Assessing the Ecosystem Services of Various Types of Urban Green Spaces Based on i-Tree Eco

Abstract

Urban green spaces play a crucial role in maintaining urban ecosystem sustainability by providing numerous ecosystem services. How to quantify and evaluate the ecological benefits and services of urban green spaces remains a hot topic currently, while the evaluation is barely applied or implemented in urban design and planning. In this study, super-high-resolution aerial images were used to acquire the spatial distribution of urban green spaces; a modified pre-stratified random sampling method was applied to obtain the vegetation information of the four types of urban green spaces in Luohe, a common plain city in China; and i-Tree Eco model was further used to assess the vegetation structure and various ecosystem services including air quality improvement, rainfall interception, carbon storage, and sequestration provided by four types of urban green spaces. The modeling results reveal that there were about 1,006,251 trees in this area. In 2013, all the trees in these green spaces could store about 54,329 t of carbon, sequester about 4973 t of gross carbon, remove 92 t of air pollutants, and avoid 122,637 m 3 of runoff. The study illustrates an innovative method to reveal different types of urban green spaces with distinct ecosystem service productivity capacity to better understand their various roles in regulating the urban environment. The results could be used to assist urban planners and policymakers to optimize urban green space structure and composition to maximize ecosystem services provision.Sustainability 2020, 12, 1630 2 of 16 of various vegetation communities within the urban area [24][25][26][27][28][29], while there are few studies that analyze variations in types and functions of urban green spaces at finer scales [1,22,30]. Urban green spaces are divided into several types, reflecting the different needs that these spaces meet, which could further affect the different ecosystem services provision. The capacity of various green spaces ecosystem services provision is context-specific and different depending on their type and size [31,32]. Various types of urban green spaces such as public parks, road belt green space, wetland, and private gardens are extremely heterogeneous with different vegetation communities and diversities reflecting diverse social needs and personal preferences that further influence eco-function value provision [33].In China, spatially heterogeneous urban green spaces are classified into four main types, which are public parks, protective green spaces, square green spaces, and attached green spaces by individual location and function across urban area based on Standard for Classification of Urban Green Space (CJJ/T85-2017), which was released by Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of P.R.C. in 2017. Different social needs and ecological values that are driven by landowners' preferences and function-oriented design bring various types of urban green spaces [34]. Diverse vegetation preferences and differing management and maintenance practices reflect human-oriented d...

Interaction Analysis of Urban Blue-Green Space and Built-Up Area Based on Coupling Model—A Case Study of Wuhan Central City

“…On the macro level, blue-green space is the sum of blue space and green space, including all water and green space, constituting the overall landscape pattern of the city [2]. Among them, "green space" includes mountain, forest land, farmland, grassland, and ecological corridor, as well as large green space, belt green space, protective green belt, public open space, and green roof in the city [3,4]. "Blue space" includes linear water bodies such as rivers and planar water bodies such as reservoirs and wetlands [5,6].…”

Regional Differences and Influential Factors of Open Public Space in Chinese Cities Based on Big Earth Data

“…Liu et al [41] found that the increase in population in cities promotes the expansion of green space and the population size is one of the key elements to ensure that the urban green space will achieve its given ends. Ye et al [32] demonstrated that the relationship between urban population size and green area was a two-way promotion, mainly reflected in the following aspects: on one hand, with the increase in population, the urban ecological environment has been continuously improved and urban green space construction has also increased; on the other hand, urban green spaces play a crucial role in maintaining urban ecosystem sustainability by providing numerous ecosystem services [22]. As the urban green space increases, urban ecosystem services provided by green spaces will improve, which will attract a large number of people to gather and result in an increase in urban population.…”

“…Jin et al [21] found that the linear open space in the center of street not only serves the pedestrians, but also connects a mass rapid transit system to support sustainable transportation. Assessing the ecosystem services of green spaces could be used to assist urban planners and policymakers to optimize urban green space structure and composition to maximize ecosystem service provision [22].…”

Evaluation and Monitoring of Urban Public Greenspace Planning Using Landscape Metrics in Kunming

“…Contemporary urbanization differs markedly from historical patterns of urban growth in terms of scale, rate, location, and form, especially in developing countries [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The pressure of urban development results in the destruction of extensive greenspaces that provide a variety of environmental, economic, and social benefits for urban citizens [7]. The environmental benefits include offsetting carbon emissions [8], removing air pollutants and reducing noise, absorbing rainwater, regulating the microclimate [9][10][11], and maintaining biodiversity [12][13][14][15].…”

“…At present, the research into green space is mainly focused on urban green space planning based on the evaluation [32], adaptation and mitigation of climate change [33], environmental purification and improvement of air quality [7], urban rainwater management [34,35], ecosystem services and social well-being [36,37], and biodiversity conservation in foreign countries [14,15]. In China, scholars mainly focus on the theoretical framework, introduction of domestic and foreign practice cases, identification and extraction of green space, green space landscape design, and rainwater management [38].Urban greenspace planning is a passive or active strategy adopted by highly urbanized countries and regions to cope with urban problems.…”