Bafoussam vs Nkongsamba
Tree cover and air quality for both, measured the same way: Sentinel-2 imagery at 10 m detail over a 2 km radius from each city centre, and the live US EPA air quality index. Same radius and same index, so the two numbers compare directly.
Nkongsamba has more tree cover — 63.6% against 25.2%.
Bafoussam has cleaner air right now — AQI 90 against 97.
- Tree cover gap
- 38.4 points
- Nkongsamba is ahead.
- Air quality gap
- 7 AQI
- Bafoussam is cleaner.
- Trees between them
- 121K
- Nkongsamba has more standing.
Cameroon
Cameroon
Tree cover
Share of the 2 km radius under canopy.
25.2%
63.6%
Air quality index
US EPA index, live, with its band. Lower is better.
90 · Moderate
97 · Moderate
Trees standing
Estimated from the measured canopy area.
79.2K
200K
Trees still needed
To reach the same canopy target. Fewer is better.
15.1K
0
CO₂ absorbed each year
By the trees already standing.
1.7M kg
4.4M kg
Seen from above
Tree cover on the satellite image
The same 2 km radius around each centre, with the tree cover the satellite found marked on it.
Satellite timelapses
Watch both change, year by year
A clear satellite photo a year of the land around each city. Press play, turn on the forest cleared since the first year, or drag the before and after.
Bafoussam
2017: satellite photo from February 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area about 6 km north of the city centre.
Nkongsamba
2017: satellite photo from February 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area about 7 km south-west of the city centre.
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest each has lost
Within 10 km of each city centre, from the yearly satellite maps of forest loss: a wider circle than the tree cover above, because forest is usually lost at a city's edges. Less is better in every row.
Bafoussam
Nkongsamba
Forest lost since 2001
Cleared, burned or logged.
302 ha
747 ha
Share of its forest
Of the forest it had in 2000.
3.9%
2.5%
Cleared for good
Deforestation: turned into farms, mines or towns.
283 ha
532 ha
Air quality in detail
What each city is breathing
Concentrations in µg/m³, measured at the same moment as the index above. Lower is better in every row. Both are modelled, with no ground station close enough to either.
PM2.5
Fine particles, the pollutant that usually sets the index.
24.6 µg/m³
33.3 µg/m³
PM10
Coarser particles — dust, pollen, road grit.
62.6 µg/m³
49.6 µg/m³
Nitrogen dioxide
Mostly traffic and combustion.
0 µg/m³
4.8 µg/m³
Ozone
Forms in sunlight; peaks on hot, still afternoons.
78 µg/m³
28 µg/m³
The last week, day by day
A single reading can catch a city on a bad afternoon. The week says whether it was the weather or the place.
| Day | Bafoussam | Nkongsamba |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | 85 | 47 |
| 14 Oct | 94 | 54 |
| 15 Oct | 69 | 48 |
| 16 Oct | 85 | 63 |
| 17 Oct | 107 | 65 |
| 18 Oct | 123 | 60 |
| 19 Oct | 148 | 93 |
Reading these numbers
What is actually being measured
Tree cover
The share of ground under canopy inside a 2 km radius of each city centre, read from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery at 10 m detail. It is a measurement of that circle, not of the whole municipality — which is exactly what makes the two comparable, since city boundaries are drawn to wildly different rules around the world. Nkongsamba leads here at 63.6%.
Air quality index
The live US EPA index, computed from current pollutant concentrations — ground stations where a city has them nearby, and a model everywhere else. It moves hour to hour, so this is a snapshot rather than a verdict on either place: Bafoussam reads 90 (moderate) and Nkongsamba reads 97 (moderate) right now.
Frequently asked
Bafoussam and Nkongsamba, answered
Which has more trees, Bafoussam or Nkongsamba?
Nkongsamba, with roughly 199,805 trees inside its 2 km radius against 79,168. Tree cover tells a slightly different story from raw count: Nkongsamba has the denser canopy at 63.6%.
Which has better air quality, Bafoussam or Nkongsamba?
Bafoussam right now, at AQI 90 against 97 — a gap of 7 points. This is a live reading rather than an annual average, so it can reverse within a day.
How many more trees does each city need?
Bafoussam needs about 15,080 more to reach its canopy target, and Nkongsamba about 0. The target is the same share of ground for both, so the figures are directly comparable.
Which has lost more forest, Bafoussam or Nkongsamba?
Nkongsamba, which lost about 747 ha of forest within 10 km of its centre from 2001 to 2025, against 302 ha around Bafoussam. Of that, 532 ha around Nkongsamba was cleared for good, for farms, mines or towns.
Are these two measured the same way?
Yes — that is the point of the page. Identical radius, identical satellite source at 10 m detail, and the same US EPA index for air. Nothing here is adjusted for population, city limits or climate, so the numbers describe the same-sized circle of ground in each place.
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