Development of An Index For Assessment of Urban Green Spacesat City Level
Development of An Index For Assessment of Urban Green Spacesat City Level
Development of An Index For Assessment of Urban Green Spacesat City Level
org
Faculty of History and Geography, Tay Bac University, Son La city, Viet Nam
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organization, 4, Kalidas Road, Dehradun, India
*1
Abstract
Urban green spaces (UGS) are one of the indispensable elements for design and development of cities. UGS are considered as
lung of cities as well as one of the elements reflecting the quality of life. The aim of this research is to develop Weighted
Urban Green Space Index (WUGSI) for assessment of city wide UGS based on multi criteria analysis of Chandigarh city. The
percentage of green, type of green and proximity to green are selected as parameters to study weighted urban green space index.
All these parameters were derived from IRS P6 LISS IV data and IRS P6 LISS 4 + Cartosat-1 fused product. NDVI and Object
based classification method is used to obtain different layers and then is analyzed using multi criteria analysis to derive the
modified green index. The final result shows the distribution of green space in study area consisted of very high quality green,
high quality green, moderate quality green and low quality green. The assessment of UGS was carried out sector wise and it
was found that developed index is quite useful for assessment of UGS and can be used to identify the planning
recommendations.
Keywords
Urban Green Space; Weighted Urban Green Space Index; Chandigarh
Introduction
The world is progressively more urbanized and with this accelerating process comes a host of challenges. Urban
areas now contain nearly 50 percent of the worlds population, and consume up to 75 percent of natural resources,
however, they are concentrated only in 2.8 percent of the worlds land area. This dense concentration of people in a
tiny proportion of land area creates environmental problems (McGranahanet al., 2005). Therefore, quantity and
quality of Urban Green Spaces (UGS) are of prime concern for planners and city administrators (Gupta et al., 2012).
Importance of UGS is well known for maintaining the environmental quality and sustainability as they constitute
the lungs of cities. They keep an important role in physical, social and mental development. UGS provide
numerous benefits to urban residents by acting as urban lungs-absorbing pollutants and releasing oxygen (Hough,
1984 and Haughton, 1994) and by providing clean air, water and soil and balances citys natural urban
environment (Nijkamp and Leventa, 2004). These areas function as a visual screen and act as noise barriers and
avoid too much spatial uniformity (Dole, 1989). UGS constitute parks, gardens and recreation venue, informal
green spaces such as rivers or sea fronts, green spaces surrounding historical sites, railway corridors and
indigenous vegetation types. Urban habitats such as derelict industrial sites and overgrown gardens have also been
considered as UGS (Venn and Niemel, 2004). Recently, researchers have objectively measured UGS using remote
Sensing data by estimating percentage of green (Echpferet al., 2004). However, it cannot reflect comprehensively
the role of green spaces in the cities. The distribution of UGS is equally important, hence, study about proximity to
green is very much required (Shah Md and AtiqulHaq, 2011). Proximity to green space affects the purpose and
frequency of visiting the place as well as it effects the microclimate, environmental quality and property prices in
surrounding areas (Jim and Chen 2009, Troy and Grove 2008). The social role of green spaces is affected by its
optimal distribution (Chiari and Seeland, 2004). In addition, type or quality of green also affects the use of UGS
(Ogden et al., 2008, Diez Roux et al., 2007, Timperio et al., 2005). Many studies have reported that the users of UGS
feel more peace and happiness in wooded area as compared to grass area (Panduro and Kathrine, 2013).
Urban Neighborhood Green Index (UNGI) developed by Gupta et al., 2012 considers four parameters (percentage
78
www.ijrsa.org
of green, built up density, proximity to green and height of structures) to assess the quality of UGS. The proximity
to green was defined by applying single buffer of 20 m and type of green was used for defining the proximity to
green. However, as the environmental benefits of green extends beyond 20 m distance, variable buffers with
diminishing weights can be applied to study the proximity to green. Besides, type of green is also an important
parameter, hence should also be included directly for deriving the index. Similarly, Building Proximity to Green
Spaces (BPGI) by Li et al., 2014 estimated the green spaces at building level. However, it only considers proximity
to green as a parameter to assess the greenness and other parameters are not included. Remote sensing data offers
potential tool for the objective assessment of UGS. The values such as percentage of green, type of green and
proximity to green can be identified and analysed by using remote sensing images and Geographical Information
System (GIS) techniques (Qing et al., 2014). Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculated from
remote sensing images has been used in various studies to distinguish between vegetated and non-vegetated areas
(Huret al., 2010, Saied et al., 2005). Furthermore, the classification about type of green is derived using remote
sensing images (Brinkyte 2008, Jakovlevas-Mateckis and Brinkyte, 2006). Therefore, in the present study a multi
parametric green index has been proposed to assess the UGS at city level to assist planners for greening strategies.
