Overview:
This article explores how citizen scientists are supporting Atlanta’s urban forest by collecting real-time data on tree canopy, helping researchers, and informing local conservation efforts.
In a warm morning in Atlanta, a number of volunteers gather in a community park to document the trees surrounding them with their phones, not to take pictures, but to collect data. After they finish scanning the park, volunteers upload their collected images to a regional dataset. As a result, they contribute to an ever-expanding collection of scientific data.
What looks like a casual walk is, in fact, part of a larger movement: ordinary residents doing real science to help protect one of America’s most important urban forests.
For years, people have regarded Atlanta as a ‘city in a forest,’ with its thick tree canopy softening the skyline and reducing urban heat across its neighborhoods. Unfortunately, this description is becoming less accurate. The city is losing its urban green infrastructure due to construction, climate-related factors, and rapid population increase.
Community-based environmental stewardship is developing to help redress this loss of resources that has historically been limited to experts.
Science in the Hands of the Public
At the center of this movement is citizen science—public participation in data collection that contributes to real scientific research. Programs like GLOBE Observer allow volunteers to record land cover, tree conditions, and environmental changes using smartphones.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_health_research_-_Kirk_Acharya_(51190374994).jpg | License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
This work fills a crucial gap left by satellites. As the program explains, “there is a need for actual ground observations to accompany these data.”
Although satellite images are an excellent source of information, they often miss the fine details associated with urban or city settings. As such, pixelation could easily cause people to overlook small parks, tree clusters, and other large green areas.
By providing field-collected, volunteer-generated data, volunteers help provide the additional items needed to refine the map, monitor environmental change, and better understand local ecosystems to support scientists’ work.
In Atlanta, that contribution is especially important. The city’s tree canopy is complex, uneven, and constantly changing. Without accurate, up-to-date data, protecting it becomes far more difficult.
A Forest Treated as Infrastructure
For decades, trees in cities were often viewed as decorative, pleasant, but secondary to roads, buildings, and utilities. Atlanta is working to change that mindset.
According to the Atlanta Tree Conservation Commission, the modern approach treats trees as essential systems: “This model attempts to place trees at the same level of importance as other critical infrastructure elements like roads and utility lines.”
This shift has major implications. Trees are not just aesthetic—they manage heat, improve air quality, reduce flooding, and support public health. They absorb pollution, cool neighborhoods, and create spaces where communities can thrive.
But managing an urban forest at this scale requires data—detailed, continuous, and local. That’s where citizen scientists come in.
Mapping a Living System
Atlanta’s urban forest is an extensive, non-contiguous network of trees throughout Atlanta that consists of an interconnected ecosystem of tree canopy. The urban forest’s interconnectedness is best viewed as a system of trees that exist on both public and private property. Therefore, maps of the urban forest need to show both where trees are and how the urban forest changes over time.
Researchers and organizations are using a combination of satellite imagery and community-collected data to produce a clearer picture of the urban forest. Map-based initiatives documented by The Nature Conservancy and NASA DEVELOP provide examples of how such mapping efforts can be utilized as tools for decision-making and conservation.
These efforts emphasize that local knowledge matters. Residents often know their neighborhoods best—where trees are thriving, where they’re being lost, and where new growth is possible. By contributing data, they help create more accurate and responsive environmental strategies.
Citizen science also extends beyond simple observation. Studies in Atlanta have shown that volunteers can help map invasive species, track accessibility, and monitor forest health using mobile tools and GPS.
Data That Shapes Policy
The information gathered by both researchers and residents doesn’t just sit in databases—it informs real decisions.
Urban tree canopy studies conducted in Atlanta provide a baseline for understanding how much tree cover exists and where it is changing. According to the report, “The 2018 Urban Tree Canopy Assessment marks the third comprehensive detailed analysis of tree canopy within Atlanta’s city limits.”
The term “science-based policy decisions” is significant. The information collected from the field has tremendous potential to influence future zoning and development planning, and other forms of protection and conservation. Accurate data regarding the existing distribution of trees or the location of sensitive environmental sites can strongly affect where trees are planted, areas that will be protected, and how various resources will be allocated.
Without quality data, decision-makers would base the above decisions on assumption or chance; however, with quality data, they can make these decisions with good intent and purpose.
A Forest Under Pressure
Despite its reputation, Atlanta’s urban forest is not guaranteed to last. Tree loss is an ongoing challenge, driven by development and environmental stress.
Reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlights the scale of this decline, noting that “with close to half an acre of trees lost each day over that time.”
The stakes are high. Urban forests provide a wide range of benefits, from cooling temperatures to improving mental well-being. They “absorb noise, dust, and heat” while enhancing neighborhoods and increasing property value.
Losing these trees means losing those benefits—and once they are gone, they are not easily replaced. Mature trees, in particular, take decades to grow and cannot simply be replanted overnight.
This is where community involvement becomes critical. While policy and planning are essential, they are often reactive. In contrast to the passive approach of traditional research methods (documentation performed long after an event has occurred), citizen science is an active process. It enables community members to capture ongoing/real-time observations of changes in their environment. Thus, they can form an accurate picture of the overall health of the forest at any point in time.
The Power of Participation
Citizen science provides both a quality source of information and an experience in engaging individuals in scientific efforts. People who engage in scientific activities through Citizen Science become more connected to the results of those efforts.
In Atlanta, that means residents are not just observing their environment—they are helping to protect it. They are identifying areas of concern, contributing to research, and advocating for change.
These activities bridge communities and institutions, linking local and scientific knowledge to support cooperative environmental management
It also challenges the perception that science exists only in laboratories or through the work of professional scientists; Rather, it is available to anyone, valuable to everyone, and will have a profound impact on everyday life.
A Model for Other Cities
Atlanta’s experience offers a glimpse of what urban environmental stewardship can look like in the future. As cities around the world grapple with climate change, heat islands, and rapid development, the need for innovative solutions is growing.
Citizen science is one of those solutions.
By combining technology, community engagement, and scientific research, cities can create more resilient and responsive systems. They can gather better data, make better decisions, and build stronger connections between people and the environments they inhabit.
Atlanta’s urban forest, shaped by both policy and participation, shows how this can work in practice.
Returning to the Trees
Back in the park, the volunteers finish their observations and upload their data. What they’ve recorded will join thousands of other entries, contributing to a larger understanding of the city’s landscape.
It’s a small act—but one with far-reaching impact.
Because in Atlanta, saving the urban forest is not just the work of scientists or policymakers. It is the work of the community—one observation, one tree, and one dataset at a time.
Sources:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution — “As Atlanta grows, its trademark tree canopy suffers”
GLOBE Observer — “Land Cover Science”
Atlanta Tree Commission — “Atlanta’s Urban Forest”
Editor’s Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is based on available research and organizational reports at the time of writing and is intended for general informational use.
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