The Czech company ASITIS has successfully completed the international European Space Agency project UpGreen, which helps cities better understand the condition of their urban greenery. Using satellite imagery, municipal data and advanced analytical methods, the project delivered a detailed overview of nearly 600,000 trees in Copenhagen and Lisbon. The results reveal where trees are thriving, where they are under long term stress, and where investments in green care deliver the greatest benefits.

Urban greenery plays a key role in the quality of life in cities. It cools streets during hot days, retains water, cleans the air and contributes to residents’ mental wellbeing. Yet many cities still have only limited insight into the real condition of their trees. This is exactly the gap addressed by the UpGreen project, which has now been successfully completed by the Czech company ASITIS in cooperation with the European Space Agency and partners World from Space and Atregia.

A city map showing trends in the condition and development of urban greenery. Individual areas and trees are colour coded by trend: thriving, resilient, stable, vulnerable and endangered. Thriving and resilient greenery is mainly concentrated in continuous green corridors, parks and forest edges, while vulnerable and endangered areas occur more often in densely built up zones and along major roads. The map includes a trend legend and a scale of 0 to 500 m.

The project was implemented in several consecutive steps. First, the team focused on understanding the needs of cities and their decision making processes. This was followed by the development of analytical tools and their validation in real conditions. Pilot testing took place in two European capitals, Copenhagen and Lisbon, which differ significantly in both climate and urban structure.

A geographic temperature map of Copenhagen showing the cooling effects of urban greenery measured in degrees Celsius. The map uses a blue gradient from 0.0 to 0.1°C up to more than 1.0°C, with darker blue indicating stronger cooling effects. The scale shows a distance of 2 km.
In Copenhagen, 280,192 trees were analysed, and in Lisbon a further 306,834. In total, this resulted in a detailed assessment of 587,026 trees. The analyses show not only where trees are performing well and their survival capacity, but also where they are exposed to long term stress, for example due to heat, drought or surrounding development.

UpGreen works with Earth observation satellite imagery, open data and information provided directly by cities. These sources are integrated using advanced analytical methods that calculate tree vitality, future development and the extent to which trees cool their surroundings. The outputs are clear maps, visualisations and reports that cities can use in everyday decision making.
Thanks to these materials, local authorities can plan green care in a targeted way, direct new plantings to locations with the highest impact, and better justify investments in green infrastructure. The project has already been applied in the Czech Republic as well. In Kuřim, a set of maps and a report were produced to help the city understand where greenery contributes most to cooling and where it is under threat.
A detailed map of the urban area of Kuřim showing point based tree stress levels. Coloured points represent medium, high and extreme stress, which is strongly concentrated along major roads, in dense development and around industrial areas. Lower stress levels occur mainly in larger continuous green spaces and at the edges of the city.

According to representatives of ASITIS, one of the key benefits of the project is the connection between the current state and a forward looking perspective. Cities thus gain not only a snapshot of today’s situation, but also a foundation for long term planning with a direct impact on residents’ quality of life.
“Cities today need to work with greenery as thoughtfully as they work with transport or energy. UpGreen provides them with an unprecedentedly detailed data package at a fraction of the cost of traditional tree inventories. It is not just a map of trees. It is a basis for decisions that influence how pleasant a city is to live in today and in ten years’ time.”
Martin Vokral,
ASITIS.cz, CEO

What this brings to cities

- An overview of the condition of urban greenery across the entire city, down to individual trees
- Data to support targeted maintenance, new plantings and well considered investments in greenery
- Clear information on where greenery cools the city and where it is under long term threat, specifically addressing tree productivity, stress, survival capacity, cooling effect and carbon sequestration
- Clear maps, reports and visualisations ready for practical use

About the UpGreen project
A temperature map of Copenhagen showing levels of carbon sequestration measured in tonnes of CO₂ per year and kilograms of CO₂ per tree per year. The map uses a green gradient from 0 to 100 up to more than 200, with darker green indicating higher sequestration levels. The scale shows a distance of 0 to 2 km.
UpGreen is an analytical service for cities that helps them better understand the condition of urban greenery. It connects satellite imagery with municipal data and transforms them into clear maps and outputs. As a result, cities gain a clear overview of where greenery helps cool the city, where it is under pressure, and where it makes sense to invest in its protection and development.