Measure the percentage of land across the local government area that is covered in vegetation. Depending on your local context, this may consider tree cover only or include shrubs. Lawns are not to be counted.

Complete the advanced or basic indicator as follows:

Basic:

Use the free iTree online tool to estimate the percentage of land area that is vegetated, based on canopy cover.

Continue to assess points until the accuracy of tree canopy coverage is calculated to be +/- 3% cover or less (this number updates automatically as you assess each point). iTree guidelines recommend 500–1000 points will need to be assessed for an average city.

A canopy change assessment for 3-10 years in the past may be used to generate a trend if satellite imagery of sufficient quality is available.

Once complete, save the data, and upload the csv file and the iTree report to this platform.

 

Advanced:

1. Generate Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values in GIS using Landsat 8 remote sensing imagery.

2. Determine which NDVI threshold is most appropriate for your native ecosystem: 0.2 to 0.5 = partial vegetation (shrubland, desert, alpine ecosystems, etc.) 0.5 to 1.0 = vegetated (forested, jungle ecosystems, etc.)

3. Calculate the % land area of the city meeting the appropriate NDVI threshold.

Area of vertical green walls, green roofs featuring the same level of vegetation (e.g. trees and/or shrubs) or vertical forests may be included as appropriate.

An alternative to iTree is the Collect Earth Online tool from the World Resources Institute.
https://www.collect.earth/