Assessment of Vertical Greening Plants in Cities with Hot Summers and Cold Winters: A Case Study in Chongqing

As urbanization accelerates, the conflict between urban green spaces and construction land becomes acute. Vertical greening, as an effective means of utilizing urban vertical spaces for greenery, holds promise for alleviating this issue. However, there is currently a limited body of research focused on the evaluation of vertical greening plants in regions characterized by hot summers and cold winters. To address this gap, this study focused on vertical greening in hot summer and cold winter regions, and constructed a comprehensive evaluation system comprising 19 evaluation criteria across five aspects: ecological habit (0.3428), ornamental effect (0.3428), maintenance costs (0.0154), resource status (0.1056), and economic value (0.044). By employing a group decision-making approach that incorporates expert weightings, this study derived composite weights for each evaluation criterion. The research findings indicate that in the selection of vertical greening plants for hot summer and cold winter regions, particular emphasis should be placed on attributes such as drought resistance (0.1105), barrenness resistance (0.1154), and ornamental cycle (0.1269), whereas attributes such as cold tolerance (0.0339), stem ornamental (0.0174), and medicinal value (0.0137) have relatively lower significance. Furthermore, considering Chongqing as a representative city in a typical hot summer and cold winter region, this study conducted an investigation and analysis of the current state of vertical greening. The evaluation system was applied to categorize 50 common plant species in a local context. The results indicate that the integration of the evaluation system with empirical research provides a robust foundation for the selection of vertical greening plants, thus validating the feasibility and effectiveness of this assessment framework.