Study Area
Chandigarh is located near the foothills of the Sivalik range of the Himalayas in northwest India. It covers an area
of approximately 115 km2. It shares its borders with the states of Haryana and Punjab. The exact cartographic coordinates of Chandigarh are 30.74N and 76.79E. It has an average elevation of 321 metres (1053 ft) (Figure 1).
Chandigarh has a humid subtropical climate characterized by a seasonal rhythm: very hot summers, mild winters,
unreliable rainfall and great variation in temperature(1C to 46C). The average annual rainfall is 1,110 mm. Most
of Chandigarh is covered by dense banyan and eucalyptus plantation. The city has forests surrounding with total
area is 3245.30 hectares. They have high ecological values with many animal and plant species. Parks keep an
important role in planning and protecting environment.Leisure Valley, Rajendra Park, Bougainvillea Park, Zakir
Rose Garden, Shanti Kunj, Hibiscus Garden, Garden of Fragrance, Botanical Garden, SmritiUpavan, Topiary
garden and Terraced Garden are some of the famous parks in Chandigarh. According to Forests Survey of India,
total green cover (forest cover and tree cover) of Chandigarh is 54 sq. kms which form 38.8% of total geographical
area.
Methodology
The methodology adopted for the computation of Weighted Urban Green Space Index (WUGSI) (Figure 2) involves
binary classification of IRS-P6 LISS-IV image and object based classification of IRS-P6 LISS-4 and Cartosat-1
merged data. The outputs were further analysed in GIS to derive the desired parameters. Further, weights were
calculated for each parameter to derive the WUGSI values.
79
www.ijrsa.org
Data Use
Various parameters in this project were computed by using Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite IRS-P6 LISS-IV
(23 Oct 2014) and Cartosat-1 (3 May 2014 and 22 July 2014) data. IRS-P6 LISS-IV is a high resolution multi-spectral
camera operating in three spectral bands (Green, Red, NIR). Cartosat-1 satellite carries two PAN sensors with 2.5m
resolution and fore-aft stereo capability. As the study area is large, three Cartosat-1 images have been used to cover
the entire study area (Table 1). The detailed methodology has been illustrated as flowchart (Figure 2). The merged
product of Cartosat-1 and IRS-P6 LISS-4 has been used for object based classification.
TABLE 1. SPECIFICATIONS OF VARIOUS SENSORS AND DATA USED
Sr. No
Data
Year
Resolution (m)
23 Oct 2014
5.8
Cartosat-1
3 Feb 2014
3 May 2014
22July 2014
2.5
Administrative map
IRS P6
LISS IV
Cartosat
Geo-referencing
& Data fusion
Ground
/Ancillary
Information
Administrative
IRS P6 L4+
Cartosat-1
Merged
product
Object based
image
classification
map
Rectified
IRS P6
LISS IV
Binary
classification
image
NDVI-Green and
Non-green
Type of
green map
Buffer map
around green
OVERLAY
Proximity to
green map
Results
&
Analysis
Weighted
Urban
Green
Index Map
Weighted
type of
green map
Percentage
of green
Arithmetic
weighted overlay
www.ijrsa.org
Parameter
Percentage
Value
Qualify classes
0-25
25-50
50-75
75-100
0.25
0.50
0.75
1.00
Type of class
Weight
Type of class
Weight
Forest
1.0
0.6
0.9
Water
0.3
Park/garden
0.8
Vacant
0.2
0.6
Built-up
0.0
81
www.ijrsa.org
100m
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.3
0.2
200m
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.2
0.1
300m
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.05
400m
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.05
0.05
0.02
500m
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.05
0.02
0.02
0.01
Derivation of Weights
Saatys pairwise comparison has been used for determining the weights of individual parameters. The Saatys
method dealt with consistency of the pairwise comparison matrix. Saatys method describes the level of
importance of parameters and their relationship on a scale of 1 to 9. After the computation of weights using Saatys
pair wise comparison method, the Consistency Ratio (CR) (should be <0.10 for consistent weights) was computed
to test the consistency of weights.
