Durban beat Rio de Janeiro in Brazil (second place) and Austin in America (third place) to be named the greenest city in the world!
Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa – Durban has just been named the greenest city in the world by the Husqvarna Urban Green Space Index (HUGSI) – an index to safeguard green spaces in urban areas!
Imagine New York without Central Park, London without Hyde Park, or that the little pocket park closest to your own home would be replaced with a new office building or a parking lot. As urbanisation continues, the battle for land and resources intensifies, putting parks and all types of green spaces at risk. Green spaces, trees and plants are the lungs of our cities, improving air quality, managing rainwater, and contributing to the physical and mental health of the citizens. With more people sharing the same space, it becomes vital to safeguard the green spaces, ensuring that the green space per capita is not jeopardised.
Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured, gets managed”. That is exactly why we developed HUGSI. By applying computer vision and deep learning techniques on satellite images, HUGSI unveils insights about the current state and historical development of vegetation and their surrounding environment in urban areas. This makes it possible to find out how green cities really are and if densification is reducing the amount of urban green spaces.
We hope and believe that this index will empower city representatives with the data needed to safeguard green spaces. We also believe that using this technology will make parks greener, safer, and enable resources to last longer through the prediction of future growth and taking preventive actions. Knowing the health status of a tree can not only minimise the risk of dead branches falling but also compliment, and in some cases replace date scheduled maintenance with need-based care to improve the green spaces and give landscapers time for other tasks.”
The HUGSI-index compares the level of greenness in 98 cities from 51 countries, divided into 7 regions. By identifying and recognising these green heroes, the team hope that the top-ranking cities in this index can serve as inspiration for others on how to increase and distribute green spaces in urban areas.
And Durban has beat Rio de Janeiro (second place) and Austin, USA (third place) to be named the greenest city in the world!
The index calculation is based on the percentage of vegetation (trees and grass) and weighing in the average health and distribution of the urban vegetation, and as the cities are located in different climate zones, the team used data for the index from the greenest day of each individual city.
“As a baseline, we used the cities that are members of C40, the network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change, representing 700+ million citizens and one-quarter of the global economy. Imagine the positive effects when these cities collaborate with the insights and opportunities from HUGSI and begin employing the benefits of digitalisation in their green spaces.”
Congratulations Durban, and foremost, congratulations to everyone living in the city of Durban (eThekwini), South Africa. Not only is Durban the global winner of the first HUGSI index, the African megacity with more than 3 million inhabitants also scored the highest percentage of green space in urban areas and the highest percentage of urban area covered by trees.
“The vision for this coastal city is to be Africa’s most caring and livable city by 2030. As part of a five-year strategic plan to develop and sustain the spatial, natural and built environment, the city is implementing several projects to make eThekwini a green-leading city. The city has specifically focused on urban forestry, and to engage the community in greening their environment.”
Check out the top 10 winners below:
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