Douala vs Maroua
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.
Maroua has more tree cover — 43.2% against 10.8%.
Douala has cleaner air right now — AQI 68 against 92.
- Tree cover gap
- 32.4 points
- Maroua is ahead.
- Air quality gap
- 24 AQI
- Douala is cleaner.
- Trees between them
- 105K
- Maroua has more standing.
Tree cover
Share of the 2 km radius under canopy.
10.8%
43.2%
Air quality index
US EPA index, live, with its band. Lower is better.
68 · Moderate
92 · Moderate
Trees standing
Estimated from the measured canopy area.
30.7K
136K
Trees still needed
To reach the same canopy target. Fewer is better.
54.6K
0
CO₂ absorbed each year
By the trees already standing.
676K kg
3.0M 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.
Douala
2018: satellite photo from January 2018 of a 5 × 5 km area about 7 km north of the city centre.
Maroua
2017: satellite photo from February 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area in 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.
Douala
Maroua
Forest lost since 2001
Cleared, burned or logged.
565 ha
under 1 ha
Cleared for good
Deforestation: turned into farms, mines or towns.
528 ha
under 1 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.
15.8 µg/m³
34.2 µg/m³
PM10
Coarser particles — dust, pollen, road grit.
25.7 µg/m³
85 µg/m³
Nitrogen dioxide
Mostly traffic and combustion.
4.5 µg/m³
0.7 µg/m³
Ozone
Forms in sunlight; peaks on hot, still afternoons.
32 µg/m³
96 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 | Douala | Maroua |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Oct | 68 | 61 |
| 15 Oct | 51 | 67 |
| 16 Oct | 64 | 85 |
| 17 Oct | 64 | 105 |
| 18 Oct | 53 | 97 |
| 19 Oct | 60 | 85 |
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. Maroua leads here at 43.2%.
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: Douala reads 68 (moderate) and Maroua reads 92 (moderate) right now.
Frequently asked
Douala and Maroua, answered
Which has more trees, Douala or Maroua?
Maroua, with roughly 135,717 trees inside its 2 km radius against 30,706. Tree cover tells a slightly different story from raw count: Maroua has the denser canopy at 43.2%.
Which has better air quality, Douala or Maroua?
Douala right now, at AQI 68 against 92 — a gap of 24 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?
Douala needs about 54,588 more to reach its canopy target, and Maroua about 0. The target is the same share of ground for both, so the figures are directly comparable.
Which has lost more forest, Douala or Maroua?
Douala, which lost about 565 ha of forest within 10 km of its centre from 2001 to 2025, against under 1 ha around Maroua. Of that, 528 ha around Douala 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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