Neema Simon Sumari

Abstract Urban trees are crucial for enhancing the social and ecological qualities of urban environments, but their distribution and correlates in informal settlements across African cities remain unclear. Here we map out 53 million individual trees across 54 African cities and investigate their relationship with neighborhood environments along a gradient of urban informality. Our findings reveal the shortage of green infrastructure per capita in the most informal neighborhoods of African cities.

Formulae display:? With the rapid advancement of global urbanization and sustained economic growth, substantial natural resource consumption and significant eco-environmental impacts have been caused by human activities (Bai et al. Citation2017; Meng et al. Citation2023). The excessive discharge of industrial waste during urban construction has resulted in severe pollution of soil, water, and air in the environment (Fan et al. Citation2024; Zhai et al. Citation2020).