Generation of Weighted Urban Green Space Index Map (WUGSI)
Weighted Urban Green Space Index (WUGSI) map is generated based on the parameters from weighted
percentage of green, weighted type of green and weighted proximity to green. The WUGSI value for each cell was
computed as given (2):
i=1 to n
WUGSIi=
j=1 to 3
Wj x Pij
(2)
Where, WUGSIi is the Weighted Urban Green Space Index of the ith cell ( i = 1 to n)
Wj is the relative weight of jth parameter (j = 1 to 4), Pijis the value of jth parameter in the ith cell
Result
Percentage of Green
The binary classification (vegetated and non-vegetated area) and percentage of green index map are illustrated in
Figures 3, 4. From the percentage of green index map, it can be seen clearly that most of area in Chandigarh has
high percentage of green. 43% of whole area has percentage of green above 75% while only 8% of the study area is
having percentage of green under 25% (Figure 5).
82
www.ijrsa.org
8%
20%
43%
Under 25%
From 25 to 50%
From 50 to 75 %
Above 75%
29%
Class name
Area (ha)
Percentage (%)
Built-up
3825.3
33.2
979.1
8.5
Forest
616.9
5.4
808.3
7.0
Park/garden
4050.8
35.2
865.8
7.5
Vacant
219.6
1.9
Water
150.6
1.3
Grand Total
11516.4
100.0
To calculate the weighted type of green, map was set with the corresponding values based on the green density.
Value range is from 0 to 1. The result shows the distribution about weighted type of green in Chandigarh. Sectors 1,
2, 3, 4 or sectors along the central green (sectors 10, 16, 23) have the highest values while sectors 45, 51, 52, 56, 61
have low weighted type of green.
83
www.ijrsa.org
Proximity to Green
The type of green map was used for generating proximity to green map. The final proximity to green map is
collected from all layers (proximity to forest, proximity to park etc). The result showed that most of the areas in
Chandigarh have convenient environment with high green percentage. Most of the habitat is surrounded by green
space (Figure 7). In general, living space in all sectors is quite good. Weighted proximity to green is almost over 0.7
for all sectors.
84
www.ijrsa.org
The mean and standard deviation of weighted percentage of green, weighted type of green, proximity to green and
WUGSI were compared to bring out role and relationship among the parameters. For example, when compared
between sector 64 and sector 53, the percentage of green in sector 64 is higher than 53 with mean as 0.33 and 0.30,
respectively. However, WUGSI in these sectors do not follow the similar trend with mean as 0.6 and 0.4,
respectively (Figure 8). Further, the sector 43 and sector 64 have about equal percentage of green (mean 0.33).
However, WUGSI of sector 43 is much higher than that of sector 64 with value 0.62 and 0.4, respectively. The
standard deviation (SD) values reflect the distribution of the UGS. Majority of sectors have good distribution of SD
such as sector 45 and sector 0.41 have SD as 0.12; sectors 21, 24 and 33 have SD as 0.08. Some sectors have unequal
distribution, such as sector 64 (SD = 0.28), sector 54 (SD = 0.2) and sector 62 (SD = 0.27) (Figure 9).
85
www.ijrsa.org
Discussion
Around the world, sustainable development has become a top policy discussion as countries struggle to maintain
or enhance economic growth without compromising the future. One of the very important factors to ensure for this
problem is improving the urban quality environment, of which green space plays a major role. Green space
systems require improvement of the spatial pattern of urban green space. Green spaces need to be uniformly
distributed throughout the city area, and the total area occupied by green spaces in the city should be large enough
to accommodate the city population needs (Haq, 2011). Chandigarh is planned city of modern India where urban
green system is well arranged. It is considered as model in urban planning. The developed index provides a
decision support tool to evaluate, quantify and compare various sectors in distribution of green structure. Rather
than merely measuring the overall percentage of green, i.e., GI, the WUGSI reflects the importance of distribution
of green areas in specific area and environments. Result also shows the contribution of the identified parameters in
improving the quality of green.
