Treepedia

This interactive website uses Google Street View data to measure the urban "Green Canopy," or the aboveground portion of trees and vegetation in cities around the world. Treepedia allows city dwellers to view the location and size of trees within their communities, and a future iteration of the website will allow users to submit input to help tag, track, and advocate for more such trees in their cities.

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. However, the average citizen is often removed from understanding the individual features of their unique environmental habitats. How, then, can citizens be better engaged in this process so that they can play a more integral role in helping to shape the green canopies in their neighborhoods?

In order to address these questions, the MIT Senseable City Lab has developed an innovative metric utilizing Google Street View (GSV) panoramas—called the "Green View Index"—by which cities can evaluate and compare green canopy coverage. The Green View Index enables scientists and city dwellers to play a more active role in addressing concerns about the adverse effects of climate change, and to campaign on behalf of the landscapes in which they dwell.