# How much green your street lost in ten years

Between August 2015 and August 2025, Bucharest lost 437 hectares of green — 3.7% of what was green. We translated three summers of Landsat 8 pictures per side into each street's loss: 3,255 streets measured, 55 parks, 6 sectors — and how much stayed green. Search your street.

The middle street of the ranking lost nothing: 0.0%. 68.6% of measured streets lost nothing — the damage concentrates on the fringes and the vacant lots.

The most gnawed street is Strada Suceava: 45.0% of its green gone, across 24 addresses and 20 green-then pixels. Drumul Jilavei lost the largest area of green: 3 hectares, or 30.0% of its green at the start. And Strada Tomis kept all its green: 0.0% lost, 100.0% still green today.

The numbers compare two composites of three clear summers each: August 2015 with August 2025, exactly ten years apart. It is vegetation loss, not necessarily construction — the pixel says the green is gone, not who took it.

## Where Bucharest lost green

The map shows how much green each of the 55 parks lost over ten years. Between them, the surface joins everything: every measured 200-metre cell carries the share of green gone, from untouched green to the red patches where it all went. Grey never had enough green to earn a number.

This is all the green gone in ten years: the height of the 55 parks shows the measured loss, and the surface under them shows the share gone. Colour says the band, height says how much went.

Only the parks: 55 parks with about 2 hectares of measured green, measured the same way as the streets. Lakes are cut out, so they don't thin the green artificially. The most gnawed of the large ones is Parcul Liniei, with 7.3% of its green gone.

For example, Șoseaua Mihai Bravu: 0.0% of its green gone, 50.7% still green today, from 341 valid pixels around 239 addresses. The nearest measured park, Parcul Național, is 1.1 km away and lost 0.0%.

Only the streets, through the surface: Strada Suceava lost the most (45.0%, from 20 green-then pixels), Strada Tomis nothing (0.0%, 100.0% still green today). Smârdan has no number: stone on stone, below the five-green-pixel threshold. Rankings keep only streets with at least 20 addresses and 20 green-then pixels.

Only the sectors: the most gnawed is Sector 2, with 5.5% of its green gone (79 hectares) — a tenth of a percentage point above Sector 3, at 5.4%. The least gnawed, Sector 1, at 2.8%: yet it lost the most hectares, 102, being the largest. The Băneasa forest lies in Sector 1.

## How much green your street lost

Type a street. You get the green gone in ten years (of the then-green), the green left (of the measured area), the loss band and the nearest measured park. The loss compares the green of August 2015 with August 2025; “still green” is the percentage of pixels the satellite caught green in the summers of 2024–2026.

## What the percentages mean

Every street, park and map cell is coloured by the share of green gone in ten years, in percent; the bands are the same everywhere. It is the share of then-green that is no longer green — construction, clearing or dead green; the pixel cannot tell the cause.

- **Untouched** (0%): Mihai Bravu sits here, at 0.0% across 239 addresses, beside Herăstrău (0.0%) and Carol (0.0%). 68.6% of measured streets lost nothing.
- **Barely touched** (0–2%): Tineretului (1.5%) and Șoseaua Giurgiului (1.3%), across 448 addresses, sit here.
- **Nibbled** (2–5%): Sector 1, the least gnawed sector (2.8%), and Calea Moșilor (4.3%) sit here.
- **Thinned** (5–10%): Sector 2, the most gnawed sector (5.5%), Parcul Liniei (7.3%) and Calea Victoriei (9.5%) sit here.
- **Gnawed** (10–20%): Vasile Lascăr is here, at 18.2%.
- **Eaten away** (above 20%): The most gnawed street, Strada Suceava (45.0%), sits here, beside Parcul Unirii (33.3%).

A pixel is 30 metres and mixes everything it catches: grass, tree, roof, street. That is why the page talks about the zone's green, not your door's: the loss is the share of the green around the addresses that is no longer green.

