Nearmap names Aranda ACT's leafiest suburb for most trees while new developments fall behind

Aranda is among 10 suburbs to have outgrown the 30 per cent urban tree-canopy by 2045 target, according to Nearmap aerial imagery.

More than 37 per cent of Aranda is under cover, compared with just 2.2 per cent of Wright.

The Koch family returned to Aranda after moving further out in Belconnen as the family grew.

Forrest Koch said for a family that values camping and the outdoors, being in the leafy capital of the bush capital was the right pick.

"It's been the best move. It's close to everything. All our friends are here and it's a nice leafy suburb," he said.

The median ACT suburb achieved a relative increase of 5.4 per cent residential tree cover over the past year, according to Nearmap.

The tech firm has quantified changes in tree coverage across 93 residential suburbs by analysing aerial imagery and artificial intelligence data sets from 2021 to 2022.

Reid (33.9 per cent), O'Connor (33.3 per cent) and Ainslie (32.3 per cent) all trailed Aranda for top tree canopy coverage, with Coombs (2.3 per cent), Casey (4.2 per cent) and Bonner (4.9 per cent) leading the rear.

The ACT government measures cover every five years. The last count in 2020 had Canberra's urban footprint at 22.5 per cent tree cover.

Nearmap found medium suburb coverage of 24 per cent, when analysing imagery from January to March this year.

While tree cover was growing, the data showed just 58 per cent of Canberra residents were living in suburbs with over 20 per cent cover, compared to 79 per cent of Brisbane residents.

Canberra also trailed Hobart with 71 per cent of residents in reasonably leafy suburbs and Darwin, with 66 per cent of residents in reasonably leafy suburbs.

Sydney was the only capital behind Canberra, with 44 per cent of residents in suburbs with 20 per cent coverage.

A $14.9 million investment was made in improving the bush capital's canopy coverage as part of last year's budget, with a target of 54,000 new trees by 2024.

A total of 16,406 trees had been planted as of Tuesday, a government spokeswoman said.

"Planting locations particularly focus on areas of low urban canopy cover and areas where the canopy is at risk of decline with the ageing of existing trees," the spokeswoman said.

"Gaps in the existing tree canopy cover will also be filled in suburbs which are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change."

A call went out to green thumbs to assist planting efforts in April this year, with up to $20,000 offered to community groups to plant or provide tree maintenance.

Planting programs will prioritise boosting coverage where shade is most valuable, including adjacent to paths and cycle ways that link schools, community facilities and shopping centres, the spokeswoman said.

Nearmap director Dr Michael Bewley said not a single suburb in the ACT had seen a drop in residential tree cover over the last year.

"It is very important to proactively monitor these changes," he said.

"Trees take many years to grow and we're better able to respond if we can identify as early as possible the impacts of policy and climate."

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