Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
New Yorkers, how much shade does your street really have? This map will tell you.
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Aug 21, 2023
Modified Aug 21, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Aug 21, 2023
Modified Aug 21, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
A new Cornell University study offers clearer details on how much shade New York City trees provide.
The researchers found that not all trees throw the same shade – even when they’re the same size. Factors such as a tree's health, canopy size and its distance to another tree influence its cooling effectiveness.
Using the study’s interactive map, Tree Folio NYC, New Yorkers can click on any specific street tree in the city to simulate its shady offering on any day of the year. The map was built upon the city’s 2015 tree census — which counted 666,000 trees over the city’s more than 131,000 blocks. But it includes high-resolution aerial scans — collected with LIDAR or the light-based equivalent of radar — to create 3D pictures of the urban forest. Using these models, researchers can render its shadow and canopy area – the cooling area.
See the trees on your NYC street
Here's a link to the Tree Folio NYC interactive map and some pro tips:
- Press the three lines in the top right corner to open the dropdown box.
- Choose “grey” for shade and “green” for tree – and then click the box’s "refresh" button.
- Really zoom in.
The map can take a minute or two to load given it involves a lot of data. It also works best with an updated browser, preferably on desktop.
“Trees might produce anywhere from 10% of their theoretical shade to like 90%-plus of their theoretical shade,” said Alex Kobald, project lead and associate director of the Design Across Scales Lab at Cornell’s College of Architecture. “That comes down to all of those local factors like the height of its neighboring buildings; the exact location of the tree in a streetscape; the orientation of the street and the orientation of the buildings around it.”
New York City’s current total canopy cover, defined as the percentage of a land area covered by trees, is about 22%. Advocacy groups and the New York City Council are pushing for 30% by 2035, but the study findings reveal that quality is just as important as quantity.
On average, New York City trees fall about 30% below the potential shade they could produce.
“Shade and access to shade is a citywide problem,” Kobald said.
In a comparison of three neighborhoods with similar building heights, street widths and tree counts – Pelham Gardens in the Bronx, Park Slope in Brooklyn and Ozone Park in Queens – the study found big disparities in shade and very different exposures for heat vulnerability.
In Park Slope and Pelham Gardens, the vegetation is very evenly distributed. The tree canopies are all very similar in size – and they’re very large and healthy compared to Ozone Park.
“Park Slope ends up with a lot of very beneficial shade that's falling on streets and sidewalks during the hours that you would want that shade to be there,” Kobald said.
In contrast, Ozone Park had much smaller trees, and many of them were not healthy. The findings also revealed another major difference that was a factor in good shade – orientation. The trees in Ozone Park were often located on major thoroughfares with less foot traffic or on north-south oriented streets, which have less sun exposure.
“We do need to be mindful of which tree we put in which place because trees respond to and are affected by local conditions,” said Emily Maxwell, New York Cities Director at the Nature Conservancy.
Blocks of mid- to high-rise buildings can cast large shadows, nullifying the shade that trees can contribute on streetscapes.
“These north-south oriented streets don't provide the same amount of shading benefit as if they had been on the east-west corridors that experienced a lot more sun during the hot summer afternoons” Kobald said.
But tall glass and concrete buildings come with the negative consequence of reflecting sunlight, which can cause excess heat in the vicinity. This phenomenon contributes to the urban heat island effect, or metropolitan areas are hotter than average due to the absence of greenspace. A climate report published in July found that New York City has the worst urban heat islands in the U.S. due to the number of people affected by the excess warmth.
“We can think a lot more expansively about how to use trees as an asset in the city,” Kobald said. “We should be much more creative about the solutions that we propose rather than this default of double lined street condition — trees on both sidewalks regardless of orientation and neighboring circumstances.”
Advocacy groups, such as Nature Conservancy, back the city council’s push for legislation to establish a citywide urban forest plan aimed at achieving the 30% canopy cover goal and require periodic LIDAR monitoring to track canopies. They also want trees and their canopies to be considered in the city’s long-term sustainability planning.
“Street trees provide a range of benefits,” Maxwell said. “They clean our air. They beautify our neighborhoods. They help filter stormwater, and being around trees has been shown to improve our health and wellbeing.”
Tagged
new york city
environment
Health and Science
tree
Rosemary Misdary
Rosemary is health & science reporter. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 646-544-9524.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NY's prison system is in crisis. It's driving staff away from the job.
The state is currently struggling with a 56% vacancy rate among prison workers.
By
Emily Russell
Published Oct 4, 2026 at 7:00 a.m. ET
NYPD searching for suspect after fatal stabbing in Queens
Officers responding to a call at the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and 173rd Street around 1 a.m. found 29-year-old Sulimon Ferrier, who had multiple stab wounds to his chest, police said.
By
Ben Feuerherd
News
NYPD searching for suspect after fatal stabbing in Queens
Officers responding to a call at the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and 173rd Street around 1 a.m. found 29-year-old Sulimon Ferrier, who had multiple stab wounds to his chest, police said.
By
Ben Feuerherd
NYPD: 2 suspects in off-duty officer stabbing tried to rob victim
By
Jill Webb
Astoria-born Chip City announces sudden closure days after former CEO sues
By
Catalina Gonella
US judge tosses Trump lawsuit targeting pro-Palestinian protesters in NJ
By
Willow Higgins
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .