity and distribution of pollen exposure.



Urban environments, particularly high-density cities, create complex interactions between built morphology and microclimates, amplifying the risks and impacts of pollen pollution. The urban heat island effect intensifies pollen production and dispersal, while city design influences microclimate patterns and exposure hotspots. Yet, the coupling mechanism between urban morphological features and localized thermal environments, in relation to allergenic pollen dynamics, remains insufficiently characterized. This gap hampers the development of targeted prevention strategies and the effective integration of public health protections into urban planning. Advancing interdisciplinary approaches—blending environmental science, epidemiology, urban design, and computational modeling—will be key to overcoming existing technical and methodological barriers.

This Research Topic aims to systematically unravel the mechanisms by which urban heat island effects and city morphology drive pollen pollution, assess population exposure, and identify novel public health prevention strategies in high-density urban environments. We seek to foster research that generates actionable knowledge on how urban form and climate interact to affect pollen emission, diffusion, and human exposure, as well as innovative approaches to mitigate health risks. Central objectives include advancing simulation, monitoring, and intervention methods; optimizing urban green space for minimal allergenicity; and informing multi-scale policy and planning frameworks that support both public health and urban sustainability goals.

To gather further insights in the intersection of urban microclimate, environmental health, and preventive public policy, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

- Environmental drivers and coupling mechanisms underlying urban pollen pollution, including the influence of heat islands and urban form.
- Precision assessment and multi-scale monitoring technologies for pollen exposure, emphasizing emerging simulation and machine learning tools.
- Public health impacts of pollen exposure, threshold biomarker discovery, risk prediction, and systems for early warning and policy response.
- Urban planning and design interventions, including hypoallergenic vegetation strategies, morphological optimization, and ventilation corridor effects.
- Technological and methodological innovations in cross-scale modeling, experimental techniques, and data-driven decision frameworks for hypoallergenic city development.

This Research Topic invites original research, methodological papers, systematic reviews, and applied policy studies. Submissions must comply with Frontiers in Public Health guidelines. Interdisciplinary studies focusing on the environment–exposure–health continuum and empirical or innovative approaches will be prioritized. Purely clinical, simple case, or bibliometric-only studies are outside the scope. All contributions will undergo rigorous peer review, evaluated for scientific quality, novelty, public health impact, and alignment with this Research Topic.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: urban heat island, urban morphology, pollen pollution, allergenic pollen exposure, bioaerosols, high-density cities, environmental health, exposome, respiratory health, urban planning and public health

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.