A study of green space distribution surrounding Shinto shrine in Utsunomiya City using satellite imagery

Abstract

There are many Shinto shrines in Japan, both in cities and suburbs. The Shinto shrine is a place of harvesting and prosperous prayers and has a multifaceted function such as preservation of history and culture, conservation of biodiversity and nature experiences. The study was conducted to clarify distribution characteristics of green spaces surrounding Shinto shrines in the urbanization area of Utsunomiya City. The exact location of Shinto shrines were investigated and created over hundred point’s databases using GIS. For evaluation of green spaces, normalized vegetation index (NDVI) of about 10 m spatial resolution was calculated using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. The average value of NDVI was calculated in each multiple buffers generated around the points of Shinto shrines with a radius of 10 m to 130 m. As a result of this analysis, it was revealed that the value of NDVI was higher and more vegetation covered pixels are distributed around the Shinto shrine in the spatial scale. These results show that the Shinto shrine in urban areas may be useful for the planning of urban green spaces as a spatial base point of green area distribution.