Mapping urban vegetation cover using WorldView-2 imagery

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Cavayas ◽  
Yuddy Ramos ◽  
André Boyer
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Urban Vegetation

scholarly journals Global Changes in Urban Vegetation Cover

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Richards ◽  
Richard N. Belcher
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Suburban Sprawl ◽  
The World ◽  
Google Earth Engine

Urban vegetation provides many ecosystem services that make cities more liveable for people. As the world continues to urbanise, the vegetation cover in urban areas is changing rapidly. Here we use Google Earth Engine to map vegetation cover in all urban areas larger than 15 km2 in 2000 and 2015, which covered 390,000 km2 and 490,000 km2 respectively. In 2015, urban vegetation covered a substantial area, equivalent to the size of Belarus. Proportional vegetation cover was highly variable, and declined in most urban areas between 2000 and 2015. Declines in proportional vegetated cover were particularly common in the Global South. Conversely, proportional vegetation cover increased in some urban areas in eastern North America and parts of Europe. Most urban areas that increased in vegetation cover also increased in size, suggesting that the observed net increases were driven by the capture of rural ecosystems through low-density suburban sprawl. Far fewer urban areas achieved increases in vegetation cover while remaining similar in size, although this trend occurred in some regions with shrinking populations or economies. Maintaining and expanding urban vegetation cover alongside future urbanisation will be critical for the well-being of the five billion people expected to live in urban areas by 2030.

Variation of urban vegetation cover and its impact on minimum and maximum heat islands

Urban Climate ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 100707
Author(s):  
Luma M. Al-Saadi ◽  
Sundus H. Jaber ◽  
Monim H. Al-Jiboori
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
Maximum Heat ◽  
Heat Islands

scholarly journals An Assessment of Urban Vegetation Abundance in Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana: A Geospatial Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Barimah Owusu
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
City Development ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Green Vegetation ◽  
The City

Abstract The essential role played by urban vegetation in making urban areas livable is often overlooked in many developing cities. This is the case of Ghana where its capital, Accra is developing at the expense of urban vegetation. This study was conducted at the metropolitan area of Accra to estimate how the extent of vegetation cover has changed in the period of 1986-2013, using remote sensing satellite data from Landsat TM and ETM+. Furthermore, views of key informants were assessed on changes in the livability of the city of Accra which may be attributed to loss of urban green vegetation in the city. It was found that between 1986 and 2013, 42.53 km2 of vegetation was lost representing 64.6% of total vegetation in 1986. The rate of change in vegetation cover between 1986 and 1991 measured around 2.14% of the total land area annually. This however, reduced in the subsequent years measuring 0.26% between 2002 and 2008. Key informants interviewed, also believe that the loss of vegetation in the city creates livability concerns relating to ecosystem functioning, temperature rise and air quality. It is therefore recommended for urban planners and decision makers to address three critical concerns of resilience, sustainability and livability, which are the missing links in the city development agenda.

scholarly journals Estimating urban vegetation cover fraction using Google Earth® images

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany R. Duhl ◽  
Alex Guenther ◽  
Detlev Helmig
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Urban Vegetation

scholarly journals Assessing Urban Greenness Fragmentation and Analysis of Its Associated Factors: A Case Study in Wuhan Metropolitan Area, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 760
Author(s):  
Husheng Fang ◽  
Moquan Sha ◽  
Wenjuan Lin ◽  
Dai Qiu ◽  
Zongyao Sha
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Associated Factors ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Wuhan Metropolitan Area ◽  
The Impact

Green vegetation plays a vital role in urban ecosystem services. Rapid urbanization often tends to induce urban vegetation cover fragmentation (UVCF) in cities and suburbs. Mapping the changes in the structure (aggregation) and abundance of urban vegetation cover helps to make improved policies for sustainable urban development. In this paper, a new distance-based landscape indicator to UVCF, Frag, was proposed first. Unlike many other landscape indicators, Frag measures UVCF by considering simultaneously both the structure and abundance of vegetation cover at local scales, and thus provides a more comprehensive perspective in understanding the spatial distribution patterns in urban greenness cover. As a case study, the urban greenness fragmentation indicated by Frag was demonstrated in Wuhan metropolitan area (WMA), China in 2015 and 2020. Support vector machine (SVM) was then designed to examine the impact on the Frag changes from the associated factors, including urbanization and terrain characteristics (elevation and slope). The Frag changes were mapped at different scales and modeled by SVM from the selected factors, which reasonably explained the Frag changes. Sensitivity analysis for the SVM model revealed that urbanization showed the most dominant factor for the Frag changes, followed by terrain elevation and slope. We conclude that Frag is an effective scale-dependent indicator to UVCF that can reflect changes in the structure and abundance of urban vegetation cover, and that modeling the impact of the associated factors on UVCF via the Frag indicator can provide essential information for urban planners.

scholarly journals Urban Vegetation Cover and Vegetation Change in Accra, Ghana: Connection to Housing Quality

2013 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Stow ◽  
John R. Weeks ◽  
Sory Toure ◽  
Lloyd L. Coulter ◽  
Christopher D. Lippitt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Housing Quality ◽  
Urban Vegetation

scholarly journals Urban Vegetation, Wellbeing and Pro-environmental Behaviour: A Socio-ecological Experiment in Wellington City, New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Julie Whitburn
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Urban Vegetation ◽  
Environmental Behaviour ◽  
Human Wellbeing ◽  
Connection With Nature ◽  
The Relationship

