On Friday, 5th of May 2017, Treepedia, an interactive website that measures the green canopy or trees and vegetation of cities around the world included three of South Africa’s major city in its database. These cities Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg are its first in Africa.
“As many cities experience warming temperatures, increased storm frequency and continued air pollution, the well-being of our urban trees has never been more important. We present here an index by which to compare cities against one another, encouraging local authorities and communities to take action to protect and promote the green canopy cover,” said Carlo Ratti, Director of the MIT Senseable City Lab.
Treepedia was developed by the MIT Senseable City Lab in collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Cities and Urbanization. It allows city dwellers to view the location and size of trees within their communities as well as to submit input to help tag and track them. By enabling comparison between other cities, it aims to encourage advocacy among residents to grow their green canopy.
The green canopy is an important and integral part of urban life. Trees help mitigate extreme temperatures, provide a natural respite from traffic, noise and congestion, and improve the quality of life for those living in urban environments. Treepedia’s aim is to increase people’s awareness of these benefits and encourage greater interest in maintaining and growing urban habitats.
“The future of cities cannot be one of unsustainable expansion; it should instead be one of tireless innovation. In this context, Treepedia builds on the work undertaken by the Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization and, in particular, the ‘Adopt a Tree through Your Social Network’ innovation in the Top 10 Urban Innovations report, to leverage technology to enable citizens to explore the green canopy of their city. We hope that this endeavour will give citizens a greater appreciation of their city’s green canopy and appreciate that the green canopy can assist in responding to climate change,” said Alice Charles, Community Lead, Infrastructure and Urban Development Industry, World Economic Forum.
Initially, Treepedia launched in 10 global cities including Geneva, Tel Aviv and Boston. It has since grown and with the addition of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, it now covers a total of 25 cities and it expects to cover more cities in the future.
