Search

Published After
Published Before

Search Results

  • Spatial distribution of vegetation cover in Erbil city districts using high-resolution Pléiades satellite image
    10-22
    Views:
    185

    Green spaces are playing an essential role for ecological balance and for human health in the city as well.
    They play a fundamental role in providing opportunities for relaxation and enjoying the beauty of nature
    for the urban population. Therefore, it is important to produce detailed vegetation maps to assist planners
    in designing strategies for the optimisation of urban ecosystem services and to provide a suitable plan
    for climate change adaptation in one fast growing city. Hence, this research is an investigation using 0.5
    m high-resolution multispectral Pléiades data integrated with GIS data and techniques to detect and
    evaluate the spatial distribution of vegetation cover in Erbil City. A supervised classification was used
    to classify different land cover types, and a normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) was used
    to retrieve it for the city districts. Moreover, to evaluate the accessibility of green space based on their
    distance and size, a buffer zone criterion was used. The results indicate that the built-up land coverage
    is 69% and vegetation land cover is 14%. Regarding NDVI results, the spatial distribution of vegetation
    cover was various and, in general, the lowest NDVI values were found in the districts located in the city
    centre. On the other hand, the spatial distribution of vegetation land cover regarding the city districts was
    non-equal and non-concentric. The newly built districts and the districts far from the Central Business
    District (CBD) recorded the lowest vegetation cover compared with the older constructed districts.
    Furthermore, most of the districts have a lack of access to green spaces based on their distance and size.
    Distance and accessibility of green areas throughout the city are not equally distributed. The majority of
    the city districts have access to green areas within radius buffer of two kilometres, whereas the lowest
    accessibility observed for those districts located in the northeast of the city in particular (Xanzad,
    Brayate, Setaqan and Raperin). Our study is one of the first investigations of decision-making support
    of the spatial planning in a fast-growing city in Iraq and will have a utilitarian impact on development
    processes and local and regional planning for Erbil City in the future.