Tracking green space along streets of world cities

Street green space (SGS) - the presence of vegetation along streets of cities—is a key piece of urban infrastructure. SGS provides a broad range of functions, such as mitigating the urban heat island effect, reducing the impact of extreme precipitation events, and supporting human and animal well-be...

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Main Authors: Giacomo Falchetta, Ahmed T Hammad
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/add9c4
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author Giacomo Falchetta
Ahmed T Hammad
author_facet Giacomo Falchetta
Ahmed T Hammad
author_sort Giacomo Falchetta
collection DOAJ
description Street green space (SGS) - the presence of vegetation along streets of cities—is a key piece of urban infrastructure. SGS provides a broad range of functions, such as mitigating the urban heat island effect, reducing the impact of extreme precipitation events, and supporting human and animal well-being. Here we introduce an approach to estimate SGS based on the statistical modeling of a street-based indicator of canopy coverage (the green view index, GVI) with multispectral satellite observations and ancillary spatially granular data. Based on our trained and cross-validated non-parametric model, we conduct spatial sampling and prediction in 190 large cities distributed across twenty regions and estimate local to continental GVI trends between 2016–2023. Jointly considering such global pool of cities, we find evidence of a trend of GVI decrease of 0.3%–0.5% per year ( $p \lt 0.01)$ . Yet, both the direction and magnitude of trends show high heterogeneity across and within regions and cities, which we explore, along with stark inequalities in SGS availability within each city. Our analysis provides an updated estimate of the GVI as a measure of SGS across a global pool of cities and an open-source, validated approach to assess its future changes and support the design of policies for sustainable cities.
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spelling doaj-art-6f8975711cff47d5a77ec1b5624db3012025-08-20T02:29:07ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability2634-45052025-01-015202501110.1088/2634-4505/add9c4Tracking green space along streets of world citiesGiacomo Falchetta0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2607-2195Ahmed T Hammad1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3327-2435International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis , Laxenburg, Austria; Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici—RFF-CMCC European Institute for Economics and the Environment , Venice, ItalyDecatab PTE LTD , Singapore, SingaporeStreet green space (SGS) - the presence of vegetation along streets of cities—is a key piece of urban infrastructure. SGS provides a broad range of functions, such as mitigating the urban heat island effect, reducing the impact of extreme precipitation events, and supporting human and animal well-being. Here we introduce an approach to estimate SGS based on the statistical modeling of a street-based indicator of canopy coverage (the green view index, GVI) with multispectral satellite observations and ancillary spatially granular data. Based on our trained and cross-validated non-parametric model, we conduct spatial sampling and prediction in 190 large cities distributed across twenty regions and estimate local to continental GVI trends between 2016–2023. Jointly considering such global pool of cities, we find evidence of a trend of GVI decrease of 0.3%–0.5% per year ( $p \lt 0.01)$ . Yet, both the direction and magnitude of trends show high heterogeneity across and within regions and cities, which we explore, along with stark inequalities in SGS availability within each city. Our analysis provides an updated estimate of the GVI as a measure of SGS across a global pool of cities and an open-source, validated approach to assess its future changes and support the design of policies for sustainable cities.https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/add9c4street green spacegreen view indexsustainable citiesenvironmental justiceremote sensingmachine learning
spellingShingle Giacomo Falchetta
Ahmed T Hammad
Tracking green space along streets of world cities
Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
street green space
green view index
sustainable cities
environmental justice
remote sensing
machine learning
title Tracking green space along streets of world cities
title_full Tracking green space along streets of world cities
title_fullStr Tracking green space along streets of world cities
title_full_unstemmed Tracking green space along streets of world cities
title_short Tracking green space along streets of world cities
title_sort tracking green space along streets of world cities
topic street green space
green view index
sustainable cities
environmental justice
remote sensing
machine learning
url https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/add9c4
work_keys_str_mv AT giacomofalchetta trackinggreenspacealongstreetsofworldcities
AT ahmedthammad trackinggreenspacealongstreetsofworldcities