This report presents a descriptive analysis of vegetation cover change between 2014 and 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. The project sits within a boarder research context, under the “Making greening happen in consolidating cities” project of the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes (CAUL) research hub of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program. The project is a collaboration between RMIT University, The University of Western Australia, CSIRO and the Victorian Government Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) as part of the “Cooling and Greening Melbourne” work for Plan Melbourne 2017-2050.
The goal of this research project is to understand the spatial distribution of urban vegetation and the relationship to landuse. The data assembled can support further investigation of the impacts of urban development on vegetation cover and the potential mediating role of land-use planning interventions in this. This report focuses on the extent and change in the spatial distribution of vegetation across Melbourne between 2014 and 2018, reported against major land-use classes and against metropolitan sub-regions. To do this the research integrates high resolution urban vegetation coverage (including canopy cover and total vegetation) at a modified Mesh Block level for two years – 2014 and 2018; with landuse information derived from ABS Mesh Block attributes.