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Here, we quantified associations between urban tree canopy cover and canopy aggregation with all-cause U5M using individual-level longitudinal mortality data between 2000 and 2019 from 57 LMICs, and identified priority areas for expanding canopy cover and improving canopy aggregation across 98 LMICs using counterfactual scenario analyses. The association between canopy cover and U5M was nonlinear, with risk declining steeply at low-to-intermediate levels of canopy cover. At a given level of canopy cover, every 1% increase in tree-to-tree adjacency was associated with a 0.17% reduction in mortality risk (hazard ratio: 0.9983, 95% CI: 0.9972 to 0.9995). The largest contiguous high-priority areas were concentrated in the West Sudanian Savanna, the eastern Punjab region of Pakistan, and the Ganges\u2013Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh, where high U5M burdens align with substantial potential to improve tree canopy. This study establishes a robust association between tree canopy characteristics and U5M across LMICs. We identify canopy cover and fragmentation as potentially modifiable risk factors, highlighting important implications of urban greening design for delivering cobenefits for child health and climate mitigation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2606669123","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T17:35:51Z","timestamp":1787333751000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Urban tree canopy fragmentation and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"123","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4424-6689","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dengkai","family":"Chi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/012tb2g32","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"School of Earth System Science, Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, Tianjin University","place":["Tianjin, 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