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Mapping private gardens in urban areas using object-oriented techniques and very high-resolution satellite imagery
Abstract
Gardens remain the least studied and least understood habitat in urban areas. With the recent exception of the URGENT funded urban domestic gardens project in the UK, there is a notable lack of research on the ecological character and contribution of gardens to the wider urban biodiversity. This is despite the fact that gardens usually comprise the largest vegetated component of the urban greenspace resource. In part this omission has been due to the difficulties inherent in obtaining ecological data on gardens and the lack of a methodology for classifying and analysing garden data. This paper presents data from a study undertaken in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. The study developed a methodology using object-oriented classification techniques and very high-resolution multispectral Ikonos imagery to automatically map the extent, distribution and density of private gardens in the city. The focus was on the vegetated garden area which was calculated as comprising 46% of the residential area or 36% of the total urban area. Rigorous accuracy assessments were undertaken. When using the automated classification technique, a total of 90.7% of the private gardens were correctly identified. Discrimination of garden types (e.g. trees or grass dominated) was encouraging, but still requires improvement. Our results indicate the great potential that the methodology has in providing a quick method for obtaining good quality ecological data on garden habitats in urban areas.
... Gardens are an integral part of the urban green and blue network and make up a significant portion of urban areas worldwide, ranging from 16% to 36% (Gaston et al., 2005;Mathieu et al., 2007;Loram et al., 2011;Cameron et al., 2012;Beumer and Martens, 2016;Yan et al., 2022). In Western Europe, this percentage is estimated to be even higher (Loram et al., 2011). ...
... Although specific numbers are limited, studies in the UK show that domestic gardens take up 35%-47% of the total green space in cities (Loram et al., 2007). Similarly, the extend of vegetated garden cover within the total urban area of Dunedin (New Zealand) was determined to be 36% (Mathieu et al., 2007). Research in Flanders (Belgium), the northern region of Belgium, estimated that domestic gardens cover more than one third of urban areas, and over 12% of the Flemish territory. ...
... Despite their number and extent, domestic gardens have been largely missing in urban climate research, which may be due to their small scale, spatial fragmentation, and private character (Gaston et al., 2005;Mathieu et al., 2007;Dewaelheyns, 2014). Nevertheless, their collective network, the so-called 'garden complex', could make a substantial contribution to climate change adaption and the local quality of life by enhancing the various ecosystem services they provide (Dewaelheyns, 2014). ...
Research has shown that the collective network of domestic gardens could make a substantial contribution to climate change adaptation. One way to harness this contribution is by implementing Nature-based Solutions (NBS). However, due to the predominant focus on NBS applicable in large-scale and publicly available urban green areas, there is a lack of comprehensive research encompassing NBS specifically applicable to domestic gardens and their associated ecosystem services. Through a systematic review following the ROSES protocol, this paper provides an overview of the existing knowledge on small-scale NBS and climate resilient gardening practices, as well as, identifies research needs. This work contributes to the growing recognition of the spatial and ecological importance of domestic gardens for climate adaptation, and stresses the urgent need for more quantitative research on the range and effectiveness of ecosystem services provided by small-scale NBS. In this paper, we reflect upon the feasibility and practical implications of three specific NBS: the improvement of current lawn management practices, the reduction of sealed soil or pavement present, and the integration of trees in domestic gardens. We also acknowledge the potential of Citizen Science and governmental initiatives to engage citizens and improve the adoption of NBS in domestic gardens. Our work highlights the additional benefits and crucial role of urban planning and policy in integrating domestic gardens into broader climate adaptation strategies.
... First, early studies established baseline documentation and mapping of tree diversity patterns across urban landscapes, providing critical knowledge and revealing immense data gaps (Gregg et al., 2003). This development catalyzed the application of new technologies, including remote sensing, big data analytics, and molecular sequencing, to investigate diversity at novel scales (Mathieu et al., 2007). Second, pioneering modeling approaches demonstrated their potential under environmental change and urbanization, highlighting the need for predictive tools to guide proactive planning (Pauleit et al., 2005). ...
... Remote sensing, field surveys, and citizen science datasets were combined to map and monitor communities at broader scales (Ozkan et al., 2016;Robinson et al., 2020). Experimental studies in gardens and field sites provided a process-based understanding of diversity drivers (Gaston et al., 2005;Mathieu et al., 2007). Biodiversity projections incorporated urbanization scenarios and environmental changes. ...
... Comparisons across socioeconomic gradients examined distributional equity in exposure to heat islands and air pollution relative to tree cover (Fan & Sengupta, 2022). Field measurements and satellite imagery were used to map canopy cover, land surface temperatures, and high-resolution vegetation indices across cities (Mathieu et al., 2007). ...
Ecosystem services offered by urban forests must be proactively managed to remain diverse and sustainable. Recent research findings deserve a systematic synthesis to elucidate inherent knowledge structures and dynamics. This study focused on the urban tree diversity theme from 2000 to 2022. Web of Science Core Collection database provided bibliometric details on academic publications. The data‐driven quantitative analysis explored research quantities, emphasis, trends, patterns, linkages, and impacts by countries, institutions, authors, journals, and citations. Publications and research topics have expanded continually, with accelerated growth in recent years. Research activities, outputs and interactions demonstrated conspicuous spatial clustering. A few countries, institutions and researchers generated a notable proportion of publications. Their scholarly contributions were visualized in knowledge graphs as complex networks of nodes and inter‐node links. Keyword analysis generated a network to indicate research hotspots and frontiers to steer and prioritize future studies. Recent findings affirmed that cities can harbor substantial tree diversity due to enhanced habitat heterogeneity and successful species adaptation. Aligning tree traits with environmental conditions and management objectives can improve benefits. Urbanization can filter tree traits to shape community assemblages through stressors: habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss, in conjunction with pollution, climate change, and introduced species. Diversity preservation strategies include protecting remnant natural vegetation, connecting green spaces, and restoring complex canopy geometry and biomass structure. The emerging frontiers are marked by modeling future species distributions, leveraging technologies like remote sensing, linking ecology with human values, and committing to community‐based stewardship. Management can be upgraded by interdisciplinary perspectives integrating ecological science and social engagement. The findings highlight the need for biodiversity enrichment anchored by native species, trait‐matched assemblages, adaptive policies, and community participation to create livable‐green cities. This review synthesizes key advances in urban tree ecology and biodiversity research to inform the planning and stewardship of resilient urban forests.
... Residential yards, constituting a significant portion of urban land area, can enhance spatial connectivity and provide essential green spaces within cities. For instance, in Great Britain, yards account for an average of 23% of urban areas (Loram et al., 2008), and in Dunedin, New Zealand, up to 36% (Mathieu et al., 2007). Studies indicate these residential areas often contain the majority of urban greenery and vegetation (Ossola et al., 2019a;Ripplinger et al., 2017). ...
... In alignment with findings from various urban environments Loram et al., 2008;Mathieu et al., 2007), residential yards in Givatayim constitute a significant portion of the urban landscape, approximately 32%, encompassing around 1,000 dunams. This area significantly exceeds the city's public open spaces, which total about 220 dunams. ...
In urban environments, attention has traditionally been paid to public open spaces. However, private open spaces constitute a significant percentage of the urban area and can thus play a significant role in enhancing biological diversity and facilitating direct interactions between humans and nature within urban settings. According to the 2018 European Union report, 46% of homeowners across Europe live in apartment buildings and yet, most studies that examine the effect of private open spaces on biodiversity focus primarily on yards of single-family housing. The objective of this study is to examine the biodiversity potential offered by shared residential yards focusing exclusively on wild plant species, with the aim of offering planning guidelines that address both the management practices of these lot spaces and their spatial arrangement and qualities. The study was conducted in the city of Givatayim, Israel, in shared residential yards. The basic units (lots and buildings on them) in the city were delineated using a novel approach through a separate characterization of lot sizes and building types, as well as their combination. This process resulted in typologies that cover all residential fabric in the city, allowing systematic sampling. In the spring of 2022, plant surveys were conducted in 56 randomly chosen yards. In these lots, potential open area was measured, and the level of non-maintenance (neglection) was also rated. 74 species of wild plants were found, representing a quarter of all wild plant species in the city. Our results show the combined positive effect of available open space and levels of non-maintenance in these yards on the richness and diversity of wild species. This study highlights the substantial area occupied by residential yards in the city and its role in maintaining biodiversity in urban environments. This study indicates the importance of considering these aspects in architectural and management policies in cities.
