Street View Imagery Based High-Resolution and High-Accuracy Human-Environment Vegetation Mapping: How Green is our County?

Jacob Beihoff & Adam Honts
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Undergraduate Students

“Measuring the amount of vegetation in a given area has long been accomplished using satellite and aerial imaging systems. However, a primary limitation of these methods has been their ability to measure vegetation coverage accurately only at the top of the canopy, often neglecting green vegetation located beneath canopy cover. Measuring the amount of urban and suburban vegetation beneath  canopy cover along the street network is now possible through the use of Google Street View (GSV) images. We developed a multi-filter image processing technique to     extract green vegetation pixels from GSV images, and  computed a green index associated with each image location. Analyzing green vegetation through the use of GSV images provides a comprehensive representation of the amount of green vegetation found within an area. The obtained data can be used in statistical comparisons between urban greenery and other known health and socioeconomic outcomes for possible health, social, and urban planning benefits”.

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