Assessing the landscape and ecological quality of urban green spaces in a compact city.pdf

RA i Y a b h ? ? ? ? ? a A R R 3 A A K C E L L U 1 e u r W d t N 0 hLandscape and Urban Planning 121 (2014) 97–108 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Landscape and Urban Planning journa l homepage: www.e lsev ier .com/ locate / landurbplan esearch Paper ssessing the landscape and ecological quality of urban green spaces n a compact city uhong Tiana,?, C.Y. Jimb, Haiqing Wanga State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China Department of Geography, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China i g h l i g h t s The landscape patterns of UGS were analyzed for their ecological quality. The landscape patterns of UGS have not improved with town renewal and developments. Some old districts have relatively low-quality landscape attributes. Vegetation-dominated land uses often have more interfacial benefits. UGS in land uses with less human disturbance tend to be larger and more homogeneous. r t i c l e i n f o rticle history: eceived 17 April 2013 eceived in revised form 0 September 2013 ccepted 2 October 2013 vailable online 29 October 2013 eywords: ompact city cological quality andscape characteristics a b s t r a c t The interrelated nature of landscape metrics calls for their joint application in analyzing complicated landscape patterns and associated ecological processes. Using geographic information system, remote- sensingand factor-analysis techniques, the landscapepatternsofurbangreenspaces (UGS) in thecompact city of HongKongwere analyzed for their landscape-ecological quality in different land uses and districts. Using the Fragstat software, some key indices were selected to characterize the landscape mosaic with reference to patch size, patch shape, proximity relationship and edge configuration. Some old districts have smaller and more heterogeneous UGS than newer ones due to relatively low-quality landscape attributes. The landscape patterns of UGS have not improved with ol