Quantifying spatial pattern of urban greenspace from a gradient perspective of built-up age

Abstract

Urban greenspace provides myriad ecosystem services to urban dwellers. Accurately quantifying the spatiotemporal pattern of urban greenspace is important to fully understand its ecosystem services provision. While numerous studies have investigated the spatial pattern of urban greenspace and its change, few studies have explored how the spatial pattern of urban greenspace differ in urban areas developed in different years. Here, we chose Shenzhen as the study area, compared the spatial pattern of urban greenspace in urban areas developed in different years. We found urban areas developed in more recent years tend to have higher percent cover of greenspace than older ones. The proportion of greenspace (55.62%) in the most recently developed urban areas (2015–2017) was more than three times greater than that (17.24%) developed in and before 1979. We also found significant variation in spatial configuration of greenspace. The size of the largest patch in more recently developed urban areas tend to increase. Additionally, more recently developed urban areas tend to have larger variations in patch size and more edges of greenspace. In addition to the general trend, we also found clear patterns of changes in certain time periods, which are likely results of the implementation of urban management and planning policies. For example, percent cover of greenspace in areas built after 2010 is significantly higher than that in many other years. The results of this study revealed how pattern of urban greenspace varied along with the process of urbanization, which can help us review the achievements of urban development and provide useful information for better urban planning and management.