Study: annual value of trees is $500 million per megacity

In the megacities that are home to nearly 10 percent of the world's 7.5 billion people, trees provide each city with more than $500 million each year in services that make urban environments cleaner, more affordable and more pleasant places to live.

In a recent study published in the online journal Ecological Modelling, an international team of researchers reported that in the 10 megacities they studied, tree-based ecosystem benefits had a median annual value of $505 million, which is equivalent to $1.2 million per square kilometer of trees. From another perspective, the value was $35 per capita for the average megacity resident.

The study's lead author, Dr. Theodore Endreny of the ESF Department of Environmental Resources Engineering, said the value of trees' services could easily be doubled by simply planting more of them.

Click here to read more from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY.

Click here for the original publication in Ecological Modeling.