... Currently, research on trees has focused on areas that are usually in public ownership and that are of a size substantial enough to map easily by high-resolution satellite imagery (Mathieu et al. 2007). Remote sensing approaches are considered insufficient to capture the complexity of private yards (Shahtahmassebi et al. 2020). ...
... Remote sensing approaches are considered insufficient to capture the complexity of private yards (Shahtahmassebi et al. 2020). Difficulties in accessing and obtaining ecological data in fragmented, privately owned yards has impeded fieldwork on private yards (Mathieu et al. 2007). Citizen science has been adopted for tree inventories, but these have questionable quality. ...
Private residential yards are an important component of urban green space and a major contributor to the urban environment. Trees in private yards provide physical and psychological benefits, but little research has been done, for example, in China. This study examined the characteristics of 143 private residential yards and 955 yard trees across a range of villages and communities along a gradient from rural to peri-urban to urban in Zhoukou city, central China. Overall, 65% of dwellings had yards, and of these yard dwellings, 57% had trees. Yard size was the most significant constraint on the number of trees and the species planted. Trees in private yards were typically small as constrained by yard size. Available space, tree counts, species counts, and species diversity were all lowest in urban yards. Species composition was homogeneous across villages and communities, with a preference for edible species like persimmon and pomegranate in rural areas. Although small, private yards contributed significantly to the urban ecosystems. Three features of private yards, i.e. small trees, a small area available for trees, and homogenous species suggest the need for large trees, more trees, and richer biodiversity, e.g. in public spaces, to achieve the targets of urban green infrastructure. These insights into the attributes of private yard trees can improve greening strategies for sustainable urban and rural developments.
... In the past few years, advances in remote sensing technology have also sped up the evolution of OBIC. It has gone from using unsupervised rule-based methods [40], [41], [42] to using supervised methods like machine learning (ML) algorithms [43], [44], [45] and deep learning (DL) techniques [11], [46], [47]. ...
... However, their utility was limited when dealing with the uncertainty and fuzziness common in real-world data. To address this, researchers like Mathieu et al. [41] and Jacquin et al. [48] introduced fuzzy rule-based classification methods that could handle the uncertainty inherent in segmentation categories, and the developed rule sets demonstrated significant portability [42], [49]. Despite this, the ambiguity in class assignment by fuzzy classification necessitated the use of defuzzification techniques to achieve clearer and more reliable classifications [50]. ...
Deep learning has gained significant attention in remote sensing, especially in pixel- or patch-level applications. Despite initial attempts to integrate deep learning into object-based image analysis (OBIA), its full potential remains largely unexplored. In this article, as OBIA usage becomes more widespread, we conducted a comprehensive review and expansion of its task subdomains, with or without the integration of deep learning. Furthermore, we have identified and summarized five prevailing strategies to address the challenge of deep learning's limitations in directly processing unstructured object data within OBIA, and this review also recommends some important future research directions. Our goal with these endeavors is to inspire more exploration in this fascinating yet overlooked area and facilitate the integration of deep learning into OBIA processing workflows.
... In a Geographical Information System (GIS), which offers a variety of applications for geographical analysis, automatically demarcated objects can also be updated and merged with other theme data. According to Mathieu et al. (2007), [9] a trustworthy tool that can automatically extract geometric data from any item could help with the mapping of areas with different socioeconomic statuses and private gardens in metropolitan settings (Stow et. al., 2007. ...
... In a Geographical Information System (GIS), which offers a variety of applications for geographical analysis, automatically demarcated objects can also be updated and merged with other theme data. According to Mathieu et al. (2007), [9] a trustworthy tool that can automatically extract geometric data from any item could help with the mapping of areas with different socioeconomic statuses and private gardens in metropolitan settings (Stow et. al., 2007. ...
... According to the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan, residential areas now encompass more than 27.5 million ha in the United States. In these suburban areas, residential lawns account for approximately one third of the space (Mathieu et al. 2007;Giner et al. 2013; Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan 2021). Given that residential yards are ubiquitous across the suburban landscape, they can provide both habitat and connectivity for wildlife (Bolger et al. 2001). ...
... Residential yards account for approximately one third of the landscape in urbanizing areas in the Eastern USA (Mathieu et al. 2007;Giner et al. 2013;Hedblom et al. 2017) and conversion of natural areas to suburban areascauses wildlife communities to bedisplaced or altered and can change the accessibility of food, water, and shelter resources (Wilby and Perry 2016). Despite these extreme landscape changes some wildlife are able to co-exist with humans in residential habitats (Soulsbury and White 2015). ...
The human footprint is rapidly expanding, and wildlife habitat is continuously being converted to human residential properties. Surviving wildlife that reside in developing areas are displaced to nearby undeveloped areas. However, some animals can co-exist with humans and acquire the necessary resources (food, water, shelter) within the human environment. This ability to coexist may be particularly true when development is low intensity, as in residential suburban yards. Yards are individually managed “greenspaces” that can provide a range of food (e.g., bird feeders, compost, gardens), water (bird baths and garden ponds), and shelter (e.g., brush-piles, outbuildings) resources and are surrounded by varying landscape cover. To evaluate which residential landscape and yard features influence the richness and diversity of mammalian herbivores and mesopredators; we deployed wildlife game cameras throughout Northwestern Arkansas, USA in 46 residential yards in summer 2021 and 96 yards in summer 2022. We found that mesopredator diversity had a negative relationship with fences and was positively influenced by the number of bird feeders present in a yard. Mesopredator richness increased with the amount of forest within 400 m of the camera. Herbivore diversity and richness were positively correlated to the area of forest within 400 m surrounding yard and by garden area within yards, respectively. Our results suggest that while landscape does play a role in the presence of wildlife in a residential area, homeowners also have agency over the richness and diversity of mammals using their yards based on the features they create or maintain on their properties.
... In the UK, provision of green space is highly variable across socioeconomic groups and geographical regions (Barbosa et al. 2007). This is partly because a large proportion of green space in the UK is inaccessible, as it exists as private spaces such as domestic gardens (Mathieu et al. 2007), and ownership of or access to private gardens varies with socioeconomic status and degree of urbanization (Harrison et al. 1995, Coombes et al. 2010, Dunton et al. 2014. Across urbanized, economically developed societies, green space access is generally lower for children than for adults (Hand et al. 2018, Veitch et al. 2008. ...
... As active engagement with nature and exposure to smaller taxa such as invertebrates are important for shaping perceptions of nature (Montgomery et al. 2022), these spaces are therefore likely to be important for the development of nature connection and ecological knowledge in children (Wells & Lekies 2006, The Wildlife Trusts & University of Derby 2019). This mirrors research on other types of urban green space, which has recorded relatively high levels of species richness in relatively small urban spaces, such as domestic gardens , Loram et al. 2008, Ives et al. 2016), but inequality in access across demographic groups and geographical regions (Barbosa et al. 2007, Mathieu et al. 2007, Dunton et al. 2014. Since our study is based on a relatively low number of self-selecting schools, these results should be treated with caution. ...
