An Impossibly Green Destination On Florida's Gulf Coast Has More Trees Than Any City In The World

Singapore may be the home of a futuristic garden of fantastical "supertrees," but it's the third-largest city in Florida that takes home the title for having the most trees in the world. According to a 2017 Treepedia Study, which measured the tree canopies of various cities by using Google Street View, Tampa, Florida, scored 36.1% on the study's Green View Index, higher than the 26 other cities that were looked at for this (admittedly non-comprehensive) study by MIT.

Researchers emphasize that this particular project focused on street trees, meaning they did not count trees in parks. According to the MIT website, "By using GSV [Google Street View] rather than satellite imagery, we represent human perception of the environment from the street level." So what does this mean for Tampa, exactly? Well, beyond the aesthetics of living on a tree-lined street, having lots of trees around can be good for both your mental and physical health.

One of the biggest problems in cities, especially as climate change continues to cause global temperatures to rise, is urban heat islands. This is a phenomenon where cities tend to be hotter than their surroundings due to a wide variety of contributing factors like wasted heat from cars and air conditioners as well as the heat retention qualities of concrete and asphalt.

To help combat this, trees are our best allies in obvious and non-obvious ways. They provide shade, of course (anyone who has ever had to park a car in Florida knows the shaded spot is prime real estate), but they also help cool the air through evapotranspiration. As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explains it, this process "cools the air by using heat from the air to evaporate water. This cooling also occurs from the surrounding soil and when trees and vegetation catch rainfall on their leaves."

Powered by this knowledge, many cities around the world have made strides to plant more trees. Among them is Tampa, which instituted a tree protection ordinance in 2006 and is still working towards its goal of planting 30,000 trees by 2030.

MIT's data may not have been as far-reaching as some might like, but thankfully we can look to the Arbor Day Foundation for more tree-inspired travel goals. The foundation recognizes over 200 "Tree Cities" internationally, which are cities that have applied and proved their commitment to "caring for its trees and forest." This includes tree-loving locales like Edinburgh, with its iconic tree-framed castles in the United Kingdom, as well as massive urban metropolises like the wildly underrated Buenos Aires in South America.

However, you can also get plenty of tree time in your own backyard because this list of 210 cities doesn't even include the over 3,500 cities recognized in the U.S. alone, albeit under a different classification. In fact, you might already live in a tree city, as the Arbor Day Foundation reports that 47% of American citizens reside in one. Check out the Tree City USA website to see if your hometown is on the shady side.