Greater London Authority (GLA)

Tree Canopy Cover Prioritisation Tool

Greater London Authority (GLA)

This is a new tool to help decision-makers choose which locations within London might be prioritised for tree planting. This tool presents the Curio Canopy – London Tree Canopy Cover map at ward scale[1], alongside several other environmental and social datasets.

There are multiple factors that influence both the existing variation in tree canopy cover across the capital, and the potential for increasing canopy cover, including population density, land use, differences in natural vegetation and existing habitats, soil type and topography. This tool is not a prescriptive guide to where canopy cover should be increased. It is designed as a tool to help decision-makers including local authorities, NGOs and funders, as well as Londoners, to identify where canopy cover is low, and where further consideration might be given to increasing canopy cover, based on a suite of different factors.

[1] Wards correct as of March 2019. The City of London is included as a single ward.

UK Open Government Licence
Last Update
4 years ago  
Contact
GLA Environment Team
Update Frequency
One off
3 files
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Tree Planting Prioritisation and Opportunity Mapping Report.pdf

This report provided by Maplango for the GLA, sets out a two-step approach to identifying priority locations for new tree planting. Firstly, priority wards for increasing canopy cover are identified as set out in the Tree Canopy Cover Ward Prioritisation Tool. Secondly, by analysing existing ward-level canopy and land-use data, an approach to identifying potential planting locations is proposed. 3D visualisations of new street tree planting are provided to demonstrate the benefit of planting new street trees in low canopy wards.