Bournemouth is one of the greenest places in Britain

Scientists from the University of Sheffield analysed the green attributes of urban town and city centres across England, Scotland and Wales and ranked them on greenness.

The first spot was taken by Exeter followed by Islington, Bristol, Bournemouth and Cambridge.

Meanwhile, Glasgow was ranked the least green urban city centre, with Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Leeds, making up the bottom five.

The researchers said their findings, published in Plos One, “reveal a clear divide between the urban city centres” with the greenest ones located in the South of England, while the lowest scoring ones are ex-industrial cities in the North of Great Britain.

Dr Paul Brindley, senior author of the study from the University of Sheffield’s department of landscape architecture, said: “The fact that all five of the greenest city centres are in the South of England, whilst the five city centres with the least green attributes are in the North of Great Britain, clearly highlights the need to urgently improve the greenness of city centres at the bottom of the list, and to ensure that action is taken by local authorities to close the gap.”

For the study, the researchers ranked 68 municipalities in Great Britain with populations of at least 100,000.

To determine the presence of vegetation, the researchers used a measure known as the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), using satellite observations of light absorption and reflection to measure vegetation cover in a given area.

The team also looked at tree cover and presence of green spaces in the city centres.

Top 10 “greenest” urban city centres in Great Britain:

1. Exeter
2. Islington
3. Bristol
4. Bournemouth
5. Cambridge
6. Chelsea
7. Ealing
8. Sutton Coldfield
9. Richmond
10. Oxford

10 of the least “green” urban city centres in Great Britain:

1. Glasgow
2. Leeds
3. Liverpool
4. Sheffield
5. Middlesborough
6. Basildon
7. Manchester
8. Cardiff
9. Huddersfield
10. Worthing