Front and back yard green analysis with subpixel vegetation fractions from earth observation data in a city

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel approach to green space availability in cities that includes the thus-far mostly neglected urban front and backyard green space around residential buildings on privately owned ground. To quantify the full spatial scope of urban green space, we calculated subpixel vegetation fractions from RapidEye remote-sensing data for the entire city with a spectral unmixing technique that enabled us to model the extent of urban vegetation with a high degree of confidence (MAE 7%, R2 0.92). We then applied a new ‘urban front and back yard green space derivation algorithm’, namely, a masking of the fractional vegetation data using GIS vector data of land cover, in order to delineate the front and backyard greenspace of residential houses in a city with an accuracy of 96%. Combining these two approaches, we can calculate the area of urban front and back yard green space for the entire city (including different residential structure types) and compare this data to the area of public (parks, urban forests) and semi-public (allotment gardens) green spaces that have been used for prevailing per capita green space availability analyses. The new method is exemplified at the city of Leipzig, Germany, which provides different residential structures concerning house types and the surrounding green that are characteristic of many European cities. Key findings include that the total amount of urban front and back yard green space is almost 2000 ha, which is ∼40% of the amount of public green space (4768 ha). In 15 out of the 63 total districts, there is more front and backyard than public green space, which highlights the importance of these urban front and back yard green space for the analysis of urban livelihoods and a tool for detailed ecosystem services-oriented urban planning.