**5. Conclusions**

In this study, the ET characteristics of two urban hedges were measured by a fetch-free method with high spatiotemporal resolution, namely, the 'three-temperature model + infrared remote sensing' method. The method demonstrated high accuracy in the ET estimation for urban vegetation. The results show that: (1) the ET rates of the two studied urban hedges were high. On the summer day, the daily average ET rate of the *H. littoralis* hedge was 0.38 mm <sup>h</sup>−1, while that of the *L. quihoui* hedge was 0.33 mm h−1. (2) The latent heat of the hedges accounts for a large part of the net radiation. The two hedges consumed 68.44% and 60.81% of the net radiation via ET on the summer day. Therefore, the hedges have grea<sup>t</sup> cooling potential in the urban thermal environment. (3) The contribution of ET to the vegetation cooling effects in urban areas could be identified through more accurate ET rates. The daily average cooling rates of the two hedges on air temperature through ET alone could reach 1.13–1.29 ◦C min−<sup>1</sup> m<sup>−</sup>2. (4) The hedges could also significantly cool down the underlying urban surface. The cooling effect was stronger on hotter days. On the hottest day, the cooling effects of the two hedges on the underlying surface were more than 19 ◦C. (5) The ET rates of the *H. littoralis* hedge were slightly higher than those of the *L. quihoui* hedge and therefore had better cooling effects, while both had much better cooling effects than the lawn used for comparison. These results may contribute to the greening design for urban areas.

This study may be the first research that can quantitatively measure the ET rate of urban hedge and provide a new insight to understand the process of ET in urban hedges, and could also promote the methodology of urban ET studies.

**Author Contributions:** G.Y.Q. designed the research; Z.Z. and Y.Y. carried out the field experiment; Z.Z. made the data analysis and wrote this paper.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Special Fund for National Key Research and Development Plan, gran<sup>t</sup> number 2017FY100206-03.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to express their grea<sup>t</sup> thanks to: Chunhua Yan and Yang Zhang for their assistance in the article writing; Wenli Zhao for coding the software "A system to estimate ET by infrared remote sensing and the three-temperature model"; Peng Mao for help in graphics. Elsevier Language Editing for their efforts to improve the grammar of this paper.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
