Tree Equity Score is a free, human-centered, decision-making tool for urban tree plantings used by urban foresters, land-use planners, government officials, neighborhood organizations and many others.

Help make the case for investment in neighborhoods with the greatest need across America using a single, nationwide, neighborhood-level score. Learn more at TreeEquityScore.org .

American Forests' Tree Equity Score is an analysis of urbanized neighborhoods, where neighborhoods are defined as Census block groups, and urbanized areas are defined by the Census Bureau as “densely developed territory… encompass[ing] residential, commercial, and other non-residential urban land uses.”

Surface temperature data were derived from USGS Earth Explorer Landsat 8 imagery thermal bands. One-meter resolution tree canopy cover for all urbanized areas in the United States was provided by EarthDefine . Temperature and tree canopy maps were created for a cross-section of larger urbanized areas representative of different ecoregions of the United States.

For each urbanized area unit¹, the percent of the population living in a heat anomaly was calculated. Urbanized area averages were calculated as the area-weighted mean of all block group mean summer high surface temperatures. A heat anomaly was defined as Census block groups that were 1.25 degrees above average temperatures for the urbanized area and the population tabulated for those block groups.

Tree Equity Score establishes tree canopy targets (percent cover) that are scaled to ecoregions (forest, grassland and desert) and population density, determined in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy. The neighborhood canopy gap, GAP, is calculated by subtracting the existing neighborhood canopy from the target. Census block groups were flagged for "adequate tree cover" where GAP = 0, that is, the percent existing tree canopy was greater than or equal to its tree canopy target. Where GAP > 0, the canopy gap % was multiplied by the block group area, then converted to number of trees using a basic multiplier of 600 sq-ft (55.74 sq-m) of canopy area per urban tree assuming a medium-sized, deciduous urban tree crown width of 25-30 ft.

¹Census Urbanized Area (UA) units are defined as a continuously built-up area with a population of 50,000 or more, comprising one or more places (e.g., municipalities, cities, towns, villages, or boroughs) and the adjacent densely settled surrounding area (urban fringe) consisting of other places and nonplace territory. The Census Bureau generally merges contiguous urbanized areas when major portions are located in the same metropolitan area (defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget as a core area containing a large population nucleus, together with adjacent communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with that core area).