Integrated numerical modeling strategies for tree–wind interactions: A review and proposed assessment framework for resilient urban design

Urban trees play a critical role in regulating urban wind environments and enhancing city resilience, while simultaneously being vulnerable to wind-induced damage under extreme weather events. Numerical modeling has therefore become an essential tool for investigating tree–wind interactions, supporting both environmental performance assessment and structural safety evaluation. However, existing studies remain highly fragmented across disciplines, and a systematic synthesis of modeling strategies and selection logic is still lacking. This review examines numerical approaches for tree–wind interaction from an integrated, objective-oriented perspective. Two complementary research directions are addressed: (i) simulations of how trees modify urban airflow and microclimatic conditions, and (ii) simulations of wind-induced structural response and failure risk of trees. For airflow regulation, porous-medium and morphology-based representations within computational fluid dynamics (CFD) frameworks are reviewed, with emphasis on modeling assumptions, vegetation parameterization, turbulence treatment, and applicable spatial scales. For structural safety assessment, finite element–based models are synthesized, focusing on wind load representation, material nonlinearity, root–soil interaction, and damage and risk evaluation criteria. Beyond summarizing individual studies, this review provides a comparative analysis of model capabilities, limitations, and data requirements, highlighting the trade-offs between computational efficiency and physical fidelity. An integrated workflow is proposed to guide model selection and coupling for applied assessments of wind-resistant urban green infrastructure. Finally, emerging research directions, including multi-scale coupling, high-fidelity fluid–structure interaction, and data-driven surrogate modeling, are discussed.