Abstract
Advancements in remote sensing techniques and urban data analysis tools have enabled the successful monitoring and detection of green spaces in a city. This study aims to develop an index called the urban green accessibility (UGA) index, which measures people’s accessibility to green space and represents the citywide or local characteristics of the distribution pattern of green space. The index is defined as the sum of pedestrians’ accessibility to all vegetation points, which consists of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) with integration and choice values from angular segment analysis. In this study, the proposed index is tested with cases of New York, NY, and San Francisco, CA, in the US. The results reveal differences based on the significance of streets. When analysis ranges are on a neighborhood scale, a few hotspots appear in well-known green areas on commonly accessible streets and in local neighborhood parks on residential blocks. The appearance of high-accessibility points in low-NDVI areas implies the potential of the efficient and proper distribution of green spaces for pedestrians. The proposed measure is expected to help in planning and managing green areas in cities, taking people’s accessibility and spatial relationships into consideration.
Highlights
Green space is one of the most essential elements relevant to the environmental and socioeconomic aspects of a city, such as social class or urban development
In response to the importance of green space in city landscapes, measuring the accessibility to urban green space has been a major issue for urban researchers [8,9]
This study successfully develops an urban green accessibility (UGA) model and verifies its effectiveness in measuring accessibility to green spaces through cases of New York, NY and San Francisco, CA
Summary
Green space is one of the most essential elements relevant to the environmental and socioeconomic aspects of a city, such as social class or urban development. De Ridder et al [1] verified the role of green space in improving the urban environment in European cities. The positive effect of green space on the strength of social bonding [2] and public health [3,4] has been confirmed in earlier studies. Triguero-Mas et al [7] evaluated the relationships and mechanics between natural outdoor environments and health using the interview data in Catalonia, Spain, and concluded that green spaces are positively associated with general and mental health. Walkability has been a crucial concept in determining how pedestrian-friendly and accessible urban green space is, in relation to the improvement of public health and equality in park supply [12,13]
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