A five-time Tree City of the World, the City of Burnside has become even greener, with recent figures released by Green Adelaide showing the city’s 2022 canopy cover sitting at 31 per cent.
A significant growth from previous measurements, the canopy percentage grew from 25 per cent in 2018 and 2019 and signifies a massive win for Burnside’s strategic priorities to conserve and enhance canopy cover.
Partnering with Green Adelaide and 18 other councils, the program looks to map tree cover, green spaces, built environment and urban heat across our cities.
Using a mapping system called LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and thermal imagery, the program builds a three-dimensional model of the landscape, including trees and buildings. Vegetation measuring horizontally three metres or above is counted as ‘tree canopy’.
Having planted over 1,000 new trees annually for the last six years, the City of Burnside is excited for future measurements with even greater percentages of tree canopy expected.
City of Burnside CEO Chris Cowley said the investment made by Council into the future of its tree canopy was clearly paying dividends, with an increase in canopy cover that will accelerate in the longer term.
‘We currently have thousands of trees that do not reach the three-metre requirement due to their immaturity. In the coming years, we will see continued growth in our canopy percentage as these trees meet the threshold.’
If you would like to view the online map of all councils involved in the program, you can do so at https://spatialwebapps.environment.sa.gov.au/urbanheat/?viewer=urbanheat.
