Athens: children map the urban greenery

A different approach to the relationship between children and urban greenery was attempted by an initiative presented on Thursday 20 August 2026 in Athens. The Urban ReLeaf Athens team brought families together in an interactive workshop that combined citizen science, digital tools and creative learning. Children and parents explored their neighbourhoods and recorded the trees through the Urban ReLeaf app, then turned their observations into three-dimensional models of neighbourhoods of the city, in cooperation with the B.R.I.C.K. team. The initiative was carried out with the support of the Greenery Directorate of the City of Athens, as well as of a representative of the Ministry of Education for Environmental Education matters.

The logic of citizen science, that is the collection of data by non-specialists using simple digital tools, has in recent years found application in urban environment issues. In practice, participants record what exists on their own street: how many trees, at which points, in what condition. This data does not replace the official studies of the technical services, but it can work as a complement, identifying gaps and problems that are not easily captured in central records. Turning the observations into three-dimensional representations adds a second layer: it allows children to see their neighbourhood as a whole and to imagine how it would change if more trees or shaded spaces were added.

For Athens the issue is not theoretical. The densely built centre and large parts of the western and southern districts have limited open spaces, while the heat burden becomes more intense every summer: in the same week the temperature in the Athens basin is on an upward path and is expected to reach 38 degrees at the weekend, with the highest values recorded inside the city, away from the influence of the sea. The distribution of greenery from neighbourhood to neighbourhood directly affects the temperature difference residents experience within the same city, as well as the ability of children to move safely outdoors during the summer months.

The initiative itself remains for now a limited-scale workshop, and it has not been announced whether the data gathered will be incorporated into any official plan of the municipality, nor whether the activity will be repeated in other neighbourhoods or during the school year. The interesting element is the involvement of the municipal greenery service and of the Ministry of Education, which shows that the recording was not carried out purely as an educational game. If the participants’ observations are put to use, they will amount to a low-cost source of information for a city where knowledge of exactly what grows on each street is often fragmentary.