Seeing the good from the trees: remotely sensing the urban forest

城市森林提供了一系列生态系统服务，包括温度调节和降雨收集，但目前衡量这些效益的成本过高，而且不准确。该项目旨在开发一种新的城市森林生态系统服务模式，利用遥感三维数据绘制林冠覆盖图。越来越多的政府正在收集这种数据，利用这种数据的模型是对既有方法的一个新的进步，这种方法需要昂贵和耗时的实地工作。预计该项目将取得的进展将意味着环境规划者将能够更好地规划城市森林，使城市在面对气候变化时更具宜居性和适应力。

Urban forests provide a range of ecosystem services including temperature regulation and rainfall capture, but measuring these benefits is currently prohibitively costly and inaccurate. This project aims to develop a new model of urban forest ecosystem services that uses remotely sensed three dimensional data to map canopy cover. A model using this data, which is being collected by an increasing number of governments, represents a novel advance on the established methodology that requires expensive and time-consuming fieldwork. The advancements expected to be made in this project will mean that environmental planners will be able to better plan the urban forest so that cities are more liveable and resilient in the face of climate change.