By Mia Muñoz
Cornell’s new interactive map of individual trees in NYC at the genus level is how scientists have curated a new way to fight climate change using only trees! With this map, you can view New York in a whole new way, seeing the city organized by the types of tree cover across the state. This week’s map was made using a combination of 3-D lidar data from New York State and satellite imagery from PlanetScope satellite stations. The “Cool Trees” project is led by Cornell Professor of Medicine, Dr. Arnab Ghosh, whose goal was to determine the relationship between tree density and type, temperature, and heat-related risks. The approach was to map existing trees on unsurveyed, private and public lands, and use these maps to aid more sustainable tree-planting decisions.
Mapping trees by type can help community members decide what tree is best to plant, and even how many trees are needed to reach city cooling efforts. New York City has made a goal to expand tree cover from 22% to 30% by 2040; this data could directly help expedite that process. Before, there was no accurate estimate of how many trees were located in NYC, or how many would need to be planted to reach global climate change goals. Efforts to plant more trees in NYC’s concrete jungle may help cool cities across the world. Scientists say managing pests, reducing allergens, and cooling the globe are about to become a whole lot easier, too.
In the past, it is estimated that 65% of the city’s canopy had not been accounted for on previous maps because they are on unsurveyed land. Cool Trees organizers say that by making the connection between trees and temperature, New Yorkers can minimize the number of people going to the emergency room during a heat wave. PlanetScope satellites used in the making of this map are being used to compile a database of 405 other US cities, as they hope to make many more maps.