Smart Environment Through Smart Tools and Technologies for Urban Green Spaces

Abstract

Urban Green Spaces (UGS) are an integral part of urban environment and act as lungs for rejuvenating the urban environment and improving the quality of life and health of residents. UGS assist in regulating urban microclimate, biodiversity conservation, alleviating floods, enhancing air quality, and also promotes physical and mental wellbeing of urban populace. They also provide spaces for improved social environment and are considered highly beneficial for physical, social and cognitive development of urban children. UGS exists in diverse shape, size, vegetation cover and types and includes parks, gardens, railway corridors, road side green, derelict monument sites, etc. [1] defined UGS as urban land that consists of unsealed, permeable, soft surfaces such as soil, grass, shrubs and trees. Chandigarh is the first planned city of modern India and is known for its uniformly distributed and ample UGS within its boundaries. However, only quantification of amount of UGS is not sufficient to harness the full range of benefits from UGS for smart urban environment. The UGS should be accessible, uniformly distributed and maintained for its daily use by urban population. Although, there are restrictions on development within the Chandigarh, the high pace of urbanization, population increase and economic development in surrounding area is creating a pressure on infrastructure of Chandigarh as well. Chandigarh is also facing the issues of traffic congestion, air pollution and environmental degradation which were unheard before. The multi-faceted issues and benefits of UGS call for smart approaches for their effective utilization and management. Geospatial technologies integrated with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools provide a useful and smart tool in the hand of planners for quantification, assessment and evaluation of UGS for smart management. They can help in identifying the vulnerable areas as well as to assess the accessibility and distribution of UGS. They can be used for quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of UGS by applying a range of remote sensing data sets and geo-analysis. Many indices have been developed using these datasets for evaluation and monitoring of UGS. With the growing technological advancements in smart web-based tools, these technologies can also be used effectively for monitoring and management of UGS through integration of ICT tools and citizen centric services. This study demonstrates various innovative geospatial and ICT tools for evaluation and monitoring of UGS.