OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development
Open access peer-reviewed journal
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| The Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Green Spaces and their impact on the Urban Environment of Bhopal Region, Madhya Pradesh, India | 11-34 |
The Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Green Spaces and their impact on the Urban Environment of Bhopal Region, Madhya Pradesh, India
Adinarayanane Ramamurthy 1, Disha Jain 2, Faiz Ahmed Chundeli 3
1,2 Department of Planning, School of Planning & Architecture Vijayawada, Government of India, Andhra Pradesh, India.
3 Department of Architecture, School of Planning & Architecture Vijayawada, Government of India, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Volume 18, Issue 01, Pg. 11-34, 2025
Posted on November 19, 2024.
Abstract: Green spaces are an integral part of urban landscape and offer numerous benefits related to quality of urban life. As the world’s population continues to urbanize, population density increases and people endure the ever-increasing speed of the urban environment. Urban green space plays an essential role in the urban ecosystem and highly contributes to the welfare of urban residents. Understanding the dynamics of green space is crucial for its planning and management. The role of urban green space (UGS) in urban sustainability is attracting increasing attention from researchers. However, due to various factors, the distribution of green spaces among city neighbourhoods is often skewed. Urban growth is occurring at an unprecedented rate worldwide with 65% of the population expected to reside in urban areas by 2025. The extensive study of literature reveals that most of the environmental impacts of urbanization are associated with green space. Having realized the importance of green space in urban ecosystems, considerable work has been devoted to improving the urban environment and enhancing citizens’ quality of life through urban green space planning. Hence, urban planners require effective tools to routinely map and monitor the greening/ un-greening phenomena among the neighbourhoods. This research study caters to the need by adopting a geospatial green space distribution assessment approach that encompasses green space quantity, quality, and accessibility aspects.
Keeping the aforesaid knowledge in mind, Bhopal City has been chosen for further detailed investigation. In this study, we investigate the spatio-temporal variation of UGS and its relationship with urban growth based on an empirical analysis in the Bhopal study region during rapid urban development decadal phases between 2001–2021.The remote sensing data reveals that changing UGS pattern declined notably in the first decade and has increased slightly since 2001, with the green areas mainly clustered in the urban centres. In this study, FRAGSTATS software has been employed to quantify spatial patterns in land cover through landscape metrics and their changes over time in the study region. This study attempt has been made to quantify the cooling effect of green spaces and its spatial variation, using Landsat 9 USGS Earth explorer by employing ArcGIS. It reveals that urban green spaces have a significant impact in reducing land surface temperatures (LST), contributing to a more pronounced cooling effect in the surrounding neighbourhoods. In this research, an attempt has been made to explore the causal relationship between green spaces and land values, by employing multiple regression analysis. The findings shed light on the significant impact of park size and location in relation to other parks on the average temperature of the neighbourhood. Furthermore, it indicates that development of parks can contribute to better land prices in the surrounding areas, potentially leading to increased revenue for urban local bodies. This is clearly evident that the economic benefits associated with the strategic allocation and preservation of green spaces within the urban environment. Based on the findings, the study evolve a comprehensive operational framework and suggested guidelines for determining the optimal size and spacing of parks within neighbourhoods to enhance the potential of urban green spaces navigating towards sustainable urban growth
Keywords: Urban Green Space; LST; Cooling Effect; Compactness Index; Urban Growth; Sustainable Development.
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