Durban named world's greenest city

The city has been named the greenest city by the Husqvarna Urban Green Space Index.

It claimed the greenest spot - ahead of Rio De Janeiro and Austin - Texas.

Swedish outdoor power products manufacturer, Husqvarna, worked with Amsterdam-based forest intelligence solutions company, 20tree.ai, to develop the index. 

The survey - titled 'Quantifying the Greenness of Global Cities' analysed 98 cities in 51 countries.

To calculate the greenness score - satellite image data was turned into a range of urban green space metrics by applying computer vision and machine learning techniques. 

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Durban came out tops in the categories of 'Highest Percentage of Urban Green Space'  and 'Highest Percentage of Urban Area Covered by Trees'.

Husqvarna's brand ambassador, Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira says he is so proud of his home city being named the greenest city in the world. 

eThekwini's Deputy Head of Parks  - Sibusiso Mkhwanazi says the recognition is as a result of the City’s greening strategy and policy - of planting of 80% indigenous trees and 20% exotic plants.

Pretoria and Johannesburg were the other two South African cities that featured on the index.

They ranked 19th and 20th overall respectively.