PURPOSE OF THIS ANALYSIS

The City of Brookhaven is located within DeKalb County, Georgia in the Atlanta metropolitan area (Figure 1). It is approximately 11 square miles or 7,805 acres of which 7,739 are land acres. Across the City, trees along streets, in parks, yards, and natural areas constitute a valuable urban and community forest. This resource is a critical element of the region’s green infrastructure, contributing to environmental quality, public health, water supply, local economies, and aesthetics. The primary goal of this assessment was to provide a baseline and benchmark of the City’s tree canopy, interpret the results across the City’s zoning types, and evaluate how canopy has changed over the last decade using data from previous assessments as well as newly created data.

URBAN TREE CANOPY IN BROOKHAVEN

Land cover results of this study indicated that in 2019, the city of Brookhaven contained 44% urban tree canopy (or 3,411 of the City’s 7,805 total acres); 21% noncanopy vegetation (1,632 acres); 33% impervious (2,570 acres); 2% soil/dry vegetation (125 acres); and 1% water (67 acres). In order to align with previous studies all results are based on the total area of the City as opposed to the
more commonly used land area (total area minus water area). Urban tree canopy cover was 47% (3,700 acres) in 2009, 51% (4,006 acres) in 2010, 49% (3,791 acres) in 2013, 53% (4,114 acres) in 2015, and 50% (3,939 acres) in 2017.

Fill out the form to access the Urban Tree Canopy Assessment, Brookhaven, Georgia.