Rankings
Europe's Greenest Capitals 2025
Ranking all 27 EU capitals by satellite-measured vegetation. Ljubljana tops the chart at 75.7%.
Satellite-based vegetation monitoring for European cities
In May 2016, Berlin's Morgenpost published a groundbreaking investigation: "Das sind Deutschlands grunste Grossstadte" (Germany's Greenest Cities). Using 185 Landsat satellite images, they analyzed all 79 German cities with over 100,000 inhabitants - revealing that Siegen, not Berlin or Hamburg, was the greenest with 86% vegetation coverage.
"Viele Stadte behaupten von sich, besonders viele Grunflachen zu bieten" - Many cities claim to offer particularly large green spaces. But what's on paper often differs from what satellites actually see.
Their methodology was revolutionary: instead of relying on official statistics about public parks, they measured all vegetation - private gardens, green roofs, street trees, courtyards. For the first time, cities could be compared fairly.
Building on Morgenpost's methodology, we're creating an open, ongoing monitoring system for urban vegetation - but with key improvements:
Sentinel-2 provides 10m pixels vs Landsat's 30m - we can see individual trees and small gardens that were invisible before.
Not just a snapshot, but ongoing monitoring. Are new parks making a difference? Is development eating green space? We'll track changes annually.
Starting with Spain and Portugal, expanding across the EU. Same methodology, comparable results - finally enabling cross-border comparisons.
All data outputs licensed under CC BY 4.0. Journalists, researchers, and citizens can use, share, and build on our work with attribution.
Data-driven investigations into urban vegetation patterns.
Ranking all 27 EU capitals by satellite-measured vegetation. Ljubljana tops the chart at 75.7%.
From satellite orbit to vegetation maps: the science behind measuring urban green.
How vegetation keeps cities cool - comparing Barcelona and Copenhagen with thermal satellite data.
