3D-CITREES - Estimating the aboveground biomass of city trees in Ghent, Belgium (3D-CITREES)

The main objective of this project is to generate biomass and location maps of urban trees in the city of Ghent, Belgium, by fusing the point cloud data from both terrestrial and airborne LiDAR systems. With cities and urban areas being the major source of carbon, recent studies have highlighted the critical role played by urban forests in sequestering carbon. However, the contribution of urban trees in storing carbon is often ignored in the global carbon cycle estimates, partly due to the perceived relatively smaller spatial area covered by them in comparison to the global forest cover. Nevertheless, Ghent city alone has over 30,000 individually managed trees spread across its streets, squares and public gardens. As a result, it is important to quantify, monitor and understand the role played by urban trees in storing carbon and combating climate change. With the cover of urban areas projected to increase in future, biomass and location maps of urban trees generated in this project will become crucial both for urban planning and for carbon mitigation policies.