Cities Need Trees

Tree density in Tokyo

New York needs 113.9 million more trees in order to become carbon neutral.

Picterra has calculated which cities around the world have the most and least trees. Using their own geospatial AI detection platform with tree counting software and forestry monitoring tools Picterra has mapped and counted the number of trees in 26 global cities. It has then calculated how many more trees each city requires in order to offset the city's CO2 output.

In Mapping the urban jungle: Which global cities need trees the most? you can explore interactive maps of each of the 26 global cities analyzed. These maps show the locations and distributions of trees across each city. This data has then been used by Picterra to calculate how many more trees each city requires to offset the population's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Tree density in Rotterdam

According to Picterra's analysis Tokyo has the most need for more trees to offset its CO2 output. The city's population density and relative current lack of trees mean that the city needs another 2 billion trees (which Picterra estimate would require a total of just over 1.25 million hectares of land) in order to offset the population's CO2 output.

At the other end of the scale, of the 26 global cities analyzed, Rotterdam is the city which is presently nearest to offsetting the population's carbon dioxide output. Rotterdam only needs a measly 50 million more trees in order to become carbon neutral.  London requires 48.2 million more trees and Paris needs 53.4 million.

In the United States you can use American Forests' Tree Equity Score map to discover the level of tree canopy cover available in nearly 200,000 neighborhoods across the country. In the UK the Woodland Trust's Tree Equity Score UK map visualizes the amount of tree canopy cover available in thousands of UK neighborhoods.