Urban forest
We all live in an urban forest. Find out more about it and your place in it.
What is an urban forest?
When you gaze out your window and see trees and shrubs, you're gazing at the urban forest. This forest encompasses all trees across both public and private lands. Similar to the natural forests you find outside Sydney, the urban forest is more than just trees. It is a diverse ecosystem, featuring varying levels of flora, from towering trees to small shrubs, grasses, and even green roofs — all contributing to an intricate urban ecosystem.
When we discuss enhancing the urban forest, our focus often centres on planting more trees, which is crucial. However, if you want to contribute, and space constraints hinder you from tree planting, contributing with garden plantings or even pot plants on a balcony can also make a substantial impact. In typical forest fashion, trees play a dominant role by providing above-ground protection for smaller plants within our urban landscape.
Trees and fauna
Our urban forest isn't just a place for humans; it's a thriving ecosystem supporting various forms of wildlife. Trees host insects, which, in turn, become a food source for other creatures. Birds find refuge in the high branches and tree hollows, which are essential for the reproduction of many native species. We actively protect old trees to preserve these hollows, even pruning them when necessary to maintain safety. Additionally, we install habitat boxes and, in some cases, create artificial hollows, always prioritizing the health of the tree and the biodiversity it supports.
CBCity Public Tree Explorer
The CBCity Public Tree Explorer is a great way to find out about the Street and Park trees near you.
You can use the filters to find your street or park. You can even see all the trees of a particular species across the whole City.
The viewer is showing data from Councils Tree Management System where the data is refreshed daily.
Please keep in mind, that although we strive to keep our data up to date, there can be limitations. We do periodic updates to our tree data in bulk, so some trees may have been removed and new tree plantings might not be shown yet. They will be corrected at regular intervals.
We're currently collecting more street and park tree data, so if the tree you want to learn about isn't shown here, please check back again in a few weeks time.
Heat Vulnerability Index
The NSW Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) is a valuable tool that identifies areas in the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area that are more susceptible to the adverse effects of urban heat. It draws insights from three critical components:
- Exposure: This assesses how much a population is exposed to urban heat, considering local weather conditions, built environment characteristics and socio-economic disparities.
- Sensitivity: It examines the socio-economic characteristics of the population that might increase vulnerability, including factors like advanced age and social isolation
- Adaptive capacity: This component evaluates the extent to which a population can adapt to external factors, such as access to the internet or the presence of cooling amenities
The current (2016) HVI is the result of a comprehensive analysis that combines Land Surface Temperature data from Landsat 8 with vegetation cover data. This is integrated with socio-economic data from the 2016 ABS Census and mapped to the ABS Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1).
At CBCity, we leverage the HVI in conjunction with tree canopy coverage data when prioritising tree planting initiatives and crafting tree planting programs. This approach allows us to strategically enhance urban comfort and wellbeing, making our community more resilient to the challenges of urban heat.