Atlanta's Tree Canopy Data Visualization
47.9% tree canopy
Atlanta has the highest percentage of urban tree canopy in the U.S.
Our project looked at contextualizing and understanding the urban canopy in a changing city.
Process
Trees have their own network, and how they thrive isn’t dependent on commercial versus residential, or mixed-use versus single family. But the data we have composed by satellites and permits divided it by lots. Narrowing down and sifting through the data was formed by our qualitative interviews. Some of what we presumed to be the case, was changed by asking experts and people who interacted with the tree ordinance.
Design whiteboad
Design and Research
After ideation, we divided the canopy data by its lots and looked at the density of the canopy versus the type of lot and lot size. We also added qualitative interviews from citizen, conservationist, and government perspectives.
The project included interviews with city planners, conservationists, utilities, developers, and homeowners to gather perspectives. Through interviews, we discovered how and why trees are taken down and the different processes for tree care from an individual or utility.
Interviews
Julia, an Atlanta homeowner talks about her tree removal experience
Matt Davis, Urban Forestry Specialist at Trees Atlanta
Ryan Gravel, Founder at Sixpitch. urban planner, designer, author, and visionary of the Atlanta Beltline
“What is special about Atlanta? And how do we protect and expand that to make sure that as how we grow, we become more of who we are, not something else we don’t recognize or like anymore”
Data Discovery
The columns plots the city lots above and groups them by percentage of tree canopy coverage
Single-family homes contribute enormously to Atlanta’s tree canopy. Townhomes, condos, and other multi-family dwellings often have little to no tree coverage.
Densely developed areas, such as downtown, surrounding neighborhoods, and former Atlanta Housing Authority developments have less than 5% tree cover.
In the datasets, we see few permits for removal from utility companies.
Lot Canopy Visualization
The greener the lot corresponds to a higher percentage of tree canopy coverage
References
City of Atlanta: Parcels, 2012, City Parks, 2015
Trees Atlanta: Planted Trees, 1994-2014
Georgia Tech: Urban Tree Canopy, 2008, Watershed, 2008, Thermal heat map, 2011
Further research included news articles, studies, and other data visualizations.
Team Members
Biqing Li, Becky Scheel, Benjamin Sugar, John Thompson
My responsibilities included research, interviews, and design.
Special Thanks
Ryan Gravel at Sixpitch, Matt Davis and Tabitha Schwartz at Trees Atlanta, Julia Liu, Kathy Evans at City of Atlanta, Matt Chambers at Georgia Power, Jon Love at Google Fiber, and Caroline Foster.