New research conducted independently by a Calgarian offers insight into how the city’s greenery and tree canopy have changed — or not — in the last two years, raising questions about how citywide rezoning and inequitable planting have led to the minimal growth. 

Registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, Yevhen Vasylenko is a geologist by trade who started out in mining and resource estimation. For the past 10 years, he has focused on environmental protection and geochemistry. 

His experience is an extension of his roots as a data journalist, a role he held while living in his hometown in central Ukraine, Kryvyi Rih, before moving to Calgary in 2022. Vasylenko said that his research on the city is his way of giving back to his new home. 

“I want to contribute to my community,” he said.

“I’ve been in Calgary already for about four years, and I want to help make the city better.”

Published on Feb. 21, Vasylenko’s research draws on more than 8.5 million data points gathered from satellite images to compare the quality of Calgary’s vegetation in 2024 and 2025. From these snapshots, he essentially stacked them together and calculated the average.

This average is conveyed as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which, according to NASA Earthdata, is a remote sensing metric that assesses plant health and density by measuring near-infrared and red light levels.

Vasylenko graphed several maps from these datasets, including one depicting Calgary’s overall greenspace, another comparing the density of summer 2024 and 2025, and a series of charts ranking greenness by community. 

All of the above information is freely accessible on his website. More thorough maps communicating greenness by community — organized by quadrant — are also available online, on a choose-your-own-price basis.

New research shows disparities between quadrants

Using his self-described “multi-dimensional” metrics, Vasylenko said the most significant takeaway is the difference in vegetation density between the west and east sections of the city. Generally, he said that the west had more greenery than the east. 

“Some new communities in the northwest also have no trees, because it’s a new community,” said Vasylenko.

“But some eastern, old communities, like Forest Lawn and Marlborough, are like a pancake.”

On the contrary, he summarized that some established communities, like the northwest’s Shaganappi — first annexed to the City of Calgary in 1910 — had the most vegetation. Unsurprisingly, areas like the downtown’s Beltline and Lower Mount Royal were the least green. 

Because of the mature trees and deep root systems present in long-time neighbourhoods, like Roxboro and Queens Park Village, Vasylenko’s research showed that they had the biggest boost in growth.

He said that concrete-heavy, actively developing places on the edge of the city, like the deep southeast’s Rangview and the northern neighbourhoods of Livingston, Huxley, and Moraine, lagged in canopy growth.

Though the eastern quadrant is not nearly as pavement-saturated as downtown, he called it a “micro oven,” citing the abundance of industrial areas and parking lots, coupled with the lack of trees, as having the same warming effect on the climate.

But while the NDVI is an important indicator of overall vegetation density, Vasylenko said it captures only the upper part of the canopy, not the total plant volume. This means that well-groomed lawns and golf courses, for example, often have a higher score than dense forests.

To better understand the city’s canopy, he said that distinguishing between flat and voluminous vegetation using other methods, such as radar imaging or LiDAR scanning, is necessary. Despite the discrepancy, local canopy advocates call Vasylenko’s research a great tool.

Updated insight is a vital resource, say canopy advocates

Rob Miller has been volunteering at the Calgary Climate Hub (CCH) since 2022, when he said Nature Canada reached out to share news about their tree equity initiative. Since then, the hub has crafted its own campaign, which involved creating a map showing where trees are lacking.

The map draws on Nature Canada’s 2022 data to compare the city’s tree density with the income levels and racialized population of each neighbourhood. The online resource showed that tree canopies are typically found in high-income communities, and the resource later won the CCH partner of the year award.

Miller said that despite the data’s role in pointing to this notable trend, the numbers are now almost four years old, and that the same goes for the City of Calgary, which has also not updated its data since 2022. 

For this reason, he called Vasylenko’s updated research “really useful.” 

Due to the difference in measurement methods between the 2022 and 2025 data, Miller said the stark contrast between the west and east sections of the city is less noticeable in Vasylenko’s maps. 

“You don’t really see a clear delineation between the eastern half of the city,” he said. 

“It is there, but it’s not as obvious as when you look at the tree equity scores.”

However, he said that the relationship between low-income communities having a smaller canopy appeared the same. Miller cited the northeast as an example, noting fewer schools and outdoor athletic spaces, which often help with the canopy. 

All things considered, he said that one main problem has remained the same in recent years: for the city to achieve its goal of upgrading the current tree canopy coverage from roughly eight to 16 per cent by 2050, planting should be concentrated on underserved communities. 

Miller explained that the city receives millions in federal grants to fund tree planting, which has primarily taken the form of the Branching Out program. Through this, residents can sign up, collect, and plant trees for free. 

Instead of evenly dividing the number of trees to be planted across quadrants, Miller recommended that the city focus its efforts on bringing places with small canopies up to speed. 

“If you look at the northeast, their tree canopy is only two per cent,” he said. 

“Even if they were brought up to the city average, that would be a huge improvement.”

To make this a reality, Miller said that the fact that most of Calgary’s land is privately owned is another problem in extending the tree canopy, and that the 2024 approval of citywide rezoning made matters more complicated.

The CCH is slated to present its perspective on the proposed citywide zoning changes to the city council during a public hearing next week.