Satellite map of an urban district with tree crowns marked in shades of blue, showing the distribution of greenery, shade, and cooling potential in a densely built-up area. UpGreen Cooling Effect.

UpGreen
Tree Cooling Effect

Tree Cooling Effect shows where urban trees truly reduce heat during hot summer conditions, and where they do not. Using satellite data, we quantify each tree’s cooling potential and correct it by tree condition, because stressed or low productivity trees cool less.

Calculate Greenery Cooling Effect

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Lea Heise

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Citywide map from the UpGreen audit showing the estimated cooling effect of urban trees in Lisbon, measured in degrees Celsius. Most areas exhibit low cooling performance (

References

Copenhagen (Denmark)
UpGreen analysed approximately 280,000 trees across all districts. Average tree cooling at district level ranges from 0.03 °C to 0.19 °C, with the lowest cooling values occurring in areas with a high share of stressed trees. Several neighbourhood units show cooling below 0.01 °C, despite tree presence, due to reduced vitality and drought stress.

Lisbon (Portugal)
The assessment covered over 200,000 urban trees. Due to widespread summer drought stress, most of the city shows insufficient cooling, as trees close stomata during heat waves, limiting evapotranspiration. Cooling potential is therefore strongly constrained by water availability rather than tree count alone

Kuřim (Czech Republic)

In Kuřim, 16,916 trees were analysed with tree level resolution. The results show a clear relationship between stress, productivity and cooling, with healthier trees delivering measurably higher cooling, while stressed trees contribute significantly less to thermal comfort even when canopy cover is present.

Calculate Survival Capacity

UpGreen: measuring tree health, equity and climate benefits. Tree by tree, citywide. Using satellite data.

UpGreen identifies and evaluates trees across the city using satellite data and advanced modelling. We map tree crowns and assess key indicators that determine whether your greenery is thriving, cooling the city, sequestering, or silently declining. For the price of 10 cents/one tree.

Modules: Tree Survival Capacity, Tree Stress analysis, Tree productivity + prediction, CO2 Sequestration, Tree Cooling Effect.

More about UpGreen

What is Tree Survival Capacity?

The tree cooling effect is the temperature reduction potential created by two main mechanisms:

Transpiration (evapotranspiration) cools the air when trees evaporate water through leaves.

Shading (radiation blocking) reduces heating because tree crowns block solar radiation and paved surfaces heat up less.

In UpGreen, cooling is quantified for hot summer conditions and corrected by tree condition, because stressed or low productivity trees cool less.

How the module works

UpGreen estimates cooling per tree segment by combining:

Evapotranspiration potential from satellite data

A radiation balance model to quantify solar radiation blocked by the crown (shading)

Land surface temperature (LST) to translate energy effects into cooling

A productivity adjustment so low vitality trees are not overestimated

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Urban map of Copenhagen showing the cooling effect of greenery, with colour coded areas indicating temperature reduction from vegetation.

Why you should know this

Heat is not uniform, and neither is cooling

Real cities show strong spatial differences, so a single average hides both hotspots and the places where trees already protect comfort.

Cooling depends on tree vitality, not just presence
Two similar looking areas can perform differently if trees are stressed or underperforming. UpGreen reflects this by adjusting cooling by productivity and condition.

Better planning, better ROI
You can justify where to plant, where to protect mature trees, and where to redesign surfaces to get measurable cooling where people need it most.

What you get:

You receive decision ready deliverables that fit directly into city workflows:

GIS layers for the Tree Cooling Effect: Cooling effect mapped across your city, ready for your GIS workflows and planning overlays.

GIS Tree Cooling Effect - individual tree segments
GIS Tree Cooling Effect - city wide grid
GIS Tree Cooling Effect - city units

A clear report: explaining methodology, key findings, and priority areas for action.

A map handbook: for internal alignment, stakeholder communication, and reporting.

I need to know this