Role of ornamental horticulture in outdoor and indoor pollution abatement — A review

Nowadays, many people decide to migrate to urban living spaces to have a better life. The common reason for such migration is the employment opportunities. On the other side, lack of opportunities, better education, natural disaster (flood and drought), and sometimes crop failure forced villagers to migrate to cities. Half of the global population already lives in cities, and by 2050 two-thirds of the world's people are expected to live in urban areas. But in cities, world is facing two major problems i.e. poverty and environmental degradation. Poor air and water quality, insufficient water availability, waste-disposal problems, and high energy consumption are exacerbated by the increasing population density and demands of urban environments. Strong city planning will be essential in managing these difficulties as the world's urban areas swell. Looking at the impact of urban population, the concentrated energy use leads to greater air pollution both indoor through electronic gadgets and through automobile exhaust which produces elevated levels of polluted air which significantly creates a negative impact on human health. Providing the working ambience and living environment with the available space is a challenging role of city developers. Ornamental horticulture paves the way in mitigating urban indoor and outdoor spaces through a number of indoor plants grown over green walls, green roofs and green facades. Hence, these innovative technologies can be tapped to abate the urban indoor and outdoor pollution and the challenges to the landscape architects to sustain ecological management along with the ornamental horticulture components.