Tree Planting Opportunity Map

Planting new trees has become a significant priority for many, whether to simply reach a canopy cover target or perhaps to address particular concerns around air pollution, the urban heat island effect or mental health. Identifying suitable sites for large-scale planting programmes can be a time-intensive activity, requiring skilled resources to be diverted from other vital activities. We can help to drastically reduce the time spent identifying new sites, by translating your own site criteria for use within detailed digital mapping tools.

There are two versions of this product: Hard Landscapes and Soft Landscapes. Typical criteria for Hard Landscapes include: minimum pavement widths, distance between trees, distance from existing canopy, avoidance of road junction sites, absence of street furniture, and avoidance of kerb drops.

Typical criteria for Soft Landscapes include: exclusion of agricultural land, SSSIs, nature reserves, identification of available land within council ownership, proximity to population centres, and minimum single site size. Sites can be prioritised using an ‘urban challenges’ hotspot approach, where every location within the area concerned is scored against weighted criteria agreed with you.

Typical parameters include: index of multiple deprivation, air pollution, flood risk and urban temperature. Whilst ultimately, ground truthing is a necessary step in the process, opportunity mapping can significantly increase the success rate in site identification. Opportunity Maps also show where new trees will work the hardest, providing the most benefits for their communities.