A landscape ecological perspective of the impacts of urbanization on urban green spaces in the Klang Valley

摘要

Urbanization is an inevitable process and the majority of the world's population are migrating into cities, particularly in developing countries. Urban development has expanded rapidly in expense of the already limited green spaces in the world. Urban green spaces (UGS) are crucial components of urban sustain ability and are vital for enhancing our quality of living. This study aims at developing a systematic approach to monitor changes of the urban landscape and assessing the conditions of UGS in the Klang Valley. Remote sensing processing techniques were used to extract meaningful data from mid-resolution Landsat satellite images of 1989, 2001, and 2014. We utilised urbanization indices to measure the magnitude and speed of urban development, while landscape metrics were used to describe the composition and configuration of each classes in the landscape. The results revealed that UGS in the Klang Valley have increased by 318.02% in proportion to built-up areas (high density built-up (HDB) and low density built-up (LDB)) from 1989 to 2014. The percentage of UGS compared to both HDB and LDB in 1989, 2001, and 2014 is 12.62%, 19.43%, and 22.51%, respectively. However, the fragmentation of UGS increased by approximately 100% in two decades and mainly occurred in areas with higher HDB. Spatial patterns of UGS in the Klang Valley were described based on the landscape metrics used. The developed approach can assist urban planners and decision makers to obtain a synoptic yet comprehensive view of the urban landscape. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.