scholarly journals Monitoring of Urbanization and Analysis of Environmental Impact in Stockholm with Sentinel-2A and SPOT-5 Multispectral Data

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 2408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Furberg ◽  
Yifang Ban ◽  
Andrea Nascetti
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Stockholm County ◽  
Sentinel 2A ◽  
Spot 5

There has been substantial urban growth in Stockholm, Sweden, the fastest-growing capital in Europe. The intensifying urbanization poses challenges for environmental management and sustainable development. Using Sentinel-2 and SPOT-5 imagery, this research investigates the evolution of land-cover change in Stockholm County between 2005 and 2015, and evaluates urban growth impact on protected green areas, green infrastructure and urban ecosystem service provision. One scene of 2015 Sentinel-2A multispectral instrument (MSI) and 10 scenes of 2005 SPOT-5 high-resolution instruments (HRI) imagery over Stockholm County are classified into 10 land-cover categories using object-based image analysis and a support vector machine algorithm with spectral, textural and geometric features. Reaching accuracies of approximately 90%, the classifications are then analyzed to determine impact of urban growth in Stockholm between 2005 and 2015, including land-cover change statistics, landscape-level urban ecosystem service provision bundle changes and evaluation of regional and local impact on legislatively protected areas as well as ecologically significant green infrastructure networks. The results indicate that urban areas increased by 15%, while non-urban land cover decreased by 4%. In terms of ecosystem services, changes in proximity of forest and low-density built-up areas were the main cause of lowered provision of temperature regulation, air purification and noise reduction. There was a decadal ecosystem service loss of 4.6 million USD (2015 exchange rate). Urban areas within a 200 m buffer zone around the Swedish environmental protection agency’s nature reserves increased 16%, with examples of urban areas constructed along nature reserve boundaries. Urban expansion overlapped the deciduous ecological corridor network and green wedge/core areas to a small but increasing degree, often in close proximity to weak but important green links in the landscape. Given these findings, increased conservation/restoration focus on the region’s green weak links is recommended.

scholarly journals Developing an Approach for Assessing Urban Blue-Green Spaces Towards Sustainable Urban Growth Through Retrospective Cyber Metrics Analysis of Operational Estimations Approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunita ◽  
Deepak Kumar ◽  
Sulochana Shekhar
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Concrete Action

Abstract Urban blue-green spaces provide us abundant social, environmental, and economic benefits, but the disparities often exist in their distribution and accessibility. Traditionally urban blue-green spaces are a consolidation of “blue-green infrastructure” within urban areas. Several urban features like parks, forests, gardens, visible water, such as parks, rivers, canals, reservoirs, ponds, lakes, fountains, etc. are categorized or considered under the blue-green spaces and these are very much crucial for various urban ecosystem services. These play a significant role for all stakeholders of the urban community. Thus, everyone must ensure the equitable number of blue-green spaces for all. Recently, several rules and regulations towards the safeguarding of urban blue-green spaces have been outlined. The work presents a methodological framework to develop an approach towards sustainable urban growth with the help of urban blue-green spaces assessments. The current work has attempted to examine the linkage between issues of the urban blue-green spaces for restoring the required infrastructures. It can be utilised for all sustainable urban development for urban planning and design projects to play a pivotal role. The work emphasizes more to develop a methodological framework to analyze the urban blue-green spaces for augmentation with a theoretical framework. It is expected that the advancement of a problem cum objectives-driven approach will help to design an impact-driven approach for planned and concrete action.

scholarly journals Ecological Connectivity in Agricultural Green Infrastructure:  Suggested Criteria for Fine Scale Assessment and Planning

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 807
Author(s):  
Simone Valeri ◽  
Laura Zavattero ◽  
Giulia Capotorti
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Landscape Heterogeneity ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Spatial Pattern Analysis ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Unique Type

