Monitoring Urban Green Infrastructure Changes and Impact on Habitat Connectivity Using High-Resolution Satellite Data
In recent decades, the City of Stockholm, Sweden, has grown substantially and is now the largest city in Scandinavia. Recent urban growth is placing pressure on green areas within and around the city. In order to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services, green infrastructure is part of Stockholm...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/18/3072 |
| _version_ | 1797553157680660480 |
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| author | Dorothy Furberg Yifang Ban Ulla Mörtberg |
| author_facet | Dorothy Furberg Yifang Ban Ulla Mörtberg |
| author_sort | Dorothy Furberg |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In recent decades, the City of Stockholm, Sweden, has grown substantially and is now the largest city in Scandinavia. Recent urban growth is placing pressure on green areas within and around the city. In order to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services, green infrastructure is part of Stockholm municipal planning. This research quantifies land-cover change in the City of Stockholm between 2003 and 2018 and examines what impact urban growth has had on its green infrastructure. Two 2018 WorldView-2 images and three 2003 QuickBird-2 images were used to produce classifications of 11 land-cover types using object-based image analysis and a support vector machine algorithm with spectral, geometric and texture features. The classification accuracies reached over 90% and the results were used in calculations and comparisons to determine the impact of urban growth in Stockholm between 2003 and 2018, including the generation of land-cover change statistics in relation to administrative boundaries and green infrastructure. For components of the green infrastructure, i.e., habitat networks for selected sensitive species, habitat network analysis for the European crested tit (<i>Lophophanes cristatus</i>) and common toad (<i>Bufo bufo</i>) was performed. Between 2003 and 2018, urban areas increased by approximately 4% while green areas decreased by 2% in comparison with their 2003 areal amounts. The most significant urban growth occurred through expansion of the transport network, paved surfaces and construction areas which increased by 12%, mainly at the expense of grassland and coniferous forest. Examination of urban growth within the green infrastructure indicated that most land area was lost in dispersal zones (28 ha) while the highest percent change was within habitat for species of conservation concern (14%). The habitat network analysis revealed that overall connectivity decreased slightly through patch fragmentation and areal loss mainly caused by road expansion on the outskirts of the city. The habitat network analysis also revealed which habitat areas are well-connected and which are most vulnerable. These results can assist policymakers and planners in their efforts to ensure sustainable urban development including sustaining biodiversity in the City of Stockholm. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:12:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-372dbbc439154e7fa9f4332562fe6cec |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:12:24Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-372dbbc439154e7fa9f4332562fe6cec2023-11-20T14:21:19ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922020-09-011218307210.3390/rs12183072Monitoring Urban Green Infrastructure Changes and Impact on Habitat Connectivity Using High-Resolution Satellite DataDorothy Furberg0Yifang Ban1Ulla Mörtberg2Division of Geoinformatics, Department of Urban Planning and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 10A, 10044 Stockholm, SwedenDivision of Geoinformatics, Department of Urban Planning and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 10A, 10044 Stockholm, SwedenDivision of Sustainability Assessment and Management, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 10B, 10044 Stockholm, SwedenIn recent decades, the City of Stockholm, Sweden, has grown substantially and is now the largest city in Scandinavia. Recent urban growth is placing pressure on green areas within and around the city. In order to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services, green infrastructure is part of Stockholm municipal planning. This research quantifies land-cover change in the City of Stockholm between 2003 and 2018 and examines what impact urban growth has had on its green infrastructure. Two 2018 WorldView-2 images and three 2003 QuickBird-2 images were used to produce classifications of 11 land-cover types using object-based image analysis and a support vector machine algorithm with spectral, geometric and texture features. The classification accuracies reached over 90% and the results were used in calculations and comparisons to determine the impact of urban growth in Stockholm between 2003 and 2018, including the generation of land-cover change statistics in relation to administrative boundaries and green infrastructure. For components of the green infrastructure, i.e., habitat networks for selected sensitive species, habitat network analysis for the European crested tit (<i>Lophophanes cristatus</i>) and common toad (<i>Bufo bufo</i>) was performed. Between 2003 and 2018, urban areas increased by approximately 4% while green areas decreased by 2% in comparison with their 2003 areal amounts. The most significant urban growth occurred through expansion of the transport network, paved surfaces and construction areas which increased by 12%, mainly at the expense of grassland and coniferous forest. Examination of urban growth within the green infrastructure indicated that most land area was lost in dispersal zones (28 ha) while the highest percent change was within habitat for species of conservation concern (14%). The habitat network analysis revealed that overall connectivity decreased slightly through patch fragmentation and areal loss mainly caused by road expansion on the outskirts of the city. The habitat network analysis also revealed which habitat areas are well-connected and which are most vulnerable. These results can assist policymakers and planners in their efforts to ensure sustainable urban development including sustaining biodiversity in the City of Stockholm.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/18/3072WorldView-2QuickBird-2object-based SVM classificationurban growthStockholm Cityenvironmental impact analysis |
| spellingShingle | Dorothy Furberg Yifang Ban Ulla Mörtberg Monitoring Urban Green Infrastructure Changes and Impact on Habitat Connectivity Using High-Resolution Satellite Data Remote Sensing WorldView-2 QuickBird-2 object-based SVM classification urban growth Stockholm City environmental impact analysis |
| title | Monitoring Urban Green Infrastructure Changes and Impact on Habitat Connectivity Using High-Resolution Satellite Data |
| title_full | Monitoring Urban Green Infrastructure Changes and Impact on Habitat Connectivity Using High-Resolution Satellite Data |
| title_fullStr | Monitoring Urban Green Infrastructure Changes and Impact on Habitat Connectivity Using High-Resolution Satellite Data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Monitoring Urban Green Infrastructure Changes and Impact on Habitat Connectivity Using High-Resolution Satellite Data |
| title_short | Monitoring Urban Green Infrastructure Changes and Impact on Habitat Connectivity Using High-Resolution Satellite Data |
| title_sort | monitoring urban green infrastructure changes and impact on habitat connectivity using high resolution satellite data |
| topic | WorldView-2 QuickBird-2 object-based SVM classification urban growth Stockholm City environmental impact analysis |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/18/3072 |
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