Imagine having a digital map that tells a city exactly where to plant trees to cool down the hottest streets and clean the air. It uses satellite images and ground data to treat trees like natural infrastructure with a measurable price tag. It's like a GPS for urban nature that proves how much money a city saves by planting the right tree in the right spot.
Cities struggle to quantify the financial return on planting trees, making it hard to secure funding for green infrastructure. They lack precise tools to identify where trees will have the maximum impact on cooling and air quality.
A cloud-based urban tree locator tool, an ML-based Copernicus data enhancer, and a crowd science app for citizen engagement.
If you are a city planning consultancy dealing with urban heat islands and poor air quality — this project developed a mapping and modelling toolbox that optimizes tree planting to reduce climate risks. This allows you to provide data-backed greening strategies for municipalities.
If you are an ESG investment firm dealing with the need for verifiable nature-based assets — this project developed business cases that assign monetary value to tree attributes like pollution absorption and flood risk reduction. This enables the creation of collaborative financing schemes for urban greening.
If you are a smart city software provider dealing with low citizen engagement in climate goals — this project developed a crowd science app that engages citizens and creates awareness of mental health and life quality impacts. This can be integrated into city-wide digital service platforms.
Based on available project data, specific pricing is not mentioned, but the project focuses on creating business cases to attract third-party financing and sponsorship.
The tools are being developed and tested in two partner cities, Copenhagen and Sofia, suggesting a model that can be adapted for other urban environments.
Based on available project data, licensing terms are not specified, though the project involves a consortium of 12 partners including 7 industry members.
The system integrates satellite data from the Copernicus EU space programme with in-situ data and a cloud-based environmental services tool.
The project runs from 2022-12-01 to 2025-11-30, indicating that final tools will be ready by late 2025.
The consortium is heavily industry-weighted with a 58% industry ratio, comprising 7 industrial partners and 6 SMEs. This strong commercial presence, led by DHI A/S, suggests the project is driven by market application rather than pure academic research, with a focus on creating viable business cases for urban greening.
Contact DHI A/S in Denmark for technical specifications on the Copernicus data enhancer.
Contact us to connect with the 100KTREEs consortium for licensing the urban tree locator tool.
