Have you ever wondered what cities have the greenest, tree-lined streets?
MIT’s Senseable City Lab is developing an answer to this question with their Treepedia project. Using data from Google Street View, Treepedia catalogues the density of the canopy in (currently) 10 major cities. The collected data is converted to a Green View Index – a rating system which identifies how green the street looks based on the number of trees.
“Understanding and promoting urban tree cover has never been more important.”
It is no surprise that increasing an urban city’s tree canopy helps create improved microclimates, while also increasing water evaporation. In addition, trees also allay air pollution, including gaseous pollutants and particulates, provide energy conservation (shade, cooling, wind reduction), offer noise buffering, and overall improve the aesthetics and psychological well-being who live or work in the area. Indeed, trees are amazing!
To learn more about Treepedia, we urge you to visit http://senseable.mit.edu/treepedia
