Abstract
Abstract. More than half of the world’s population lives in big urbanized areas. It is not rare that those areas are lacking natural green spaces. Green spaces improve different aspects of life in cities and they are becoming so important that lately more and more attention is given to the so-called green infrastructure. The first step in planning green infrastructure is acquiring information about current city greenery. In this paper, it was investigated how can airborne, spaceborne, and street-level images be used in gathering information about greenery. As spaceborne images, Sentinel-2 satellite images were used and as street-level images, Google Street View 360° photospheres have been utilized. From both sources, information about current greenery status was automatically extracted. Gathered data was aggregated on different spatial units that are suitable for decision making that aims at further developing the green spaces. These top-down and street-level images complement each other in a way that top-down images can be used to track the percentage of green area and its changing over time, while street-level images give information about greenery that is perceived by pedestrians. With proposed methods, it is possible to detect areas that should be considered for greening and also to identify areas that should have priority in that process.
Highlights
The green spaces in cities are given an important role in contributing to sustainable development, adapting to climate change, development of green economy, and enhancing social cohesion (Hansen et al, 2017)
green infrastructure (GI) planning is based on four principles: green-grey integration, connectivity, multi-functionality, and social inclusion (Hansen et al, 2017)
The results show that the calculation of the Green View Index (GVI) index together with its proposed aggregation is providing valuable data for GI planning and further monitoring
Summary
The green spaces in cities are given an important role in contributing to sustainable development, adapting to climate change, development of green economy, and enhancing social cohesion (Hansen et al, 2017). The number of people living in the cities is rising, from 55 % today to an estimated 60 % by the year 2030 (United Nations, 2018). GI planning is based on four principles: green-grey integration, connectivity, multi-functionality, and social inclusion (Hansen et al, 2017). Green areas could be linked with stormwater infrastructure and reduce water volumes in systems. Green areas may serve to mitigate noise, improve air quality, and provide pathways for biking and walking. Multi-functionality considers that green areas are delivering multiple services and ecological, social, and economic benefits to the cities. The social inclusion principle brings collaborative and participatory planning of GI
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