Tree targets and mapping

We are planting 100,000 trees

Setting targets

We all know the relief of finding a cool spot under a tree or walking along a shady, tree lined street on a hot day.

We need trees for our wellbeing in public areas where there are more hard surfaces, as they provide shade and reduce the impact of radiant heat.

Urban greening is a collection of trees and shrubs that grow within a city, town or a suburb. Providing benefits including shade, cooling, clean air, reduced stormwater runoff and habitat for birds and wildlife to name a few.

We’ve set urban forest targets that will see a 20 per cent increase in both tree canopy cover and urban green cover in our public areas by 2045.  

This will amount to 100,000 new trees in street verges, waterways and parks by 2037.  We're doing well and so far, our amazing field crews have already planted 47,912!!!

Discover why trees are cool by downloading our flyer(PDF, 628KB).

Visit our planting trees in streets and reserves pages to find out more about how we're putting our targets into action. 

Tree canopy and thermal heat mapping 

We commission tree canopy mapping every few years.  In tandem with our thermal heat mapping, this helps us easily identify where hot spots and gaps have occurred and where targeted planting needs to take place.  Here's what we discovered and why planting new trees is so important:

  • our entire council region (urban and rural) has 25 per cent tree canopy cover
  • privately owned land makes up 54 per cent of the Onkaparinga region but contains the lowest amount of canopy cover at 10 per cent closely followed by roads at 11 per cent
  • 27 per cent of our urban area is covered by vegetation and only 13 per cent of the urban area covered by trees (vegetation greater than 3m in height)
  • local government land has tree cover of 21 per cent and state government 19 per cent.

You can see why as well as our team planting trees in streets and reserves it's so important that you grow trees in your yard too.  Use the heat and canopy mapping below to see just where hot spots and gaps are around your home and visit our planting at home page for guidance on a variety of popular trees that you can plant to cool your home.  

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