ABSTRACT
The City of Unley covers 1,429 hectares, tree canopy over is currently 28% or 400 Ha. Annual loss of canopy from private land totals 4 Ha, with 50% due to 200 new developments each year. To be cool and green Unley has a target of 31% canopy cover, but Council’s land, open space, buildings and roads cover just 16% of the total land area. By planting out all remaining opportunities Council’s land can only contribute 6.4% canopy cover to the City. The solution must involve trees on private property.
Unley Council won a national award for its use of LiDar to map every property’s canopy cover to 10 cm accuracy. Recent lidar data and data from three years ago record the % canopy cover now and previously and reveal the change in canopy cover. Increasing canopy cover requires that either more trees are planted on private property or Council has a fund to allow more land to be purchased to plant trees on – a tree land fund. This paper details what needs to be done to incentivize new developments to retain and grow trees. It is hoped that by the time of the symposium, Council will have received the support of the SA Minister for Planning to consult the community on our proposed solution: that new development approvals that will increase the built form will retain 15% canopy cover or will contribute to a tree land fund until they achieve 15% cover. Should our community support the proposal we would undertake a trial and measure the outcomes… to 10 cm accuracy.
