The canopy cover Webmap of the United Kingdom’s towns and cities

Sales, Kris; Walker, Hannah; Sparrow, Kate; Handley, Phillip; Vaz Monteiro, Madalena; Hand, Kathryn L.; Buckland, Annabel; Chambers-Ostler, Alexander and Doick, Kieron J. (2023). The canopy cover Webmap of the United Kingdom’s towns and cities. Arboricultural Journal, 45(4) pp. 258–289.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03071375.2023.2233864

Abstract

Urban trees and other green infrastructure are advocated as a cost-effective sustainable solution to ameliorate the socio-economic and environmental challenges of urbanisation. UK research has only recently started to quantify urban trees. Tree canopy cover percentage (TCC) is a useful indicator of tree presence. Its estimation can be reproducible, simple, fast, and cost-effective; it can also be evaluated through citizen science, improving people’s appreciation for urban trees and widening the data collection resource pool. This research summarises a citizen science assessment of the TCC of the UK’s 5,749 urban wards. Descriptive statistics are presented spanning local authority to country. The area-weighted mean (and standard error) of TCC across urban wards was 17.3 ± 0.1%. Nationally, the TCC were 11.8 ± 0.5%, 15.7 ± 0.5%, 17.5 ± 0.2%, and 18.1 ± 0.5%, for Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, respectively. Results show that only 27.6% of urban wards had a TCC higher than 20%, previously suggested as a minimum target for UK towns. The findings highlight substantial geographical variance in TCC equity, as well as a negative correlation between TCC and deprivation. This information will be of value in urban forest strategy and management.

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