Abstract
Globally, rapid urban expansion has caused green spaces in urban areas to decline considerably. In this study, the rapid expansion of three Southeast Asia cities were considered, namely, Kuala Lumpur City, Malaysia; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Metro Manila, Philippines. This study evaluates the changes in spatial and temporal patterns of urban areas and green space structure in the three cities over the last two decades. Land use land cover (LULC) maps of the cities (1988/1989, 1999 and 2014) were developed based on 30-m resolution satellite images. The changes in the landscape and spatial structure were analysed using change detection, landscape metrics and statistical analysis. The percentage of green space in the three cities reduced in size from 45% to 20% with the rapid expansion of urban areas over the 25-year period. In Metro Manila and Jakarta, the proportion of green space converted to urban areas was higher in the initial 1989 to 1999 period than over the latter 1999 to 2014 period. Significant changes in green space structure were observed in Jakarta and Metro Manila. Green space gradually fragmented and became less connected and more unevenly distributed. These changes were not seen in Kuala Lumpur City. Overall, the impact of spatial structure of urban areas and population density on green space is higher in Jakarta and Metro Manila when this is compared to Kuala Lumpur. Thus, the results have the potential to clarify the relative contribution of green space structure especially for cities in Southeast Asia where only a few studies in urban areas have taken place.
Highlights
Metro Manila had the smallest percentage of green space (31%), with similar values for Jakarta (46%) and Kuala Lumpur (45%)
The results show that connections exist between population and urban expansion, due to the similarity in trends of population density and the spatial structure of built-up areas in Jakarta and Metro Manila
This work has shown how landscape metrics that have been widely applied in landscape ecology but hitherto not widely applied to urban areas in Southeast Asia have a significant capability to quantify urban green space dynamics and assess its spatial and temporal dynamics
Summary
Of the world’s population expected to be urban by the year 2025 [1] This development is predominant in the fastest growing economies and human populations, in developing countries. In Southeast Asia, urbanization has increased significantly in the last two decades as industry has become the focus for economic development [3]. In this region, the urban growth rate is 2.4% per year, which is relatively high versus developed regions of the world [4], and exhibits different patterns of growth to well-studied developed
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