There is increasing disconnect between children and nature in the UK. Given that childhood nature experiences are important for the development of nature connection, well-being benefits and aspects of children's development, mapping the existing biodiversity that children are exposed to on a daily basis in schools and their grounds is vital to identifying areas of low biodiversity and to developing strategies to increase exposure to nature. Despite children spending a large portion of time at schools, there has not yet been an in-depth, in situ assessment of the biodiversity present in school grounds. Using a sample of 14 English schools, including state-funded and non-state-funded schools, we used remote images to quantify green-space area within a 3-km buffer around (buffer greenness) and within (school greenness) each school, including the school's grounds surrounding the buildings, and in situ images to quantify vegetation visible to children within each school's grounds (visible vegetation). We also surveyed trees, ground plants, ground invertebrates and birds within school grounds. School greenness correlated positively with visible vegetation, but buffer greenness was not related to either school greenness or visible vegetation. Buffer greenness correlated positively with plant richness, and school greenness correlated positively with tree abundance and richness. Visible vegetation correlated positively with tree abundance and richness, maximum tree diameter at breast height, plant richness and invertebrate abundance. Non-state-funded schools had higher visible vegetation than state-funded schools. Our sample indicates that schools can support considerable biodiversity and that this is broadly consistent across state-funded and non-state-funded schools. We suggest that increasing the amount of vegetation, through planting of trees, shrubs and borders, may be the most effective method of increasing school biodiversity, as visible vegetation had effects on the greatest number of taxa.
... Despite mounting evidence on the wellbeing benefits of gardening, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential of gardening has been largely overlooked in public health policy (Cameron et al., 2012;Howarth et al., 2020aHowarth et al., , 2020bSpano et al., 2020;Theodorou et al., 2021). This is perhaps surprising given that private gardens occupy approximately 23% and 36% of the urban landscape in cities such as Sheffield, United Kingdom (UK), and Dunedin, New Zealand, respectively (Gaston et al., 2005;Mathieu et al., 2007). Similarly, private gardens constitute 35%-47% of urban greenspace in many cities in England, Scotland, and Wales (Loram et al., 2007). ...
... The present findings highlight that longer duration of gardening is associated with improved mental wellbeing and life satisfaction in middle-aged and older adults in Australia, with these relationships being stronger for older adults. Although the strengths of these associations were small, such effect sizes may nevertheless be consequential for public health, given the low costs associated with gardening (Buck, 2016) and widespread distribution of and engagement with garden settings worldwide (Buck, 2016;Dewaelheyns et al., 2014;Mathieu et al., 2007). In accordance with the WHO guidelines for moderate-intensity physical activity for adults (Bull et al., 2020), the present findings indicate that gardening for more than two and a half hours per week, as opposed to gardening for less, may suggest beneficial effects on mental wellbeing and life satisfaction, particularly for individuals aged 64 years and older. ...
... With the rapid development of technology, multiple data sources have become available for UGS research, including remote sensing data, aerial photography, mobile terrestrial sensors and LiDAR [12][13][14][15]. Using various data to extract and map vegetation has emerged as a fundamental research for related study [16][17][18][19]. The extraction mainly depends on the spectral, textural, geometric, contextual features and 3D features of vegetation [20][21][22][23], in which some features may require certain types of data to achieve accurate classification. ...
... For small sites or elongated sites, the parkland or sites with large numbers of green space densely distributed, or sites requiring fine design, the use of high-resolution data is more appropriate. For example, pocket parks and informal green space are important strategies in urban micro-regeneration, but the size and shape may be limited by the site, and thus, high-resolution data are needed in such studies [16,37,58]. If the site is larger and regular, or requires overall planning, the use of lower resolution data is more appropriate within the range of error permissibility. ...
The appropriate resolution has been confirmed to be crucial to the extraction of urban green space and the related research on ecosystem services. However, the factors affecting the differences between various resolutions of data in certain application scenarios are lacking in attention. To fill the gap, this paper made an attempt to analyze the differences of various resolutions of data in green space extraction and to explore where the differences are reflected in the actual land unit, as well as the factors affecting the differences. Further, suggestions for reducing errors and application scenarios of different resolutions of data in related research are proposed. Taking a typical area of Nanjing as an example, data taken by DJI drone (0.1 m), GaoFen-1 (2 m) and Sentinel-2A (10 m) were selected for analysis. The results show that: (1) There were minimal differences in the green space ratio of the study area calculated by different resolutions of data on the whole, but when subdivided into each land use type and block, the differences were obvious; (2) The function, area and shape of the block, as well as the patch density and aggregation degree of the internal green space, had a certain impact on the differences. However, the specific impact varied when the block area was different; and (3) For the selection of the data source, the research purpose and application scenarios need to be comprehensively considered, including the function and attributes of the block, the distribution characteristics of green space, the allowable error limits and the budget. The present study highlighted the reasons of differences and hopefully it can provide a reference for the data selection of urban green space in the practical planning and design.
... The European Commission has addressed nature-based solutions as cost-effective and beneficial for the resilience of the environment solutions that can be easily applied to cities by increasing green spaces to achieve the sustainable development goals. Given though that the unbuilt areas in an urban city are limited, roofs have great potential since their extensive percentage of coverage in an urban city can provide a great alternative in hosting natural greenery [5,10,11]. Green or living roofs either fully or partially covered by vegetation can substantially alter the local heat balance equation [12], playing the role of a cooling mechanism by increasing the latent heat flux (through evapotranspiration) and thus reducing the sensible heat flux. In general, the extra heat stored in the urban region compared to the rural region in its vicinity causes the UHI phenomenon that stems from the extra anthropogenic heat flux, the difference in absorbance/emissivity of the incoming radiation, and the differences in the surface latent/sensible heat fluxes [13][14][15][16][17]. GRs mostly affect the development of the daytime boundary layer and have minimal impact on nighttime temperatures [14]. ...
This study investigates the impact of green roof (GR) implementations as a mitigation strategy for urban heating during an extreme heat wave event in Athens, Greece, from 28 July to 5 August 2021. Three GR scenarios were simulated, namely 100% grass coverage, 100% sedum coverage, and 50% grass coverage, using the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) in conjunction with the multi-layer urban-canopy-model BEP&BEM (Building Effect Parameterization/Building Energy Model) and extra urban land-use categories from Local Climate Zones (LCZ). Based on the results, GRs alter the local heat balance in the Greater Area of Athens (GAA), leading to a total temperature reduction. The 100% grass coverage proved to be the most effective, particularly during daytime, reducing the 2 m temperature field by approximately 0.7 ∘C (mean value) in the GAA. In some locations, temperature reductions exceeded 2 ∘C, depending on the local characteristics and the direction of the prevailing winds. Grass offered superior cooling effects compared to sedum, although sedum is more resilient to dry and moderate climates. The extent of vegetation coverage played an important role in the effectiveness of GRs. Reducing the coverage by 50% significantly reduced the cooling benefits, highlighting the importance of maximizing vegetation coverage to achieve notable temperature reductions.
... The distribution of greenery can be uneven and bland, from a high level to zero in a short range from the street crossing, generating a decay in perceptual intensity [17]. Furthermore, a public green space can be visually available from the surrounding buildings, while the only part of private vegetation that is generally visible from a public space is the vertical one (e.g., trees that rise in a yard, shrubs on the perimeter), which are typically smaller than a public garden and embedded in a built matrix [18]. Few cases consider how private vegetation can be designed to explicitly aimed at public viewing; a very famous case is the Vertical Forest of Boeri, the façade of which appears to be completely covered in vegetation [19]. ...
This study proposes a method to analyze urban greenery perceived from street-level viewpoints by combining geographic information systems (GIS) with image segmentation. GIS was utilized for a geospatial statistical analysis to examine anisotropy in the distribution of urban greenery and to spatialize image segmentation data. The result was the Visual Greenery Field (VGF) model, which offers a vector-based representation of greenery visibility and directionality in urban environments. The analysis employed street view images from selected geographic locations to calculate a Green View Index (GVI) and derive visual vectors. Validation confirmed the reliability of the methods, as evidenced by solid correlations between automatic and manual segmentations. The findings indicated that greenery visibility varies across the cardinal directions, highlighting that the GVI’s average value may obscure significant differences in greenery’s distribution. The VGF model complements the GVI by revealing directional coherence in urban greenery experiences. This study emphasizes that while the GVI provides an overall assessment, integrating the VGF model enriches the understanding of perceptions of urban greenery by capturing its complexities and nuances.