In promoting biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service capacity, landscape connectivity is considered a critical feature to counteract the negative effects of fragmentation. Under a Green Infrastructure (GI) perspective, this is especially true in rural and peri-urban areas where a high degree of connectivity may be associated with the enhancement of agriculture multifunctionality and sustainability. With respect to GI planning and connectivity assessment, the role of dispersal traits of tree species is gaining increasing attention. However, little evidence is available on how to select plant species to be primarily favored, as well as on the role of landscape heterogeneity and habitat quality in driving the dispersal success. The present work is aimed at suggesting a methodological approach for addressing these knowledge gaps, at fine scales and for peri-urban agricultural landscapes, by means of a case study in the Metropolitan City of Rome. The study area was stratified into Environmental Units, each supporting a unique type of Potential Natural Vegetation (PNV), and a multi-step procedure was designed for setting priorities aimed at enhancing connectivity. First, GI components were defined based on the selection of the target species to be supported, on a fine scale land cover mapping and on the assessment of land cover type naturalness. Second, the study area was characterized by a Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) and connectivity was assessed by Number of Components (NC) and functional connectivity metrics. Third, conservation and restoration measures have been prioritized and statistically validated. Notwithstanding the recognized limits, the approach proved to be functional in the considered context and at the adopted level of detail. Therefore, it could give useful methodological hints for the requalification of transitional urban–rural areas and for the achievement of related sustainable development goals in metropolitan regions.

Spatiotemporal Pattern Analysis of Rapid Urban Expansion Using GIS and Remote Sensing

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun Joong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Spatiotemporal Pattern ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Modeling Studies

Rapidly growing urban areas tend to reveal distinctive spatial and temporal variations of land use/land cover in a locally urbanized environment. In this article, the author analyzes urban growth phenomena at a local scale by employing Geographic Information Systems, remotely sensed image data from 1984, 1994, and 2004, and landscape shape index. Since spatial patterns of land use/land cover changes in small urban areas are not fully examined by the current GIS-based modeling studies or simulation applications, the major objective of this research is to identify and examine the spatial and temporal dynamics of land use changes of urban growth at a local scale. Analytical results demonstrate that sizes, locations, and shapes of new developments are spatio-temporally associated with their landscape variations and major transportation arteries. The key findings from this study contribute to GIS-based urban growth modeling studies and urban planning practices for local communities.

scholarly journals Estimation of Ecological Connectivity in a City Based on Land Cover and Urban Habitat Maps

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9529
Author(s):  
Dohee Kim ◽  
Wonhyeop Shin ◽  
Heejoon Choi ◽  
Jihwan Kim ◽  
Youngkeun Song
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Landscape Connectivity ◽  
Urban Habitat ◽  
Ecological Data ◽  
Ecological Connectivity ◽  
Future Work ◽  
The City

Anthropogenic land use has led to the loss and fragmentation of native habitats and disruption to ecosystem processes, resulting in a decline in landscape connectivity and biodiversity. Here, in order to find the potentials of improvements in ecological connectivity, we provide a spatial analysis to present differences in ecological connectivity based on land cover maps and urban habitat maps in Suwon city, Republic of Korea. We generated two permeability maps for use in a network analysis, one being land cover and the other urban habitat, including a 5-km buffer area from the city boundary. We then determined the current-flow betweenness centrality (CFBC) for each map. Our results indicate that forests are typically the most highly connected areas in both maps. However, in the land cover map results, nearly all high-priority areas were in the mountainous region (CFBC value: 0.0100 ± 0.0028), but the urban habitat indicated that grasslands and rivers within the city also significantly contribute to connectivity (CFBC value: 0.0071 ± 0.0022). The CFBC maps developed here could be used as a reference when introducing green infrastructure in cities. Before establishing ecological networks for urban areas, future work should integrate the land use and ecological data of different administrative districts with continuous ecological connection.

scholarly journals Assessing urban recreation ecosystem services through the use of geocache visitation and preference data: a case-study from an urbanised island environment

One Ecosystem ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e24490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario V Balzan ◽  
Iain Debono
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Stated Preference ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Service ◽  
Direct And Indirect Benefits

