A Study on Buildings Liveability Index Based on High Resolution Land Cover Data

Abstract

The increase of impervious surfaces and the decrease of urban green spaces are the important reasons to seriously affect the livability of the city. Using high resolution satellite data, urban land cover data could be extracted to effectively monitor the distribution of buildings and green spaces. This paper proposed a buildings livability index (BII) based on buildings greening rate and greening radiation factor, retrieved from high resolution land cover data. Taking Qingdao city as an example, this paper used the FROM-GLC10 dataset with a resolution of 10 m to extract the buildings and vegetation cover data in 2017, then calculated and analyzed the BII. The results showed that the BII of 10 districts in Qingdao was consistent with the distribution of buildings and vegetation, and was highly correlated with the urban heat island intensity. Among the 10 districts, Laoshan district had the highest BII in buildings pixels, reaching 1.33 due to more vegetation cover, and Huangdao and Pingdu districts had the highest BII in non-buildings pixels, pointing out the areas where development should be strengthened in urban planning. The results indicated that the BII could effectively reflect the rationality of the spatial layout of urban buildings and vegetation, and provide a scientific basis for urban spatial planning and governance.