Exploring the Quality of Urban Green Spaces Based on Urban Neighborhood Green Index—A Case Study of Guangzhou City

Zhanqiang Zhu, Wei Lang, Xiaofang Tao, Jiali Feng and Kai Liu
Additional contact information
Zhanqiang Zhu: Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Public Security and Disaster, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Wei Lang: Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Public Security and Disaster, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Xiaofang Tao: Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Public Security and Disaster, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Jiali Feng: Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Public Security and Disaster, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Kai Liu: Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Public Security and Disaster, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-17

Abstract: Urban green space (UGS), as a form of green infrastructure, has been given increasing attention in urban planning and its policies. The quality of a UGS is fundamental for the sustainable development of the urban economy, society, environment, and quality of human life, although UGS is unevenly distributed within cities. Aiming to analyze the quality of UGS at the scale of Jiedaos in China, this paper took Haizhu district in Guangzhou as a case study based on collected data from 2010 and aerial imagery from 2012. The Urban Neighborhood Green Index (UNGI) was established by combining four weighted parameters: the green index (P1), the density of buildings (P2), proximity to green areas (P3) and building height (P4). Results from comparing with green index show that (1) the UNGI performed better for UGS planning due to its ability of uncovering impact of the built environment and its accessibility on quality of UGS; (2) the UGS has significant effects on neighbors, which underlies social inequity of UGS supply and presents rich information for urban planning and decision making; (3) a small green field attaching to a community plays a key role in fulfilling the need of neighbors for green space, fitness, and leisure in China, which is usually ignored due to the ownership of private property. It suggests recognizing UGS and improving its quality in old towns as well as improving urban villages characterized by poor quality of green space with green infrastructures. The UNGI can inform city planners regarding their consideration of UGS, and it can contribute to measurements of sustainability and the development of green infrastructure.

Keywords: urban green space; green index; sustainable urbanization; green infrastructure; Guangzhou; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5507/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5507/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5507-:d:273642

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().