Availability and Accessibility of Urban Green Spaces in a High-Density City: The Case of Raipur, India

Abstract

Urban green spaces (UGS) can counter the ill effects of urbanization in high-density cities. Studies related to these aspects are rare in Indian cities, however. This article aims to assess the availability and accessibility of UGS in Raipur, India. The objectives are to identify the status of UGS alteration, determine the status of available UGS, and identify the optimum population density for which UGS can be made available and accessible. Land use change detection, fragmentation index, availability index, UGS per capita, and neighborhood accessibility are used to assess aspects of UGS. The results show an increase in built-up area (24.32 percent) from 2010 to 2020. They also show a decrease in the UGS availability index and an increase in the fragmentation index from the city center to the outskirts. Uneven distribution of UGS categories is found all over the studied urban area. Low-density areas have more UGS per capita available than high-density areas, whereas medium-high-density areas have the maximum UGS accessibility. The study concludes with density-wise implications to maximize the UGS benefits and identifies medium-high density as the optimum density that allows high accessibility to the available UGS.