... One of the most prevalent human-dominated landcover types in North America is the suburban yard, which accounts for approximately 17.4% of the United States and covers more than 1.74 million km 2 (Mathieu et al. 2007;Giner et al. 2013;Hedblom et al. 2017). Because homeowners use their yards for a variety of purposes, residential yards can be viewed as independently managed greenspaces that can vary widely in the resources that are of potential use to wildlife (Bolger et al. 2001;Gallo et al. 2017;Johansson and DeGregorio 2023). ...
Context As conversion of natural areas to human development continues, there is a lack of information about how developed areas can sustainably support wildlife. While large predators are often extirpated from areas of human development, some medium-bodied mammalian predators (hereafter, mesocarnivores) have adapted to co-exist in human-dominated areas. Aims How human-dominated areas such as residential yards are used by mesocarnivores is not well understood. Our study aimed to identify yard and landscape features that influence occupancy, relative abundance and spatial-temporal overlap of three widespread mesocarnivores, namely, coyote (Canis latrans), grey fox (Urocyon cineroargenteus) and red fox (Vulpes vulpes). Methods Over the summers of 2021 and 2022, we deployed camera-traps in 46 and 96 residential yards, spanning from low-density rural areas (<1 home per km2) to more urban areas (589 homes per km2) in north-western Arkansas, USA. Key results We found that mesocarnivore occupancy was marginally influenced by yard-level features as opposed to landscape composition. Fences reduced the occupancy probability of coyotes, although they were positively associated with the total area of potential shelter sites in a yard. We found that relative abundance of grey fox was highest in yards with poultry, highlighting a likely source of conflict with homeowners. We found that all three species were primarily nocturnal and activity overlap between the species pairs was high. Conclusions Thus, these species may be using spatio-temporal partitioning to avoid antagonistic encounters and our data supported this, with few examples of species occurring in the same yards during the same 24-h period. Implications As the number of residential yards continues to grow, our results suggested that there are ways in which our yards can provide resources to mesocarnivores and that homeowners also have agency to mitigate overlap with mesocarnivores through management of their yard features.
... High-resolution (HR) remote sensing imagery is of great importance in urban planning and management [1], agricultural resource optimization [2], biodiversity conservation [3], climate change research [4], environmental monitoring [5], and other fields. For instance, in environmental monitoring, HR imagery can identify changes in land cover [6], vegetation health [7], and water resources [8], which can assist in evaluating ecological trends and assessing the effectiveness of environmental protection efforts. ...
Deep learning-based super-resolution (SR) techniques play a crucial role in enhancing the spatial resolution of images. However, remote sensing images present substantial challenges due to their diverse features, complex structures, and significant size variations in ground objects. Moreover, recovering lost details from low-resolution remote sensing images with complex and unknown degradations, such as downsampling, noise, and compression, remains a critical issue. To address these challenges, we propose ConvMambaSR, a novel super-resolution framework that integrates state-space models (SSMs) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). This framework is specifically designed to handle heterogeneous and complex ground features, as well as unknown degradations in remote sensing imagery. ConvMambaSR leverages SSMs to model global dependencies, activating more pixels in the super-resolution task. Concurrently, it employs CNNs to extract local detail features, enhancing the model’s ability to capture image textures and edges. Furthermore, we have developed a global–detail reconstruction module (GDRM) to integrate diverse levels of global and local information efficiently. We rigorously validated the proposed method on two distinct datasets, RSSCN7 and RSSRD-KQ, and benchmarked its performance against state-of-the-art SR models. Experiments show that our method achieves SOTA PSNR values of 26.06 and 24.29 on these datasets, respectively, and is visually superior, effectively addressing a variety of scenarios and significantly outperforming existing methods.
... Bigger yards had more trees on average and, whilst unsurprising, this result is consistent with previous studies in San Juan and Baltimore (Meléndez-Ackerman et al. 2016;Avolio et al. 2020). The mean yard size in Zhoukou is lower than other studies across the globe (Gaston et al. 2005;Loram et al. 2007;Mathieu et al. 2007;Ossola et al. 2019a), and suggests that China has a unique problem in increasing greening via trees in private residential areas. Residents in our study also noted that the lack of a yard or a small yard was a deterrent to planting trees or planting more trees. ...
Trees in private yards are subject to a complex assortment of interacting ecological, social, cultural and economic factors, including individual preferences, social networks, multiple stakeholders and social constraints. This study explored residents’ attitudes towards yard trees in China and determined the social factors shaping yard trees and yard tree planting. Nearly 300 questionnaires were collected in-person and online in urban and rural villages and communities in Zhoukou city, Henan. Most trees planted in yards were intentionally planted. Yard size was the main constraint on the number of trees in a yard with respondents repeatedly citing the lack of space as a deterrent to planting trees or planting more trees. The most popular attributes for trees planted in yards were symbolism and edibility. Residents’ attitudes were based upon tree functions. The willingness and attitudes of residents towards yard trees suggested that an increase in yard trees would be supported by residents, who appeared to be yearning for a green living environment. However, a lack of preference found for native species suggests a challenging future for native trees in yards in regard to their role in biodiversity and habitat formation. Men played the dominant role in activities associated with yard trees. Residents were keen to aid wider ambitions for greening through their own tree planting in yards, but need guidance via policies and incentives. Such moves at high levels of government will assist the achievement of sustainable development goals in the future China, such as increased city canopy and carbon targets.
... Dunedin was the location of two of the earliest AoNZ studies on urban vegetation cover based on the quantitative analysis of remotely sensed data [83,84], for which the researchers used digital aerial photos and high-resolution multispectral imagery, respectively, to map the extent, distribution and density of private gardens, as well as other vegetation. In the latter study, the vegetated garden areas were calculated as comprising 46% of the residential area or 36% of the total urban area, the most extensive land use type. ...
Green space is needed in urban areas to increase resilience to climate change and other shocks, as well as for human health and wellbeing. Urban green space (UGS) is increasingly considered as green infrastructure and highly complementary to engineered urban infrastructure, such as water and transport networks. The needs for resilient, sustainable and equitable future wellbeing require strategic planning, designing and upgrading of UGS, especially in areas where it has been underprovided. We explore the implications of these needs for urban development through a detailed review of cited UGS analyses conducted on the larger cities in Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ). There are important differences in UGS availability (i.e., quantity), accessibility and quality within and between cities. Some of these differences stem from ad hoc patterns of development, as well as topography. They contribute to apparently growing inequities in the availability and accessibility of UGS. Broader health and wellbeing considerations, encompassing Indigenous and community values, should be at the heart of UGS design and decisionmaking. Most of AoNZ’s cities aim (at least to some extent) at densification and decarbonisation to accommodate a growing population without costly sprawl; however, to date, sprawl continues. Our findings indicate a clear need for the design and provision of high-quality, well-integrated UGS within and servicing areas of denser housing, which are typically areas in cities with a demonstrable UGS deficiency.
... It is also funded by the Special Funds of the Central Government Guiding Local Science and Technology Development (2021L3010), the Key Provincial Scientific and Technological Innovation Projects (2021G02006) and the Natural Science Foundation of reconstructing the high-resolution (HR) image from its lowresolution (LR) counterpart, which has been widely utilized to assist advanced computer vision tasks, such as person re-identification [5], [6], medical imaging [7], and remote sensing investigations [8], [9], etc. In the research on remote sensing images, the acquisition of high-quality HR images is essential for subsequent studies, such as object detection [10], urban planning [11], and semantic labeling [12], etc. However, the methods with complicated structures would be dramatically constrained by high model complexities in realworld applications. ...
Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has made significant progress in image Super-Resolution (SR), which could thrash the limits of image spatial resolution. Recently, abundant CNN-based methods have been proposed for the remote sensing image SR, however the usages of complex structures and coarse manners could introduce excessive learnable parameters and ignorances of heterogeneous image details respectively. In this paper, we propose a Recurrently Complicated Lightweight Network (RCL-Net) for SR image recovery, through procedures of recurrent fluctuated complexity. We design a serial of Progressive Complicated Block (PC-Block) in the RCL-Net, and each PC-Block is composed of three Complicated Lightweight Branch (CL-Branch) with increasing complexities in order, for recovering heterogeneous image details. Meanwhile, the CL-Branch is integrated with Multi-Receptive Field Module (MRF-Module) to more efficiently recover intact images through forward propagation paths of heterogeneous routes and lengths, where the excessive interactive calculations between feature subparts are constrained to reduce learnable parameters. In this manner, the proposed RCL-Net achieves a trade-off between model complexities of traditional powerful structures, such as coarse to fine manners, and SR performances. Plentiful experiments with excellent results grounded on popular datasets exactly demonstrate the superiority of our proposed network, which even surpasses the advanced large SR model with less than 3% learnable parameters, compared to the state-of-the-art (SOTA) lightweight methods.
... Moreover, there are not many studies that focus on workflows to identify gardening areas in cities, even though necessity of focusing to develop methods for mapping such small-scale UGSs is emphasized (Shahtahmassebi et al., 2021). An attempt to map gardening areas is made e.g. by Mathieu et al. (2007). In their work, the authors implement an object oriented classification approach using Ikonos imagery to map private gardens in New Zealand. ...
Urban Green Spaces (UGS) play a crucial role in enhancing the quality of life in cities by providing numerous environmental, social, and health benefits. Among these green spaces, allotment gardens stand out as a unique type that contributes to ecological services, preservation of biodiversity, and the overall well-being of urban dwellers. Unfortunately, the significance of allotment gardens as a specific type of UGS is still disregarded and they are not recognized as a separate category in land use / land cover maps or city maps of green spaces. This is mainly due to the mixed use of allotment areas, their small size and absence of tailored identification or mapping workflows. In this research, we address the latter one by proposing an approach that utilizes various semantic characteristics of allotment gardens to create distinctive spatial representations. The semantic characteristics we consider include the presence, density, and height of garden huts, proximity to water bodies and railroads, as well as the presence of pathways within the allotment gardens. Allotments are delineated using a three-step procedure. This involves utilizing a Random Forest machine learning classifier to create maps of the distribution of green spaces, extracting garden huts employing a threshold, and demarcating the area using a density based clustering technique. Furthermore, we repeat the same workflow in a new study area to assess the applicability of the proposed workflow. With the established workflow, we are able to accurately identify 78% of allotments in Augsburg and 88% in Wuerzburg respectively. Our results demonstrate that the proposed workflow can be a useful approach to validate and extend existing land use and land cover data sets while remaining time and cost effective.
... These MDRS allow landowners to develop up to three-storey dwellings on most sites in cities without needing to apply for resource consent, provided they comply with all other rules and standards in relevant plans (Ministry for the Environment, 2020). These changes may have the effect of reducing the area of private gardens, which in Dunedin, for example, comprise 36% of the total urban area and 46% of residential areas (Mathieu et al., 2007). Paved areas for car access and parking for multi-storey apartments have the potential to further reduce permeable areas for vegetation. ...
... EMANTIC segmentation of remote sensing images aims to assign semantic labels to each pixel in the image. As an important remote sensing interpretation task, it has been widely applied in fields such as land cover classification [1][2][3][4][5][6], water resource management [7], tree species classification [8], urban planning [9][10][11][12], scene classification [13,14], and yield estimation [15,16], etc. ...
Semantic segmentation is an important issue in intelligent interpretation of remote sensing, playing an important role in applications such as Earth observation and land data update. However, remote sensing images often contain complex ground objects and the boundaries between them are blurred, which poses a huge challenge to the semantic segmentation task of remote sensing images. This article proposes a Dual Stream Hybrid Network (DSHNet) model, which focuses on parallel extraction of semantic and boundary features in remote sensing images, and improves the performance of semantic segmentation by fully integrating dual stream information. In the Semantic Stream, the ViT model pre-trained on remote sensing images is used as the backbone network for feature extraction. In the Boundary Stream, the boundary detection operator Sobel is used to capture the boundaries of different ground objects in the image, and a Boundary Enhancement Mechanism (BEM) is taken to optimize and enhance the feature representation of ground object boundaries. In addition, DSHNet designs a Feature Fusion Module to cross aggregate features from both semantic and boundary streams. Compared with the state-to-art semantic segmentation methods, DSHNet model has achieved best performance on two datasets of Yellow River Estuary Wetland and GID.
... Yards and gardens comprise a substantial portion of green space in many cities (e.g. Mathieu et al., 2007;Minor et al., 2017;Ossola et al., 2019), and are a primary place for many urban residents to interact with nature. Furthermore, yards are places where urban residents make decisions and take actions that directly impact local biodiversity (Goddard et al., 2017;Padullés Cubino et al., 2020). ...
... Private green spaces can contribute to >30% of the total green spaces in certain cities (Mathieu, Freeman, and Aryal 2007). Backyards are an important private green space because they provide a truly secure and convenient place for physical and social activities. ...
Private backyards are an important space for social and physical activities. Summer heat stress can reduce people's willingness to use their backyards. Long-term turf irrigation has been demonstrated to reduce daytime mean air temperature because it can maintain soil moisture content at or near field capacity for a longer period, thereby increasing evaporation from soil surface and turf transpiration. This cooling effect is likely to be stronger during and immediately after irrigation because of direct evaporation as the sprayed water streams pass through the air and from water intercepted by the turf grass canopy. This study aims to measure the magnitude and duration of this instantaneous cooling effect from turf irrigation. The field experiment consisted of two 6 m × 6 m plots (one irrigated and one unirrigated) fenced to mimic a backyard environment. Daily irrigation of 2 mm was applied at 13:00 local time. The experiment was conducted in summer 2021 in Melbourne, Australia and lasted for six weeks. The instantaneous cooling effect from irrigation lasted for approximately two hours (13:00-15:59, instantaneous cooling) before the air temperature and turf surface temperature returned to the levels measured before irrigation (10:00-12:59, baseline cooling). The instantaneous cooling effect for air temperature and turf surface temperature were-0.54°C and-1.01°C, respectively. The results suggest that the daytime cooling effect of irrigation may be strengthened by applying smaller amounts at multiple times throughout the warmest part of the day, thereby increasing the direction evaporation of water during and after irrigation.
... Meanwhile, private yards and gardens occupy most of the greenspaces within urban areas (van Heezik et al., 2012) and can contribute considerably to wildlife conservation efforts. For instance, private yards occupy up to 25% of the urban area in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and 36% of urban areas in Dunedin City, New Zealand (Loram et al., 2011;Mathieu et al., 2007). Nonetheless, even if residential yards, which are human-maintained spaces usually consisting of ornamental trees, turfgrasses, or other vegetation (De Haas et al., 2021;Taylor & Hochuli, 2017), occupy a substantial amount of greenspace and have the potential to support a great variety of wildlife (Müller et al., 2013), their contribution to biodiversity conservation is frequently overlooked (Burr et al., 2018;McCleery et al., 2014). ...
