In Singapore they take nature very seriously...
Trees are not only beautiful and perfect for providing shade: in addition, in a city, they contribute to reduce temperatures by blocking shortwave radiation and increasing water evaporation. This is confirmed by MIT scientists, who also ensure that, by creating more comfortable microclimates, trees mitigate air pollution caused by everyday urban activities. And, as if that were not enough, its roots also help prevent flooding during heavy rains thanks to its absorbent capacity. "Usually, the trees are quite impressive ”, declare scientists from the Massachusetts Institute.
They explain it in Treepedia , a world map produced in collaboration with the World Economic Forum in which they measure the plant density of the world's major cities using computer vision techniques based on images of Google StreetView. With it, the experts intend to create a "proactive awareness" about the improvement of the vegetation that exists in our streets . In fact, the map leaves out the parks, since Google Street View does not offer such good data in this regard as it does not go into them.
“Of course, parks are an essential component of urban greenery. But have you ever wondered how sustainable is your street or neighborhood ? Does your city need more efforts to make the streets greener? Did you know that you can also contribute by joining a bottom up approach instead of waiting for politicians and planners to do things?”, they ask from the initiative's website.
The map compares the number of trees on the streets of 26 cities
Already in 2015, the World Economic Forum on the Future of Cities included the increase in the number of trees in its list of the ten main urban initiatives: “Cities will always need big infrastructure projects, but sometimes, small scale infrastructure , from the construction of bike lanes and the use of shared bicycles to the planting of trees for adaptation to climate change, can also have a great impact in an urban area”, it was defended then.
THE FIVE CITIES WITH THE MOST TREES IN THE WORLD
"Treepedia is not about qualifying cities to compete in a green Olympics," say its promoters. Still, they have created a Green View Index (GVI), calculated using Google Street View (GSV) panoramas, which allows us to compare the 26 cities whose percentage they have already analyzed : Toronto, Turin, Vancouver, Tel Aviv… Among them, the ones that are best meeting the criteria of living among the world's trees are:
1. TAMPA , United States, with 36.1% of its route occupied by trees
two. SINGAPORE , Singapore, with 29.3%
3. OSLO , Norway, with 28.8%
Four. VANCOUVER , Canada, with 25.9%
5. SIDNEY, Australia, with 25.9%
iconic cities like Paris or London score very low (with 8.8% and 12.5% respectively) , and, for now, no city Spanish has been included in the work, although it is expected that the map will be updated periodically. In fact, you can do it yourself, since the project is Open Source.
Oslo is one of the five cities with the most trees, according to Treepedia