New maps show how much green space there is in the UK’s ten most populated cities

Some cities in the UK are three times greener than others. New images from mapping company Esri UK show that Edinburgh has the highest percentage of green space with 49 per cent, followed by Glasgow with 32 per cent, then Bristol at 29 per cent green space.

Greater London comes in at number 5, with 23 per cent of green space, shown by the bright green sections on the map.

The company used satellite images and mapping software to determine where the green space or vegetation was in each city. Experts used the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to calculate the percentage of green space in each city. The index uses the visible and near-infrared bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to assess whether land mass contains live green vegetation or not.

Often used to monitor drought, predict farming output or to help predict hazardous fire zones, the NDVI is used for global vegetation monitoring because it helps compensate for changing illumination conditions, surface slope, aspect and other unrelated factors.

1.

Edinburgh

49.2% green space

2.

Glasgow

32% green space



3.

Bristol

29% green space



4.

Birmingham

24.6% green space



5.

Greater London

23% green space

6.

Sheffield

22.1% green space



7.

Leeds

21.7% green space



8.

Manchester

20.4% green space



9.

Bradford

18.4% green space



10.

Liverpool

16.4% green space

All maps by Esri UK

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