UK Urban Canopy Cover

Can you help us build an urban canopy cover map for Britain? Trees for Cities, Brillianto and Forest Research are hosting a citizen science project to map out the canopy cover of Britain’s towns and cities.

Urban trees are being increasingly recognised for the many benefits they provide, such removing carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air, providing habitats for wildlife, and making our urban areas more attractive, enjoyable and healthy places to be. To help manage and understand this important resource, we hope to build a map of the distribution of tree canopy across urban Britain.

Recently canopy cover for English towns and cities has been assessed. Using the tool i-Tree canopy, Forest Research estimated an average canopy cover of 15.8% for 283 English towns and cities (see full results here).

We want to build on this work to extend it to more urban areas, including those in Wales and Scotland, and break-down canopy cover within urban areas by assessing cover within wards. Examining canopy cover at the ward level allows a more detailed picture of canopy cover to be produced and can help improve management of urban trees and identify which areas within a town or city could benefit from future tree planting.

How is canopy cover assessed?

This project will use a free, online tool called i-Tree Canopy, which provides a scientifically robust and consistent approach to estimating canopy cover. It’s an easy and quick approach, allowing a ward canopy cover assessment to be completed in around 45 minutes.

How can you help?

Help us build this canopy cover map for Britain by measuring the canopy cover in your local area.

Download our step-by-step guide (listed at the bottom of this webpage) to help you work through your first canopy assessment

If after reading the guidance and you’d like to get in touch with us with any further questions and/or to request a ward area boundary to conduct your canopy assessment, you can get in touch with us at: canopycover@forestresearch.gov.uk

(canopycover@forestry.gsi.gov.uk e-mail address will no longer be answered)

Send your data back to us to help build a map of urban canopy cover. We’ll also add results onto urbantreecover.map.

Visit our interactive web map here!

The map will keep track of progress and average ward canopy cover levels across the country.

As more and more canopy cover assessments are completed, we hope the map will fill up to show the canopy cover levels across the UK.