Enhancing Urban Biocapacity Assessment through High- Resolution Tree Cover Density Data: A Carbon Sequestration Proxy Approach

Małgorzata Świąder

doi:10.3097/LO.2026.1153

Authors

Małgorzata Świąder Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Department of Systems Research, Wrocław, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3398-4985

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3097/LO.2026.1153

Keywords:

urban biocapacity, Tree Cover Density, carbon dioxide sequestration, Green Infrastructure, ecological accounting, GIS workflow

Abstract

Accelerating ecological overshoot increases the need for spatially explicit ecological accounting, particularly in urban landscapes. Conventional biocapacity assessments often rely on generalized land-cover data that may overlook fine-scale vegetation structures. This study evaluates whether integrating high-resolution Tree Cover Density (TCD) data with Corine Land Cover (CLC) and Urban Atlas (UA) improves the spatial representation of vegetated land-use types and their carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestration potential. CO₂ sequestration is used as a proxy for biocapacity rather than as a complete measure of ecosystem productivity. The approach was applied to Wrocław, Poland, using GIS to reclassify croplands, forest lands, and grazing lands and integrate them with TCD. Sequestration potential was then compared within the resulting CLC–TCD and UA–TCD areas using LUT-specific and TCD-weighted tree-specific sequestration rates applied to the same intersected spatial patches. The TCD-weighted approach reduced total estimated sequestration by approximately 57% for CLC and 53% for UA. Forest-land estimates declined by about 70% and cropland estimates by about 20%, whereas grazing-land estimates increased more than threefold. TCD can reveal dispersed woody vegetation within non-forest classes and provide a more spatially refined basis for urban ecological accounting and green-infrastructure planning, while requiring careful interpretation across land-use types.

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