CONTEXT OF 100KTREEs
Cities around the world are recognising the benefits of a green approach to urban planning, as it has the potential to improve air quality, biodiversity, human wellbeing and reduce climate risks.
Under the European Green Deal, the EU’s biodiversity strategy for 2030 tackles the protection and restoration of nature by making a number of specific commitments and targets. One of the commitments is the pledge to plant at least 3 billion additional trees in the EU by 2030. Much of the success of the European Green Deal will be determined by European cities where cities present both challenges to tackle and opportunities to seize. With about 75% of the European population living in urban areas, cities are going to be key in delivering the deal’s objectives while ensuring that it also leads to an improvement of the quality of life. Over 65% of CO2 emissions come from cities, which is also where 85% of the EU’s GDP is produced (Deloitte, 2022). The benefits to the environment of planting trees in urban areas include a nature-based solution for efficient cost-effective absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere, potential to preserve and enable nesting and foraging opportunities for urban wildlife, water cycle regulation, noise abatement. soil protection and erosion control, oxygen release and air filtering. Trees help prevent floods and mitigate droughts by retaining and storing excess rainwater. In addition, urban trees and woodlands contribute to the attractiveness of the townscape and create the image of a positive, nature-oriented city. They are also complementary to other urban policies, such as the promotion of zero-carbon and healthy mobility, such as walking and biking, and support the goals of other EU Green Deal initiatives such as the zero-pollution action plan on soil, water and air.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF 100KTREEs
The ambition of the HORIZON Europe project 100KTREES is to make cities a better and healthier place to live by encouraging municipalities to plant more trees and to optimize the impact of tree planting.
100KTREEs will develop mapping and modelling tools to optimize the planting of trees and to monitor their health, based on satellite data from Copernicus EU space programme and in-situ data. By assigning monetary value to the key attributes of a tree, e.g. pollution absorption, cooling effect, noise abatement, flood risk reduction and increased biodiversity, a number of business cases will be developed for our two partner cities.
Sofia (Bulgaria) and Copenhagen (Denmark) are the two metropolitan use cases where technical and socio-economic approach of 100KTREES will be tested and demonstrated. The team will support cities by mapping the existing trees and by showing a solid business case for planting new trees, as well as attracting third party sponsorship to make it happen.
PROJECT PATHWAYS TO IMPACT
The 100KTREEs project will demonstrate that additional trees in urban areas can lead to improvements in air quality (PM2.5 and NOX) and urban eco-systems and biodiversity. Also, trees have a cooling effect in summer heat waves and can reduce the urban background noise. Through water absorption of the soil and tree roots, the risk of pluvial flooding can also be diminished. Through CO2 absorption, trees will also increase carbon sequestration in urban areas. The project will focus on these six key impacts and quantify them.
However, it should be recognised that the impacts of planting urban trees go far beyond the ones listed above and include benefits to human wellbeing, mental health and the attractiveness of cities. It is beyond the scope of this project to assess such wider benefits, but their importance should not be underestimated and is increasingly being recognised in scientific research.
