Chinese experts develop new technology to promote refined measurement of carbon sinks in urban green spaces

Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden and other institutions have developed a carbon sink enhancement technology for urban green spaces, helping green spaces shift from their previous focus on landscape display to quantifiable and calculable carbon sink management. Reports show that this technology, led by Qin Jun’s team and completed in collaboration with multiple universities and research institutions, has been implemented in 164 projects across 45 cities including Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu, covering an area of more than 105,700 hectares and increasing carbon sinks by about 15 million tons annually. The technology drives innovation on three levels: individual trees, plant communities, and green spaces. It includes nondestructive measurement of tree carbon sinks, optimization of community configurations, and improved management efficiency through remote sensing and intelligent models. The research team has also built a database containing 215 tree species with high carbon sink capacity, and in the future hopes to further improve localized accounting methods and explore the integration of carbon sink measurement, trading, and compensation.