A planning framework to guide the creation of urban green spaces using existing forest fragments in the urban territory: A case study from Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil

Abstract

The creation of urban green spaces (UGS) taking advantage of existing forest fragments in the urban territory and, at the same time, optimizing the provisioning of ecosystem services can contribute to make cities more livable. We developed a planning framework to guide this creation process and exemplified its application in Foz do Iguaçu City, Brazil. Forest fragments in the urban perimeter were identified in Google Earth Pro® software. These fragments were described based on a set of attributes positively related to ecosystem services’ provisioning, namely: patch size, patch shape (compactness), canopy cover, conservation status and presence of waterbodies. Scores were assigned to each attribute and fragments showing overall score equal to or higher than the cutoff limit, as well as presenting a set of prerequisites (public ownership, not being already an UGS, access by walkable roads and absence of land invasion for housing purposes), were classified as suitable for the creation of UGS. We identified 55 forest fragments, 18 of them were classified as suitable for UGS’ creation. The green area index (GAI) calculated from the 55 fragments identified varied considerably among the 11 urban regions of the city. Two criteria were used to prioritize the 18 forest fragments classified as suitable for the creation of UGS: first, to be located in regions without already-created UGS (five fragments in three regions) versus regions already endowed with such areas (13 fragments in three regions); and, secondly, in each of these two region types, to be located in the ones with the lowest GAI values. The proposed framework proved to be a useful and inexpensive method to characterize the coverage of forest fragments and to decide which fragments to consider first in actions aimed at creating UGS.