Greenspace in residential landscapes meets human needs, connects people with nature, and supports wildlife and biodiversity. However, some landscape maintenance practices are detrimental to wildlife and components of their habitat. We conducted a cross-sectional study to understand consumer knowledge, the extent of existing demand, and barriers related to wildlife-friendly landscape maintenance practices. An electronic survey was employed to collect data among Florida residents who were at least 18 years old and had a lawn or landscape for which they made decisions regarding maintenance. Non-probability opt-in sampling was used to recruit participants. Altogether 2101 residents completed the survey, among which 1053 indicated they hired green industry professionals for some aspects of landscape maintenance. Residents were least knowledgeable (M ± S.D. = 2.82 ± 1.17) about when to apply products like pesticides to yard/planting areas to minimize harm to wildlife whereas they were most knowledgeable (M ± S.D. = 3.32 ± 1.16) about how to read pesticide labels when measured on a five-point Likert-type scale. The frequency of demand for 56 wildlife-friendly landscape maintenance practices varied from most of the time to half of the time on a five-point Likert-type scale. Consumers agreed homeowner association restrictions, lack of knowledge, lack of awareness, lack of labeling on plants, and associated costs were some major barriers to their engagement in wildlife-friendly landscaping. It is recommended to work on reducing these perceived barriers among residents and increasing rewards with interventions like education, pledges, and financial incentives among others to increase demand for landscape maintenance services that support wildlife.
... Although each garden individually occupies a small area, the total contribution of this type of habitat to the total green areas of the city can be substantial and constitute 16-36% of the total urban area [2,[4][5][6][7]. Species diversity in domestic gardens is often determined by a combination of environmental, cultural and socio-economic factors [8][9][10], and is directly influenced by the owners, who shape them according to their own discretion depending on culture, lifestyle and aesthetic preferences [11,12]. ...
Gardens around private houses are complex urban habitats, and generally consist of a mosaic of different microhabitats including hedges, paved surfaces, lawns, flowerbeds, fruit trees, vegetable patches and areas of uncultivated land. Although their individual size is small, domestic gardens significantly contribute to the overall flora of the urban areas. The floristic composition of domestic gardens is influenced by both natural processes and by the activities of the owners, who shape them according to their own preferences, depending on culture and lifestyle. Domestic gardens have not been represented in ecological studies until recently, primarily due to lack of access and were deliberately omitted, but it has been showed that they represent the greatest source of potentially invasive alien plants. This study, conducted in the area of 32 km2, as a part of a wider study of the urban flora of the city of Sarajevo, presents the first detailed analysis of the spontaneous flora in the domestic gardens and provides new knowledge on the flora of this, often overlooked, habitat.
... Private gardens cumulatively cover a large area in cities and thus have an immense impact on urban biodiversity. Estimates of the proportion of private gardens on the total land area of cities in the UK, Sweden, and New Zealand range from 16 % to 36 % (Colding et al., 2006;Loram et al., 2007;Mathieu et al., 2007). Private gardens provide habitats for a variety of species, and they can serve as a refuge for many native and endangered species (Goddard et al., 2010;Thompson et al., 2003). ...
The composition and management of private gardens is critical to conserving and enhancing urban biodiversity, yet little is known about the psychological factors that influence gardening behavior. We apply an extended version of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), which includes nature connectedness, to predict engagement in gardening practices that support biodiversity. More specifically, we examine the psychological factors that influence people's intention to engage in wildlife gardening and the number of wildlife-friendly garden features in a New Zealand sample (N = 695). Structural equation modeling indicated that the extended TPB is well suited to explaining engagement in wildlife gardening. Perceived behavioral control was the strongest predictor of intention while subjective norm and nature connectedness were also significantly associated with intention. Furthermore, we explored which beliefs influence the predictors of intention. The perception of having information and knowledge as well as time had the strongest association with perceived behavioral control. Subjective norm was predicted by normative beliefs about friends, family, and environmentalists but not neighbors. Our findings provide insights into the psychological factors that influence gardening practices and can inform the design of interventions to increase urban biodiversity. We conclude that the positive effect of nature connect-edness on pro-environmental behavior should be considered in designing engagement activities to support biodiversity.
... However, due to the heterogeneity of the urban landscape and costs associated with formal lizard surveys, sampling all potential habitats at the necessary intensity is likely not possible. Backyards, though highly variable in the habitat they offer, often constitute large proportions of urban green space in a city (e.g., 36% in Dunedin; Mathieu et al. 2007). Furthermore, the backyards surveyed in this study were among the most important sites for lizards in Wellington City, supporting high diversity (three species in one backyard), high abundance (highest CPUE for O. aeneum), and the only records of O. ornatum. ...
Urbanisation dramatically alters ecosystems, disrupting key processes and threatening species persistence. Despite growing knowledge of the impacts of cities on wildlife, particularly for birds and mammals, there remains a paucity of research on how urbanisation impacts other taxa, including reptiles. We examined how urbanisation affects skink communities across multiple New Zealand cities by undertaking pitfall trapping surveys in a range of habitats. Of the 20 endemic species thought to have been present historically in the cities, only four were captured during surveys, Oligosoma aeneum in Hamilton; O. polychroma, O. aeneum, and O. ornatum in Wellington; O. polychroma in Nelson; and O. aff. polychroma Clade 5 in Dunedin. Our results reveal highly variable patterns of occupancy, abundance, and complex associations with key threats and habitat modifications. Sites in Nelson and Wellington were much more likely to record skinks than Hamilton and Dunedin, and modelling showed abundance of O. polychroma was positively related to rat tracking rates when grass cover was low but showed a negative relationship when grass cover was high. O. polychroma body condition was negatively associated with the proportion of urban land cover (built up areas or transport infrastructure). The low number of captures of several species is concerning and long-term monitoring is needed to assess the trajectories of these vulnerable populations. Effective conservation management of urban wildlife requires knowledge of where populations exist and how urban processes affect persistence. For understudied urban-dwelling taxa such as reptiles, the lack of this information may be putting populations at risk.
... One part which is usually covered in Europe are trees on public ground, as a database on them is important for both management and liability issues [23]. Studies from the United Kingdom and New Zealand show that private gardens on the other hand comprise as much as 36% of a given city's area, with a green coverage of up to 50%, and are not part of cadastral elicitation [24], [25]. A study for Padua, Italy, found that as much as 80% of urban green spaces (UGS) are located on private ground, concluding that this can be a major influence in assessing ES [26]. ...
Fostering urban resilience and adaptation to climate change pose new demands on the knowledge of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) in heterogeneous urban spaces. High-resolution urban mapping is a valuable tool, which serves to map detailed categories. Such semantic data is integrated in national and regional administration as public goods. In the light of many countries around the globe making their data publicly available, we present a method to (a) map urban areas based on multitemporal orthophotos and LiDAR derived digital surface model, and (b) extract information about vegetation in an automated processing chain. This approach is threshold-driven and relies on an automatic generation of spectral thresholds and existing real-world based classifications. We included cadastral data to add land-use information for specific categories, such as agricultural land use and to assess the product's accuracy. Adding this data creates a LULC product and makes a seamless integration into urban planning routines possible. The results of the study provide a detailed LULC map for the municipality of Aarhus in the year 2015 with a spatial resolution of 20 cm and ten thematic classes. Depending on the reference data, we achieved thematic overall accuracies of 34% and 64% using a polygon based approach. Our study has found that utilising both multitemporal orthophotos and elevation data can enhance the LC mapping of urban landscapes. The methodology could be transferred to other areas in Denmark or to countries providing similar datasets, and lends itself to a repeatable LULC mapping with minimal user interaction.
... Therefore, in some cities, domestic gardens might be the most important constituent of urban green space; they have remarkable potential for sustaining biodiversity, achieving biodiversity benefits (Al-Kofahi et al., 2019;Goddard et al., 2010), and supporting ecosystem functions (Al-Kofahi et al., 2019;Taylor & Lovell, 2015;Wang et al., 2015). In the UK, domestic gardens contribute to about 35% of the overall urban green spaces in Edinburgh and 47% in Leicester (Loram et al., 2007) and it exceeds 50% in Dunedin, New Zealand (Mathieu et al., 2007). Cameron et al. (2012) highlighted that domestic garden could contribute to about 22-36% of the whole urban area based on age and the cities circumstances. ...
