2017 | Treepedia

Category: Company Review / Academic Research

Industry: GIS / Google Maps / Satellite Data

Location: Global

Related to: Global Information Systems / Google / Environment / Urban Survey

Reviewer: Guillermo Gomez / Advisory Research Assistant, MA Theories of Urban Practice

Company: Treepedia, MIT Senseable City Lab

Website: Treepedia

About:

MIT’s Senseable City Lab has created a comprehensive survey of green canopies within global cities with its new project Treepedia. GIS data collected directly from Google Street View creates a Green View Index (GVI) – a rating that quantifies how green a street looks according to the density of trees it contains. The GVI is represented through color coding, with green containing high densities of canopy coverage, brown as extremely low coverage, and black for areas that are unable to be surveyed. Treepedia promotes higher densities of urban tree covering, which helps combat high urban temperature by blocking shortwave radiation and increasing water evaporation. Additionally, trees helps mitigate air pollution from daily city activity.

The project surveys 16 cities, including New York, London, Vancouver, and Paris. Though it is a comprehensive view of each city and a strong proposal, the project is limited to the constraints of Google Street View and areas that have yet to be registered.