Philadelphia park tree cover data, 1959-2018

These data represent tree cover for three parks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tree cover was manually delineated on aerial imagery from 1959, 1980, 2000 and 2018. The parks studied were: East Fairmount Park, West Fairmount Park, and the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.Urban foresters in many cities in the United States and around the world have been assessing trends in urban tree canopy cover, and many municipal leaders have set goals for tree cover levels. However, there is a need for greater understanding of the socioecological dynamics of tree cover change over many decades, including varied trends within a city. These land cover change data were collected to assess the rates and drivers of tree cover change, using Philadelphia to investigate the processes of tree cover change in parks of a post-industrial city. Parks are a critical component of urban tree canopy cover, as they constitute one of the largest portions of tree cover in many cities, so changes in park tree cover can have outsized impacts on municipal tree cover more broadly.These data were originally published on 12/29/2021. On 02/22/2022 and 06/23/2023 minor metadata updates were made.