Reinventing the Urban Neighborhood Green Index in the Context of Urban Ecology as a Conceptual Framework in Northern Nicosia, Cyprus

Abstract

Today, one in two people live in urban environments, and this number is expected to rise. Urban ecology is among the main concepts of the ecological urban planning agenda for cities where the consequences of global warming and climate change are increasing day by day. Urban open green spaces provide a variety of ecosystem services for city dwellers. It is important that green spaces are accessible, efficient, walkable and properly planned in the city. Within this framework, via the relevant theoretical evaluation, a conceptual framework was constructed to redefine the urban neighborhood green index. Regarding the existing definitions within the related literature, this developed index includes quantitative, qualitative and perceptual parameters and has been newly introduced to measure and analyze green spaces in a more comprehensive layout. There is also a need to establish an ecological approach to urban planning to increase the quantity and quality of urban green spaces in Cyprus, including in Northern Nicosia. Therefore, Northern Nicosia, with its three selected neighborhoods, was chosen as the study area. As the main methodology of the study, a thorough assessment of the quantitative component of the developed index with its four parameters of per-capita green space, proximity to green space, area percentages and type of green spaces is made. Maps from the Town Planning Department and satellite images from the Nicosia Turkish Municipality and GIS were used for this quantitative measurement. Based on the findings, it can be argued that the urban green spaces are not sufficient when assessed based on most of the parameters evaluated within the study to construct a comprehensive green space index. It was found that the green spaces in the city are accessible, being within 337 m, which is reasonable. However, there are very few active and accessible open green areas in these neighborhoods within the 300 and 500 m buffers, as a remarkable number of the green spaces, which are shown on the map, are in an abandoned condition. In addition, the amount of active green space per capita is 3.35 m2, which is well below the 9 m2 predicted by WHO. The area percentages of the neighborhoods are also below the required standards. Therefore, the findings show that Northern Nicosia can benefit by addressing these deficiencies to achieve a higher urban neighborhood green index. Furthermore, the theoretical model is efficient for the assessment of urban spaces at the neighborhood scale and can be used in other cities worldwide, especially in cities with a relatively low density. In sum, this study, which considered not only the quantitative parameters but also the qualitative and perceptual features, has the potential to expand scientific knowledge on measuring and analyzing urban neighborhood green spaces.