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Nearmap artificial intelligence senior director Michael Bewley said that for the first time, the research was completed nationwide.
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Dr Bewley said one layer of the technology, captured six times a year over 90 per cent of Australia’s population, was combined with current Australian Bureau of Statistics population data.
“So it gives a measure of tree cover to where people live,” he said.
“It tops out in Brisbane, where four out of five residents living in a suburb which has at least 20 per cent tree cover, which includes local parks, backyards, street frontages and nature refuges.”
Griffith University urban planning lecturer Tony Matthews said there was “mounting evidence” trees provided a critical service to cities.
“But the total canopy coverage in a city is not distributed everywhere,” he said.
Greater Brisbane suburbs with most tree cover in 2021
- Sheldon - 66 per cent
- Mt Crosby - 60 per cent
- Burbank - 55 per cent
- Bunya (Brisbane’s north) - 53 per cent
- Pullenvale - 52 per cent
- Buccan (Logan) - 43 per cent
- Bardon - 34 per cent
- Wamuran (Moreton) - 31 per cent
- Shorncliffe - 23 per cent
Dr Matthews said developed inner-city suburbs, such as Fortitude Valley and Woolloongabba, lacked trees.
“But they are really popular with people right now looking for the inner-city residential lifestyle,” he said.
“The other big area where there is a lack of trees in a lot of the new outer suburban housing estates.”
Dr Matthews said developers were reducing the cost of housing for first-home buyers by consolidating the urban footprint and lowering costs by reducing the size of the block.
New homes and townhouses under construction in Ripley, Credit:Tony Moore
Trees, nature strips, green spaces, public paths, footpaths on both sides of the roads are reduced.
Dr Matthews said it was about affordability but subsequently some of these outer suburbs ended up with large “roofscapes” and suffered from urban heat island effects.
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“There is nothing to break these roofscapes up,” he said.
“There are no trees poking up, no tree canopy effect and there is no green space to absorb the heat, so they tend to suffer from urban heat island effect.”
That drives up airconditioning and energy expenses, he said, producing a “thermal inequality” which is a financial penalty over time.
“A lot of people who live in these estates are first home buyers. They certainly don’t have hundreds of extra dollars to pay for inflated electricity bills because of an increased need for airconditioning,” Dr Matthews said.
Brisbane council environment chairperson Tracy Davis said the council, like Sydney and Melbourne, aimed to have 40 per cent natural habitat across the entire city.
Cr Davis said Brisbane’s natural habitat had increased 2.1 per cent since 2016, to 38.9 per cent.
This new estate at Everton Hills has no tree cover making it hot until trees grow, but has chosen light colours on walls and roofs which reflect heat.Credit:Tony Moore
Cr Davis said 14,000 street trees were planted each year and spaces for 100,000 extra trees had been identified. There were 454,000 street trees planted across urban Brisbane.
“We focus on areas where residents would benefit from shade, like along footpaths and populated areas,” she said.
“This builds on the 2 million trees planted in Brisbane between 2008 and 2012.”
More than 4270 hectares of significant koala habitat and natural areas have been brought into public ownership since 1990, including 750 hectares of bushland protected in the past four years.