Assessing Sustainable Green Areas based on Ecological Niche Role in Urban Education Institute

Abstract

Green areas are so critical in urban communities for making environments healthier and more livable. The objectives of this study were to assess sustainable green areas and to study their ecological niches in an urban education institute. Rajamangala University of Technology Isan (RMUTI) at Nakhonratchasima City Municipality (NCM) was selected as the study area. The spatial assessment of sustainable green areas used guidelines of the policy action plan for sustainable urban green area management by the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) and then sustainable green areas were analyzed by the Ecological Niche Model (ENM) in Biomapper to check the distribution and durability of the existing trees to the current environment.The study found that sustainable green area in RMUTI at NCM is about 54.23% with 1,176 trees, which is in accordance with the policy action plan of ONEP that has suggested at least 30% of the land parcel being the sustainable green area in urban education institute. In the area of RMUTI, we mostly found type 2 (multiple-use) and type 3 (environmental preservation), respectively. Such two-green type was not only confirmed by assessing the highest accuracy of ENM (AVI and CVI =1.00) but they also preferred niche factors: annual precipitation for type 2 and annual temperature for type 3. Consequently, tree distribution in type 2 and 3 will have more ability of highly sustainable green areas than other green types. These results are explicitly showed that if green type has many distributions of studied trees, it will be a possibility of sustainable green areas. Furthermore, knowledge of ENM will help to plan the suitable tree species to right green areas and their current environment. Consequently, this study can be an example for assessing sustainable green areas-based ENM and implementing in other urban education institutes.