Mapping Urban Green Infrastructure: A Novel Landscape-Based Approach to Incorporating Land Use and Land Cover in the Mapping of Human-Dominated Systems

Abstract

Common approaches to mapping green infrastructure in urbanised landscapes invariably focus on measures of land use or land cover and associated functional or physical traits. However, such onedimensional perspectives do not accurately capture the character and complexity of the landscapes in which urban inhabitants live. The new approach presented in this paper demonstrates how open-source, high spatial and temporal resolution data with global coverage can be used to measure and represent the landscape qualities of urban environments. Through going beyond simple metrics of quantity, such as percentage green and blue cover, it is now possible to explore the extent to which landscape quality helps to unpick the mixed evidence presented in the literature on the benefits of urban nature to human well-being. Here we present a landscape approach, employing remote sensing, GIS and data reduction techniques to map urban green infrastructure elements in a large U.K. city region. Comparison with existing urban datasets demonstrates considerable improvement in terms of coverage and thematic detail. The characterisation of landscapes, using census tracts as spatial units, and subsequent exploration of associations with social-ecological attributes highlights the further detail that can be uncovered by the approach. For example, eight urban landscape types identified for the case study city exhibited associations with distinct socioeconomic conditions accountable not only to quantities but also qualities of green and blue space. The identification of individual landscape features through simultaneous measures of land use and land cover demonstrated unique and significant associations between the former and indicators of human health and ecological condition. The approach may therefore provide a promising basis for developing further insight into processes and characteristics that affect human health and well-being in urban areas, both in the United Kingdom and beyond.

Progress in Urban Greenery Mitigation Science – Assessment Methodologies Advanced Technologies and Impact on Cities

“…In particular, remotely sensed data is used to measure vegetation so as to describe the urban and biophysical attributes of the vegetation itself, to understand the dynamic of greenspaces in urbanized areas (Qian et al 2015b), to map urban vegetation cover (Van de Voorde et al 2008;Dennis et al 2018;Lang et al 2018), to assess the state of urban ecosystems (Ayanu et al 2012;Yang et al 2015aYang et al , 2015bMaes et al 2014), to analyze urban processes and factors related to vegetation, such as land cover change (Brazel et al 2007), the thermal environment in urban areas and quality of life (Yuan, Bauer 2007;Yue et al 2017;Yan et al 2014;Cartalis et al 2016;Kim et al 2016).…”

Support Vector Machine Accuracy Assessment for Extracting Green Urban Areas in Towns

“…The green urban areas infrastructure approach considers maximizing physical and functional connectivity while optimizing multi-functionality in terms of social, ecological, and economic benefits [1], as well as resilience through landscape diversity [2,3].…”

Ecosystem (Dis)benefits Arising from Formal and Informal Land-Use in Manchester (UK); a Case Study of Urban Soil Characteristics Associated with Local Green Space Management

“…Although it is widely accepted that urban areas depend on distant ecosystems [2,3] and occupy vast ecological footprints [4,5], nonetheless natural resources within urban areas have a key role to play towards the wellbeing of city-dwellers as well as in wider ecosystem health [6][7][8][9][10]. Urban green spaces represent a variety of public and private land uses including urban woodland, formal parks, institutional grounds, domestic gardens, allotments, community gardens, agricultural and informal open spaces [11][12][13]. The need to evaluate trade-offs and synergies associated with the provision of ecosystem services, and disservices, is an important consideration for the environmental management of human-dominated ecosystems [14,15].…”