Integrating Quantity and Quality to Assess Urban Green Space Improvement in the Compact City

Shanshan Chen,Dagmar Haase,Thilo Wellmann,Salman Qureshi,Bing Xue

doi:10.3390/land10121367

Abstract

Urban green space (UGS) has gained much attention in terms of urban ecosystems and human health. Measures to improve green space in compact cities are important for urban sustainability. However, there is a knowledge gap between UGS improvement and planning management. Based on the integration of quantity and quality, this research aims to identify UGS changes during urban development and suggest ways to improve green space. We analyse land use changes, conduct a hotspot analysis of land surface temperature (LST) between 2005 and 2015 at the city scale, and examine the changes in small, medium and large patches at the neighbourhood scale to guide decision-makers in UGS management. The results show that (i) the redevelopment of urban brownfields is an effective method for increasing quantity, with differences depending on regional functions; (ii) small, medium and large patches of green space have significance in terms of improving the quality of temperature mitigation, with apparent coldspot clustering from 2005 to 2015; and (iii) the integration of UGS quality and quantity in planning management is beneficial to green space sustainability. Green space improvement needs to emphasize the integration of UGS quantity and quality to accommodate targeted planning for local conditions.

Highlights

Sustainable Development Goal 11 of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda emphasizes making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable [1]
Con-The results demonstrate the positive correspondence of patch area and Urban green space (UGS) quality by accessing normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and mapping the hot-cold spot clustering of land surface temperature (LST)
The aim of our research was to illustrate the changes in quantity and quality among Berlin public green spaces and to provide inspiration for compact cities

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable Development Goal 11 of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda emphasizes making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable [1]. Urban green space (UGS) plays a crucial role in urban human habitats, which are expected to support 68% of the world population by 2050 [2]. With the acceleration of urban problems, such as air pollution, urban flooding, urban heat, and human health crises, the need for UGS improvement to maintain human wellbeing and support urban ecosystems has increasingly been recognized [3,4]. UGS is generally defined as a space covered with vegetation and as the basic infrastructure of cities; it can take multiple forms, such as public parks, urban forests, community gardens, cemeteries, and natural conservation areas. With land use modification and urban redevelopment [7], understanding how to improve UGS has become a key point for providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green space worldwide [8]

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Results

Conclusion