The bands are this analysis's cuts, fitted to the spread of losses: untouched is exactly 0%, “eaten away” above 20%. Every ranking shows the percentage to one decimal. Bands use unrounded percentages: 5 streets and 5 cells sit on an edge — rounded to one decimal they would fall in the next band.

## How the number is made

Each street takes its loss from around its addresses: 50-metre discs around every point in the index, valid pixels from both composites only. Green-then means a vegetation index above 0.35 in the summers-2013–2016 median, with no bare soil or building; lost means below 0.25 in the summers-2024–2026 median and below 0.30 in the latest summer, 2026 — each side backed by at least two clear summers.

The composites are three clear Landsat 8 summers each, centred on August 2015 and August 2025: exactly ten years apart. In each scene, more than 99.9% of pixels are cloud-free, and the three-summer median reduces the influence of a dry summer.

A street with under 3 addresses, under 20 valid pixels, under half of its pixels valid, or under 5 green-then pixels gets no number; rankings keep only streets with at least 20 addresses and 20 green-then pixels. 1,623 streets stayed unmeasured — they show as such, not as zero. Smârdan, for one, has no number: stone on stone.

Limits: the measure only sees losses from clearly-green land — building on already-bare ground is invisible. A ploughed or fallow vacant lot can register as vegetation loss; each pixel covers several types of surface. The 437 hectares are the area classified as loss by this method. And it is not construction on paper: the pixel says the green is gone, not who took it.

## Parks and sectors

The 55 parks with about 2 hectares of measured green, measured the same way as the streets; lakes are cut out, so they don't thin the green artificially. The area is the mapped polygon's, not the official one. Some are squares or neighbourhood greens, not big parks — the label comes from the map. 42 lost nothing. Green left is measured over all valid ground, loss over the then-green: the two don't subtract.

### Sectors

First for damage comes Sector 2, with 5.5% of its green gone (79 hectares) — a tenth of a percentage point above Sector 3, at 5.4%. Last is Sector 1, at 2.8%: yet it lost the most hectares, 102, being the largest. The Băneasa forest lies in Sector 1. The sector hectares don't add to the city total: their rings overlap at the edges, and green left counts all valid ground, not the then-green.

## Sources

- USGS Landsat 8 Collection 2 Level-2, scenes LC08_L2SP_182029_20130813_02_T1, LC08_L2SP_182029_20150803_02_T1 and LC08_L2SP_182029_20160821_02_T1: summers 2013–2016 reflectance, the “then” median, 30 m pixels https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/dataset/landsat-c2-l2
- USGS Landsat 8 Collection 2 Level-2, scenes LC08_L2SP_182029_20240811_02_T1, LC08_L2SP_182029_20250814_02_T1 and LC08_L2SP_182029_20260801_02_T1: summers 2024–2026 reflectance, the “now” median, 30 m pixels https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/dataset/landsat-c2-l2
- OpenStreetMap: addresses and building outlines, reused from the verdele chain (ODbL) https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
- OpenStreetMap: park polygons and sector rings, reused without re-extraction (ODbL) https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
- USGS Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 product sheet (DOI): optical bands, surface-reflectance scale, quality bits https://doi.org/10.5066/P9IAXOVV
- Bucharest City Hall, 2010–2011 green-spaces inventory (HCGMB 159/2013 annex): 4,512.2 ha total, different definitions from the measure here https://doc.pmb.ro/legis/acteinterne/2013/32555/AnexaH159_13.pdf
- How green is your street: the same 3D map, each street's green today, from space https://mariuscomper.uk/verdele-strazii-tale/
- Where autumn has arrived: the same 3D map, each street's cool, from space https://mariuscomper.uk/toamna-strazii-tale/
- How hot is your street: the same 3D map, each street's heat, from space https://mariuscomper.uk/canicula-strazii-tale/
- What you breathe on your street: Bucharest's air of today, street by street, on the same 3D map https://mariuscomper.uk/aerul-strazii-tale/