World’s top 10 most picturesque urban green spaces; NY’s Central Park takes the lead

New York’s Central Park takes the lead in the list of the top 10 most picturesque urban green spaces in the world. Occupying 341ha of the Big Apple, the park is home to 18,000 trees. Photo: Harry Gillen/Unsplash

A new research by green energy experts has revealed a ranking of cities in the world with the most picturesque green spaces that are also helping to clean the city’s air.

The research analysed Instagram hashtag data for parks and green spaces in the world’s 100 biggest cities to determine which parks are the most Insta-worthy.

New York’s Central Park takes the crown with over 7.9 million hashtags.

Occupying 341ha of the Big Apple, the park is home to 18,000 trees which are taken care of by the Conservancy Tree Care team. The team estimates that roughly 453 tonnes of CO2 is removed from the city’s air each year, thanks to the trees.

London’s famous Hyde Park is ranked second in the list, and its 4,000 trees remove a total of 2.7 tonnes of pollutants each year and store 3,900 tonnes of CO2, preventing it from being released into the city’s air. Photo: Markus Freise/Unsplash

Second on the list is London’s famous Hyde Park, amassing 2,363,707 hashtags.

According to Treeconomics and The Royal Parks, the 4,000 trees in Hyde Park remove a total of 2.7 tonnes of pollutants each year and store 3,900 tonnes of CO2, preventing it from being released into the city’s air.

Coming after London’s central park is Hangang Park in Seoul, South Korea, with nearly 750,000 Instagram posts.

It consists of 12 parks in total and last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government planted 90,000 trees in the park in a bid to tackle fine dust, car emissions and noise pollution.

Hangang Park in Seoul, South Korea, consists of 12 parks in total. Last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Government planted 90,000 trees in the park in a bid to tackle fine dust, car emissions and noise pollution. Photo: Vau Kim/Unsplash

Making it into top five are two American green spaces, both located in California. Griffith Park in Los Angeles, which was featured in the Oscar-winning film La La Land, is fourth on the list with over 493,000 hashtags while Golden Gate Park is fifth with nearly 487,000 hashtags.

Meanwhile, European gardens or parks that made it to the top 10 list are Barcelona’s Park Guell at sixth place and Parque del Retiro in Madrid at ninth position.

(Note: As Instagram is inaccessible in China, no Chinese parks were included in the study.)