Conclusions and Scope
Chandigarh is the first planned city in post-independence India and is well managed till date. The city has good
quality green, 43 out of 59 sectors have quality of green from high to very high (more than 50%). Only 3 sectors
have low quality of green under 25%. This has significant meaning for protection of environment and maintains a
fine space for its population. The assessment of UGS is an important research direction in present scenario. To
assess UGS accurately, the assessment need to be based on various parameters. In this study, due to the limitation
of time and data, only three parameters were considered, namely weighted percentage of green, weighted type of
green, weighted proximity to green. However, some other parameters can be identified to analyze UGS such as
density of built-up, density of high built-up, building sparsityetc (Qing-yanet al., 2014). Assessing the UGS index
based on proximity to surrounding built-up, usability, population to be served and the combination of several
other parameters will yield better results. In the present study, the grid cell size of 100m x 100m was considered.
However, lower grid cell size may be applied in future to see the effect of grid cell size for the assessment of green
spaces. An automation of the calculation process can be done to handle the larger number of grid cells.
Using GIS and Remote sensing data with high resolution, the UGS analysis can be done effectively. GIS can be an
effective tool in preserving and monitoring green and open spaces in an urban area (Ruangrit and Sokhi, 2004). GIS
is widely accepted in urban landscape planning as it can provide better understanding on the spatial pattern and
changes of land use in an area. In future, spatial arrangement of green spaces can be captured in more refined
manner with the help of 3D model using stereo pair/ LiDAR data, which will provide additional height
information to more realistically model the influence of neighboring buildings.
REFERENCES
[1]
Anderson, J.R., Hardy Ernest E.,Roach J.T., Witmer R.E., 1976. A land use and land cover classification system for use
with remote sensor data. USGS Professional Paper, 964, 140, 1976.
[2]
As-syakurA.R, Adnyana I.W.S, Arthana I.W and Nuarsa I.W. Enhanced Built-Up and Bareness Index (EBBI) for Mapping
Built-Up and Bare Land in an Urban Area. Remote Sensing, 4, 2957-2970, 2012.
[3]
Christina Germann-Chiari, Klaus Seeland. Are urban green spaces optimally distributed to act as places for social
integration? Results of a geographical information system (GIS) approach for urban forestry research, Forest Policy and
Economics 6, Elsevier Science, p313, 2004.
[4]
David Dodman, Gordon McGranahan and Barry Dalal-Clayton, Integrating the environment in urban planning and
management.United Nations Environment Programme, 2013.
[5]
David Stone.Green space access, green space use, physical activity and overweight.Natural England Commissioned
Report NECR067, 2011.
[6]
86
Desheng Liu, Fanxia. Assesing object-based classification: advantages and limitation, Taylor & Francis, Vol .1, No4, 2010
[7]
www.ijrsa.org
E. Schpfer, Slang and T. Blaschke. A Green Index incorporating remote sensing and citizens perception of green
space. Working Draft for the Berlin Agenda 21, 2004.
[8]
ECognition Developer, User Guide.Trimble Germany GmbH, Arnulfstrasse 126, D-80636 Munich, Germany, 2014.
[9]
ECognition Developer, Reference book.Trimble Germany GmbH, Arnulfstrasse 126, D-80636 Munich, Germany, 2014.
[10] HannesTaubenbck, Thomas Esch and AchimRoth.An urban classification approach based on an object-oriented analysis
of high resolution satellite imagery for a spatial structutring within urban area.1st EARSeL Workshop of the SIG Urban
Remote Sensing Humboldt-University Berlin, 2006.
[11] Hillsdon M, Panter J, Foster C, Jones A. The relationship between access and quality of urban green space with
population physical activity. Public health, 120, pp 11271132, 2006.
