Green Space Functionality and Urban Ecosystem in Islamabad: A Socio-Ecological Study, Pakistan

Abstract

Urban areas of Islamabad are experiencing a decline in the quality and quantity of its green space which have great social and environmental impact. There is a need to take immediate mitigation measures in order to reduce environmental degradation and to revive and create eco-friendly surroundings. The research focuses on mapping, analyzing and monitoring of urban green spaces using remotely sensed data and Geographical Information Systems. The study area comprises of 21 developed sectors. SPOT-5, 10m resolution temporal imagery for years 2005, 2010 and 2014 has been used for land cover classification, namely urban green spaces, urban, bare land, shadow, and vegetation. Presence / abundance of urban green spaces for each sector were compared with the ones designated by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the laid down standards. Analysis of the results revealed that there is an overall decrease of about 16% in the number of designated urban green spaces, 5% to 10% decrease in urban green spaces areas (compared to CDA standard of 18%) in each sector and about 26.5% increase in the urban areas. Urban green spaces areas in 18 sectors (out of 21) were found below CDA standards. Additionally, field surveys in the form a questionnaire were conducted to get the resident’s response about the quality, quantity, present condition of the urban green spaces, and how it affects their visits. Factor analysis was performed to analyze and relate the user responses. The factors which affect the residents more were found to be the” time required to reach the facility, maintenance standard, security, availability of adequate facilities. It is observed that use to temporal remote sensing data can be effectively used for mapping and monitoring dynamic phenomena and of great help for the decision and policy makers.