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UNH fellow unveils interactive tree-canopy dashboard showing about 60% cover in Concord; city to host data on concordnh.gov/trees
Summary
UNH Sustainability Fellow Danielle Melius presented a ward-by-ward tree-canopy assessment and an interactive dashboard that estimates about 60% canopy cover citywide and quantifies benefits (approx. $18.4 million in annual street-canopy benefits); the dashboard will be posted on the city's website for planning and public use.
A UNH Sustainability Fellow presented a citywide tree-canopy assessment and an interactive dashboard the council agreed to host on the city's website.
Danielle Melius said the mapping project used 2023 imagery and estimated roughly 60% of Concord has tree canopy, representing about 30,000 acres with roughly 35% on public land and the remainder on private property. She said the analysis used i-Tree Canopy metrics to estimate roughly $18.4 million in annual benefits attributable to street-tree canopy, including cooling, stormwater and air-quality benefits.
Melius demonstrated a dashboard that allows viewers to zoom to ward level, prioritize planting by heat mitigation, flood-risk reduction or other benefits, and identify plantable spaces while accounting for utilities and hydrants. City staff said they will meet with the GIS coordinator to transfer data to the city system and publish the dashboard at concordnh.gov/trees.
Councilors praised the project as a low-cost fellowship investment with practical planning applications and raised questions about updating frequency; staff said the dashboard is updatable and that future fellows or forestry staff could expand the dataset.
