Spatial-Temporal Dynamics of Urban Green Space in Guwahati Metropolitan Area, India

Abstract

Urban green spaces (UGS) are an integral part of any city’s environment. It plays an important role in maintaining the quality and health of an urban ecosystem. However, rapid urbanization in the last few decades has caused an adverse impact in the spatial distribution of UGS. This paper attempts to analyse the status of UGS in Guwahati Metropolitan Area (GMA) between 1990 and 2016. Satellite imageries for 1990, 2002 and 2016 were used for the study. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) thresholding technique was employed to assess the health of vegetation for respective years. Further, based on the percentage of greenness in each cell, the vegetation quality was categorized into four classes, low green, moderate green, high green and very high green. The results revealed that the health of vegetation in GMA has notably declined; even area under vegetation has reduced remarkably. The low quality vegetation cover has considerably expanded, contrarily; very high quality green has diminished during the study period. The study demonstrated the need of effective greening policies from the concerned stakeholders.