Cities and urban spaces are often warmer than their less structurally dense, rural counterparts with similar climates. Even within cities, temperatures are rarely uniform. Thanks to streets, buildings, and other infrastructure, heat islands can cause some neighborhoods of a city to be hotter than others. Fortunately, cities have found an effective tool to combat urban heat: trees.
Urban trees offer a range of benefits, from lowering temperatures and improving air quality, to boosting physical and mental health. This interactive explainer from the City of Austin provides an overview of the city’s urban tree canopy. It uses AI models to map existing canopy from satellite imagery and explores opportunities for planting new trees.
The story uses a mix of maps, charts, and tables to dissect tree canopy in Austin and progress toward the city’s goal of 50% tree canopy cover by 2050. As of 2022, tree canopy coverage had grown to 41%, outpacing the historical average of 35% coverage. The story also notes inequities in tree canopy cover. Neighborhoods with lower incomes or higher shares of people of color tend to have fewer trees.
To meet its goals and address gaps in equity, the story also explores available planting space within the city. Like most cities, a majority of Austin’s trees currently exist on private residential lands. The story identifies street rights-of-way throughout the city as potential opportunities to plant more trees in underserved areas. They could also help connect fragmented pockets of urban forests and create contiguous networks of tree canopy.
This interactive story is effective for several reasons. It provides an accounting of Austin’s efforts and grounds them in the context of the city’s climate equity plan. It also provides a road map for future planting opportunities that is both achievable and equitable. As climates continue to warm, the need for trees and their value to the community will only grow.
More to Explore
- Learn how this interactive story was made.
- Take a deep dive into the city’s efforts to increase community access to nature.
- Download tree canopy data from the City of Austin.