[12] Ioannis Z. Gitasa, George H.Mitrib and Gemma Venturac.Object-based image classification for burned area mapping of
Creus Cape, Spain, using NOAA-AVHRR imagery.Remote Sensing of Environment, 2004.
[13] Jennifer R. Wolcha, JasonByrneb and Joshua P. Newell. Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: The
challenge of making cities just green enough. Landscape and Urban Planning 125, Elsevier journal, 2014.
[14] Koen De Ridder.Benefits of Urban Green Space.EVK4 - CT- 2000-00041, Belgium, 2003.
[15] Kong, F., Yin, H., Nakagoshi, N., and Zong, Y. Urban green space network development for biodiversity conservation:
Identification based on graph theory and gravity modeling. Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning (95), p16 27, 2010.
[16] Kshama Gupta, Pramod Kumar, S.K. Pathan and K.P Sharma. Urban Neighborhood Green Index A measure of green
spaces in urban. Article in Press, No.11 page, 2012.
[17] Kshama Gupta, K P Sharma, YVN Krishnamurthy and Ram Kolaplar.Functional assessment of urban space A GIS
analysis.12thEsri India User Conference, 2011.
[18] L. Zanella et al. A comparison of visual interpretation and object based image analysis for deriving landscape metrics.
Proceedings of the 4th GEOBIA, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil.p.509, 2012.
[19] MisunHur, Jack L.Nasar, Bumseok Chun. Neighborhood satisfaction, physical and perceived naturalness and openness,
Journal environmental Psychology, Elsevier Science, p1-8, 2009.
[20] Nathalie Pettorelli. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.Oxford University Press, 2013.
[21] PadigalaBhaskar. Urbanization and changing green spaces in Indian cities (Case study city of Pune), International
Journal of Geology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, p148-156, 2012.
[22] Peter Hofmann, Josef StroblandAinuraNazarkulova. Mapping Green Spaces in BishkekHow Reliable can Spatial
Analysis Be?.RemoteSens, 3, 1088-1103, 2011.
[23] Qing-yanMengYu-Qinliu and Xiao-Jiang Li. Urban Green Space Remote Sensing Retrieval with LIDAR and MultiSpectral Satellite Data. Open GIS conference, Szekesfehervar, Hungary, 2014.
[24] Ragab Khalil. Quantitative evaluation of distribution and accessibility of urban green spaces (Case study: City of Jeddah.
International journal of geomatics and geosciences, Volume 4, No 3, 2014.
[25] Randall, T.A, Churchill and C.J and Baetz, B.W. A GIS-based decision support system for neighbourhood greening.
Environment and Planning, Planning and Design, 30(4), 542-563, 2003.
[26] Ray D.Jackson and Alfredo R.Huete.Interpreting vegetation indices.Elsevier Science Publisher B.V. Amsterdam, 1991.
[27] Roberto Fratini, Enrico Marone. Green-space in Urban Areas: Evaluation of Ficiency of Public Spending for Management
of Green Urban Areas. International Journal of E-Business Development, IJED Vol. 1Iss, World Academic Publishing,
2011.
[28] Shah Md. AtiqulHaq.Urban Green Spaces and an Integrative Approach to Sustainable Environment.Journal of
Environmental Protection, 2, 601-608, 2011.
[29] SulochanaShekhar, Assessing the quality of urban environment through Urban Neighbourhood Green Index, Lecture,
Centre University of Karnataka.
87
www.ijrsa.org
[30] Stephen J. Venn and Jari K. Niemel.Ecology in a multidisciplinary study of urban green space, Boreal environment
research 9, p479-489, 2004.
[31] Thomas L. Saaty. Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process .University of Pittsburgh, USA, 2008.
[32] Toke Emil Panduro and KathrineLaustedVeie. Classification and valuation of urban green spaces A hedonic house price
valuation, Landscape and Urban planning Elsevier Science, p119-128, 2013.
[33] Xiaojiang Li, QingyanMeng, Weidong Li, Chuanrong Zhang, TamasJansco and SbastienMavromatis.An explorative
study on the proximity of buildings to green spaces in urban areas using 1 remotely sensed imagery. Annals of
GIS,Volume 20, Issue 3, 2014.
88