<p>The challenges ahead for sustainability and biodiversity conservation require a better understanding of the relationship human beings have with the natural environment. The evidence that nature has a positive influence on human wellbeing is extensive but there is uncertainty about the influence of urban vegetation in the immediate vicinity of residents’ homes. Current research is also inconclusive as to the mechanisms that underlie the relationship between nature, human wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour.  I investigated whether engagement with urban nature influenced the wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) of residents of Wellington City, New Zealand. Engagement with nature was specified by the amount of vegetation cover in urban neighbourhoods and participation in a community-planting scheme. Wellbeing was assessed by measures of mental and physical health and satisfaction with life.  Firstly, I aimed to describe the population of people who participated in the community planting scheme and identify the motivation, barriers and benefits associated with participation.  Secondly, I aimed to test hypotheses about the relationship between urban residents and the natural environment using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM):  1. Exposure to vegetation in residents’ immediate neighbourhood and/or participation in the planting scheme has a positive influence on residents’ wellbeing and PEB. 2. The effect of nature on wellbeing or PEB is mediated by a number of socio-psychological constructs, such as Connection with Nature, use of nature for Psychological Restoration, Neighbourhood Satisfaction, (both social and natural aspects of the neighbourhood) and Environmental Attitude. PEB also mediates the nature-wellbeing relationship.  Finally, I wanted to determine if adding socio-demographic variables and the amount of time residents spent outdoors could improve the models.  A stratified random sample of 20 neighbourhoods across Wellington City was selected. The neighbourhoods varied in their amount and type of vegetation cover. The amount of vegetation cover was determined by site visits and using maps, with a 5 x 5 m ² grid, which showed vegetation cover and property boundaries. I quantified the mediator and wellbeing variables using existing measures, some of which were modified, and by developing some constructs based on the literature. The usefulness of these constructs was confirmed by an Exploratory Factor Analysis in SPSS.  I conducted a postal survey during October 2012 of 1200 households in the 20 neighbourhoods of Wellington City to test my hypotheses. Thirty-six percent of surveys were returned (N = 428) which resulted in 423 useable surveys.  Respondents who participated in the planting scheme were more likely to be married or in a partnership, highly educated and New Zealand Europeans. They also had a greater connection with nature, used nature more for psychological restoration and had stronger higher environmental attitudes and PEB those respondents who did not participle in the planting scheme. The most frequently reported barrier to participation was the lack of time and the most commonly reported benefits corresponded to the stated motivation, which was to improve the appearance of participants’ immediate neighbourhood.  A priori mediation models were specified. Structural Equation Modelling followed by Information Theoretic model selection and inference using Akaike Information Criterion identified the leading influences and tested the hypotheses for wellbeing and PEB. All the a priori models fitted the data. Model selection resulted in two parsimonious models being identified, the Wellbeing model and the Pro-environmental Behaviour model.  The Wellbeing model explained 16%, 13% and 3% of the variance in mental health, life satisfaction and physical health, respectively. Both the amount of neighbourhood vegetation and participation in the planting scheme were associated with the wellbeing measures. Neighbourhood Satisfaction (both nature and social), the use of nature for Psychological Restoration and Pro-environmental Behaviour were significant mediators.  The Pro-environmental Behaviour model explained 38% of the variance in PEB. Participation in the planting scheme was associated with increases in PEB but the level of neighbourhood vegetation was not. Connection with Nature was the sole mediator of the relationship between participation in the planting scheme and PEB.  Socio-demographic characterisations and the amount of time people spent outdoors were not necessary to explain wellbeing or PEB beyond the effect of neighbourhood vegetation or participating in the planting scheme.  A final combined model, Wellbeing +Pro-environmental Behaviour, explained more of the variance in mental health (22%), satisfaction with life (16%) and PEB (45%) than the individual Wellbeing and Pro-environmental Behaviour models but did not explain physical health. Connection with Nature and Environmental Attitude were additional mediators and the amount of neighbourhood vegetation level influenced PEB. The strength of the effects of vegetation level and the planting scheme on the wellbeing measures were about the same as in the Wellbeing model. This was a less parsimonious model.  I have demonstrated that the resources invested into greening Wellington City added significantly to the quality of residents’ lives, via their relationship with nature and increased wellbeing, and were associated with increases in PEB. I have identified mediators that synergistically facilitate the relationship between urban vegetation, a community planting scheme, PEB and human wellbeing and helped clarify the positive effect of vegetation in the immediate vicinity of residents’ homes on residents’ wellbeing. The effect of biologically depauperate neighbourhoods on residents’ quality of life requires further investigation.  My findings suggest the promotion of time in nature and increases in the amount of urban planting, particularly trees, may be an effective public health intervention and also result in increased PEB. The demonstrated diversity of nature’s benefits and value may provide motivation for greater investment in urban greening and broader conservation initiatives by government.</p>

scholarly journals Comparing Different Approaches for Mapping Urban Vegetation Cover from Landsat ETM+ Data: A Case Study on Brussels

Sensors ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 3880-3902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Van de Voorde ◽  
Jeroen Vlaeminck ◽  
Frank Canters
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Urban Vegetation
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