Recreation is an important cultural ecosystem service and is one way in which communities experience the direct and indirect benefits arising from the experiential use of their environment. The recent rise in popularity of Global Positioning System (GPS) game applications, which combine information technology with an activity that increases mobility and encourages outdoor enjoyment, provides ecosystem service practitioners with an opportunity to make use of this georeferenced data to assess recreational ecosystem services. Geocaching is one such worldwide outdoor game. It has fixed points of incursion where people can hide and look for caches. This study explores the possibility of using geocaching data as a proxy for recreational ecosystems services in the Maltese Islands. A quantitative analysis of the georeferenced caches was used together with their visit rates and number of favourite points. This was supplemented by two questionnaires that investigated the preferences and experiences of both geocache placers (n=39) and hunters (n=21). Results show that the highest number of caches were placed and searched for in urban areas and that geocaching is strongly associated with the presence and accessibility of urban green infrastructure. The number of geocachers who stated preference for experiences in nature did not translate into high visit rates to sites of high conservation value (protected areas) but landscape value was significantly associated with recreational ecosystem services flow. The results presented here provide evidence that geocaching spatial data can act as an indicator for assessing and mapping recreational ecosystem services in urban environments and in cultural landscapes.

scholarly journals MODELLING URBAN GROWTH FROM MEDIUM RESOLUTION LANDSAT IMAGERIES OF AKURE, NIGERIA

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 40-50
Author(s):  
Michael Ajide Oyinloye ◽  
Julius Olubumi Fasakin
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Gis And Remote Sensing ◽  
Medium Resolution ◽  
The City

The city of Akure has experienced rapid growth in the past 2 to 3 decades which has led to the expansion of the core urban areas of the city into adjoining rural lands. The paper analyses the urban growth of Akure using medium resolution Landsat imageries. Landsat (MSS), Landsat Thematic Mapping(TM) and Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) images for 1972, 1986 and 2002 respectively were used in a post-classification comparison analysis to map the spatial dynamic of land cover changes and identify the urbanization process in Akure. The land cover statistical results revealed a rapid growth in the built-up area of Akure from 997.2 hectares in 1972 to about 3852.70 hectares in 2002 due to increase in population of Akure within this period. Results of the prediction showed that the built-up area of the city has increased in size from 977.2 hectares in 1972 to 5863.66 hectares in 2022 corresponding to 500% at the rate of 13.1% per annum. Implications of growth include loss of open space, pressure on limited infrastructure, overcrowding, traffic congestion and poor standard of living. The study recommends regular monitoring of urban area, development of small towns around the city area to avoid overcrowding, training of planners and administrators to acquire more knowledge in the use of GIS and remote sensing to enhance efficiency.

scholarly journals Devising Urban Biodiversity Habitat Provision Goals: Ecosystem Services Analysis

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maibritt Pedersen Zari
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Urban Habitat ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Negative Environmental Impact

This paper employs a unique ecosystem services analysis methodology to evaluate how cities could support or generate ecosystem services. Ecosystem services analysis can provide quantifiable goals for urban ecological regeneration that are determined by the site-specific ecology and climate of an urban area. In this research, the ecosystem service of habitat provision is the key focus. The role of urban green space and urban forests is crucial within this. Setting ambitious targets for urban ecological performance and ecosystem services provision is of great importance due to the large negative environmental impact that cities currently have on ecosystems and, therefore, ecosystem service provision, and because healthier ecosystems enable humans to better adapt to climate change through creating potentials for increased resilience. A comparative case study analysing the ecosystem service of habitat provision in two existing urban environments with similar climates (Cfb according to the Köppen Climate Classification System) but in different parts of the world, namely Wellington, New Zealand and Curitiba, Brazil, was conducted to examine how the ecosystem services analysis concept can used to devise urban habitat provision goals. The paper concludes that, although achieving habitat provision goals derived from ecosystem services analysis in urban areas is likely to be difficult, determining quantitative site- and climate-specific staged goals could enable urban design professionals to increase the effectiveness of conservation and regeneration efforts in terms of ecosystem service provision from urban green and blue spaces.

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