Migration from rural to urban areas continues to grow in countries all around the world. As a result there is more attention than ever on environmental concerns such as how green these locations are. After-all, living close to greenery such as parks and gardens is important for the health and wellbeing of people.
Recent forestry research provides a good insight into how green leading cities in Europe are. By using satellite imagery it was possible to determine how much live vegetation there was in a five mile radius circle around 43 European capital cities. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) charts the results.
From the data you can see which cities have the most greenery. In terms of metropolitan areas with populations over 2 million, the location that scored the highest was Kiev in the Ukraine with 0.389. The city has plenty of green space, including lush parks alongside the rivers. The lowest score was for Athens in Greece with just 0.088. This place it bottom of all 43 cities.
Many capital cities in Europe are located in seaside locations. These destinations are at a disadvantage in terms of greenery because there is naturally less space for planting due to the coast. Many of the cities are surprisingly green though including Monaco and Oslo. With 0.439 and 0.436 respectively, they both outscored Kiev.
The top scoring city in the whole NDVI was Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With a score of 0.6778 it marginally beat Vaduz in Lichtenstein (0.6738). Ljubljana (0.6114) and Andorra La Vella (0.6074) both scored very highly. All of these cities have an important thing in common; they have relatively small populations in comparison to the largest metropolitan areas in Europe.
At Coffey Architects we have a team who are immensely passionate about greenery and environmentally conscious design. As one of the leading architects London has, we understand that more cities need to do more to protect and increase green spaces. We can do this with better designs and planning. Cities like London (0.1348) have the most work to do.
If you would like to discuss anything with us, please get in touch.