Urbanization has resulted in deterioration of natural lands and extinction of indigenous species. Domestic gardens are neglected spots of plants biodiversity. This research aimed to assess domestic garden plants diversity, composition, distribution, and identify the conserved indigenous plant species in a heavily urbanized arid city. Domestic gardens within each district were randomly selected, visited, and surveyed. Cultivated plant species in gardens were identified and counted; their frequencies and abundance levels were calculated. Plant species richness, Shannon, evenness, and Simpson’s indices were calculated. More than 12,000 plants belonging to 223 plant species compromising 72 plant families were found. Domestic gardens played a significant role in conserving regionally extinct or endangered native plant species while undesirably sustained exotic and invasive plants. Overall, exotic plants species represented 84% of all identified species. The highest percentage of native plants (29%) was found in Uhod district, while the lowest (11%) was in Jubaiha district. The minimum and maximum proportion of medicinal, poisonous, and fruit bearing plants on a district bases were 9–26%, 9–22%, and 11–43% of domestic garden plants, respectively. The highest species richness (103) was in Zahran, while the lowest (20) was in Al-Madinah district. Shannon diversity index was the highest in Zahran and Sweileh districts. Shannon, evenness, and Simpson diversity indexes revealed Badr Al-Jadidah as the lowest plant diversity district. District history, lots sizes, garden sizes, socioeconomic status, residents’ preferences, and housing regulations resulted in variation in plants diversity and species composition. Thus, monitoring species composition in domestic gardens and raising public awareness about plants benefits/risks supports environmental sustainability. Attention should be given to these neglected biodiversity hotspots, especially in arid environments.
... Private house gardens in residential areas represent an important element of greenspace in many urban areas of the world (Gaston et al. 2005;Mathieu et al. 2007;Lepczyk et al. 2017). ...
This paper presents the bryophyte diversity of Tamás Pócs’s house garden in Felsőtárkány village (NE Hungary). Altogether 49 taxa (2 liverworts and 47 mosses) were recorded from the noted bryologist’s private garden. More than half of the species (57%) belong to the three families: Orthotrichaceae, Pottiaceae and Brachytheciaceae. Compared with nearby surveyed parks and botanical gardens, the private garden has outstanding bryophyte richness in relation to the size of its area. In terms of species composition the garden shows the greatest similarity to the Central park of Eger town among the nearby localities. Recent data of Entodon concinnus is the fifth occurrence in the country and the first from North East Hungary.
... This evidence also demonstrates that although the size and nature of the resources inserted in them are rarely studied, PrGSs constitute a substantial part of the vegetated space in a city (Mathieu et al. 2007). Because they are part of the urban green infrastructure, they should be included in the calculation of green space indices when they meet all criteria regarding function and have at least 50% permeability. ...
... Such variations can manifest in antibioticproducing soil strains [2]. Urban gardens often constitute a significant proportion of green spaces in urbanized cities, with some cities having 23 to 36% of their areas dedicated to these gardens [3][4][5]. These gardens provide support for numerous local, landscape, and sociopolitical features that aid in the preservation of biodiversity. ...
Urban parks are a rich source of microbial diversity, as they are heavily used by city residents. In this study, we sampled a Mediterranean park and were able to isolate bacteria that have the ability to inhibit the growth of control microorganisms. Out of the 560 bacteria we tested, many displayed antibacterial activity, particularly against Salmonella sp. and K. pneumoniae. These results suggest that the microorganisms in the park are in close proximity to the human population. Additionally, the isolated bacteria demonstrated diverse enzymatic activities, possibly as a response to the environmental substances available to them, which could aid in the degradation of different compounds of interest. The study of the spatial distribution of soil parameters and the inhibition against relative-safe pathogens in an urban park in València (Spain) demonstrated a higher proportion of isolates in certain areas. These spatial data maps can help researchers understand the behaviors of bacterial populations on a regional level, which can assist in the creation of novel antimicrobial agents and promote advancements in public health.
... In [68], the amount of urban private green spaces in Leipzig (NE Germany), resulting from back-and front-yard green space, is around 40% (20 km 2 ) of the total amount of public green spaces, but in 25% of city districts, it prevails over public green areas. Other studies focused on quantifying private garden areas, for example, estimating between 22 and 36% of the total Dunedin urban area in New Zealand [69]. In line with these data, [35] found that about 23% (33 km 2 ) of the urban area in Sheffield (UK) is covered by home gardens. ...
Urban Green Spaces (UGS) contribute to the sustainable development of the urban ecosystem , positively impacting quality of life and providing ecosystem services and social benefits to inhabitants. For urban planning, mapping and quantification of UGS become crucial. So far, the contribution of private green spaces to ecosystem services in urban areas has yet to be studied. At the same time, in many Italian cities, they represent a considerable part of the urban green cover. This study utilises a methodological approach and provides insights into the contribution of urban public and private green spaces by the consideration of a case study area in Northeast Italy. To achieve this goal, the main steps were: (i) NDVI extraction from very high-resolution (20 cm) ortho-photos, (ii) classification of property status and (iii) analysis of the degree of the greenness of land cover units. From our results, the total amount of the green spaces is 5.70 km 2 , of which 72.1% (4.11 km 2) is private, and 28.9% (1.59 km 2) is public. As for the land cover, three NDVI classes were identified , highlighting different degrees of homogeneity in NDVI reflectance response within each urban land cover unit. These results will support the planning of new green areas in the post-epidemic National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
... In addition to the spectral features of the image, it also pays attention to the shape factors of the ground objects. In the existing research, the application of object-oriented methods to the extraction and classification of ground objects has been relatively successful [14][15][16][17], one of which is the lake extraction in the Kanas Lake area of Altay Mountain, Xinjiang, the accuracy of which is more than 95% under cloudless conditions using the object-oriented method [18]. However, the classification accuracy of the object-oriented method can be easily affected by the segmentation scale and the feature rule set, and the misclassification often occurs at the boundary of different ground objects. ...
The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor is the pilot area of the Belt and Road, where glaciers and lakes are widely distributed. Recent years, global warming has accelerated the expansion of glacier lakes, which increased the risk of natural disasters such as glacier lake outburst. It is important to monitor the glacier lakes in this region. In this paper, we propose a method combining the object-oriented image analysis with boundary recognition (OOBR) to extract lakes in several study areas of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This method recognized the lake boundary with the symmetrical characteristic according to the principle of seed growth of watershed algorithm, which can correct the boundary extracted by the object-oriented method. The overall accuracy of the proposed method is up to 98.5% with Landsat series images. The experiments also show that the overall accuracy of our method is always higher than that of the object-oriented method with different segmentation scales mentioned in this paper. The proposed method improved the overall accuracy on the basis of the results obtained by the object-oriented method, and the results with the proposed method are more robust to the seeds than that with the boundary correction method of the watershed algorithm. Therefore, the proposed method can obtain a high extraction accuracy while reducing the complexity of the object-oriented extraction.
... This effect can be reflected in antibiotic-producing soil strains [2]. The area in urban gardens often determines the amount of green space in many urbanized cities, and in some cities, urban gardens cover between 23 and 36% of the city area [3][4][5]. Urban gardens support many local, landscape, and sociopolitical features that may contribute to conserving biodiversity. Understanding spatial connectivity can help predict species distribution, diversity, abundance, composition, and spatial distribution of bacterial resources. ...
The enzymatic activities of bacterial isolates have been widely studied, but a spatial distribution of this activity is rarely focused. New antibiotic-producing microorganisms can be discovered in a more efficient manner if spatial statistical techniques are applied to the distribution of the activity of bacterial isolates in different terrains. This study is focused to generate a series of maps illustrating the spatial distribution of different soil parameters and the inhibition against relative-safe pathogens (like Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Salmonella, Pseudomonas fluorencens and Enterobacter cloacae) in an urban park in València (Spain). This spatial data has demonstrated a higher proportion of isolates was specifically allocated. This routine of data presentation is valuable for understanding bacterial population dynamics at a local level.
