Melbourne Urban Tree Canopy Extents from 2008 Imagery

2008 aerial photos and LiDAR were used to map tree canopy polygons across public and private property in the City of Melbourne. The canopy extents are considered accurate for the 2011 timeframe, with changes expected since then. Data is provided in multiple geospatial formats including SHP, JSON, CSV, and GEOJSON.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial distribution of canopy polygons to assess urban forest coverage across property types.
• Measure changes in canopy extents over time by comparing this 2011-accurate layer with newer surveys.
• Model ecosystem services using canopy polygon geometry for stormwater runoff or heat island studies.

Strengths

• Data derived from two remote sensing sources: 2008 aerial photography and LiDAR.
• Canopy polygons represent actual extents on both private and public land.
• Available in four interoperable geospatial formats (SHP, JSON, CSV, GEOJSON).

Limitations

• Temporal staleness: data reflects the 2011 urban forest state, with acknowledged changes since.
• Unknown sample size and feature count, as row and column details are unavailable.

Provenance

Source

City of Melbourne Open Data

Collection Method

Mapping from 2008 aerial photos and LiDAR.

Time Range

2008 (source imagery), accurate for 2011.

Freshness

Metadata was last updated in March 2026, but the underlying data is from 2008/2011.

Geography

City of Melbourne, Australia.