... City greenery is crucial for providing ecosystem services and supporting societal well-being in heavily populated and pressured metropolitan areas. The Estimation of gardens areas in Stockholm has is more than16% (Colding et al., 2006), while in the UK it ranges between 22-27% (Loram et al., 2007), and in Dunedin, New Zealand it rises to 36% (Mathieu et al., 2007). ...
... Residential yards compose 25%-40% of land area in cities (Loram et al., 2007;Mathieu et al., 2007), and in the United States, they represent a homogeneous, continental-scale macrosystem with relatively similar biophysical properties compared to natural ecosystems (Groffman et al., 2017). However, individual management decisions made by residents (i.e., homeowners or renters who reside in a home) influence local-scale ecological outcomes, such as plant resources available to support wildlife. ...
Introduction
Integrated social and ecological processes shape urban plant communities, but the temporal dynamics and potential for change in these managed communities have rarely been explored. In residential yards, which cover about 40% of urban land area, individuals make decisions that control vegetation outcomes. These decisions may lead to relatively static plant composition and structure, as residents seek to expend little effort to maintain stable landscapes. Alternatively, residents may actively modify plant communities to meet their preferences or address perceived problems, or they may passively allow them to change. In this research, we ask, how and to what extent does residential yard vegetation change over time?
Methods
We conducted co-located ecological surveys of yards (in 2008, 2018, and 2019) and social surveys of residents (in 2018) in four diverse neighborhoods of Phoenix, Arizona.
Results
94% of residents had made some changes to their front or back yards since moving in. On average, about 60% of woody vegetation per yard changed between 2008 and 2018, though the number of species present did not differ significantly. In comparison, about 30% of woody vegetation changed in native Sonoran Desert reference areas over 10 years. In yards, about 15% of woody vegetation changed on average in a single year, with up to 90% change in some yards. Greater turnover was observed for homes that were sold, indicating a “pulse” of management. Additionally, we observed greater vegetation turnover in the two older, lawn-dominated neighborhoods surveyed despite differences in neighborhood socioeconomic factors.
Discussion
These results indicate that residential plant communities are dynamic over time. Neighborhood age and other characteristics may be important drivers of change, while socioeconomic status neither promotes nor inhibits change at the neighborhood scale. Our findings highlight an opportunity for management interventions, wherein residents may be open to making conservation-friendly changes if they are already altering the composition of their yards.
... With the vigorous development of remote sensing technology, high-resolution (HR) remote sensing images play an important role in many fields, such as object detection [1,2], urban planning [3], semantic labeling [4] and object detection [5]. However, most accessible public remote sensing datasets cannot maintain long-term coverage and high spatial resolution at the same time. ...
Nowadays, remote sensing datasets with long temporal coverage generally have a limited spatial resolution, most of the existing research uses the single image super-resolution (SISR) method to reconstruct high-resolution (HR) images. However, due to the lack of information in low-resolution (LR) images and the ill-posed nature of SISR, it is difficult to reconstruct the fine texture of HR images under large-scale magnification factors (e.g., four times). To address this problem, we propose a new reference-based super-resolution method called a Residual-Dense Hybrid Attention Network (R-DHAN), which uses the rich texture information in the reference image to make up for the deficiency of the original LR image. The proposed SR model employs Super-Resolution by Neural Texture Transfer (SRNTT) as a backbone. Based on this structure, we propose a dense hybrid attention block (DHAB) as a building block of R-DHAN. The DHAB fuses the input and its internal features of current block. While making full use of the feature information, it uses the interdependence between different channels and different spatial dimensions to model and obtains a strong representation ability. In addition, a hybrid channel-spatial attention mechanism is introduced to focus on important and useful regions to better reconstruct the final image. Experiments show that compared with SRNTT and some classical SR techniques, the proposed R-DHAN method performs well in quantitative evaluation and visual quality.
... The establishment of native Mediterranean plants in the Mediterranean biome for cultivation or landscaping of UGSs can significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation [199] and the restoration of ecological balance. Their proven tolerance to conditions of increased salinity and drought, renders them imperative for the success and sustainability of ecosystem restoration actions, and the exploitation of low-productivity or marginal land, now as well as under future climate induced stresses. ...
Abstract: Drought and salinity are two of the most urgent challenges faced in Mediterranean ecosystems, equally impacting natural systems, agricultural crops, and urban green. While many technical and soft approaches have been proposed to anticipate, mitigate, and remediate these impacts, a class of solutions has possibly been in front of us all along. Native Mediterranean fauna is well adapted, and when properly established still has unexploited conservation, restoration, and production diversification potential. Here, we outline the results of a long-term experiment taking place on the island
of Crete, Greece that started in 1996 and involves over 70 native Mediterranean plants planted and monitored in various green spaces (private, shared, public) and a university campus under a diversity of adverse topographies (e.g., coastal, steep slopes), soils (e.g., disturbed, nutrient-deficient), and microclimatic conditions, taking various plant formations and serving various functions. After plant establishment, drought and salinity resistance were evaluated by gradually exposing plants (n = 5249) to deficit irrigation and saline environmental conditions, and plants were followed up for at least 5 years to empirically assess their ability to cope with abiotic stress. From the Mediterranean plants
that were planted and tested, 52 were singled out because of their resistance and additional favorable traits. Motivated by this long-term assessment, a systematic literature review was conducted using the protocol Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to validate empirical results, determine which were still unexplored, and bring to light additional uses. Results showed that 41 of the plants included in this research have significant medicinal properties, 26 have
nutritional uses, 17 industrial uses, and 18 have evidence of cosmetology uses. Additionally, the empirical assessment gave new evidence of at least 40 new species–trait combinations. By formally documenting the characteristics of these native Mediterranean plants, this work highlights their versatile traits, and the prospect of creating new uses and value chains enables, for the first time their inclusion in planting-decision support systems and aims to increase demand and facilitate the scaling
up of native greening in the context of sustainable land and water management within and beyond the Mediterranean basin.
Urbane Grünflächen besitzen neben ihren gestalterischen Wirkungen vor allem ein gesundheitsrelevantes Potenzial aufgrund ihrer gesundheitsschützenden und -fördernden Effekte. Diese Effekte werden in Analysen zur Umweltgerechtigkeit untersucht, wobei sich jedoch durch das fehlende oder unzureichende Vorhandensein von flächendeckenden Umweltinformationen Grenzen bei der Identifizierung und Analyse von gesundheitswirkenden Grünflächen ergeben. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war es das Potenzial der Fernerkundung als Methodik zur Erfassung und Analyse von urbanen Vegetationsflächen unter Berücksichtigung der gesundheitsrelevanten Wirkungen von Vegetation zu untersuchen und zu klären, welche fernerkundlichen Methoden zur Erfassung urbaner Grünflächen existieren, sowie welche gesundheitsrelevanten Informationen mithilfe fernerkundlicher Methoden gewonnen werden können. Auf Grundlage einer systematischen Literaturanalyse konnten insgesamt 122 verschiedene Fernerkundungsverfahren zur Erfassung und Analyse von Stadtgrün identifiziert und in die Kategorien Vegetationsindizes, Klassifikationsverfahren, Verfahren der Modellierung, Struktur- und Zugangsanalyse von Grünflächen, sowie der Standortbestimmung unterteilt werden. Die, mit diesen Methoden gewonnenen, gesundheitsrelevanten Informationen wurden nach dem Konzept des Vorsorgenden Gesundheitsschutzes nach CLAßEN (2008) in Informationen mit Bezug zum Gesundheitsschutz, zur Gesundheitsförderung und zur Gesundheitsgefahr unterteilt. Vor allem mithilfe von Vegetationsindizes ist ein direkter Gewinn von gesundheitsbezogenen Informationen möglich. Zu diesen Informationen, die Auskunft über einen möglichen Gesundheitsschutz oder einer Gesundheitsgefahr machen, gehören Aussagen über das urbane Mikroklima, über die Luftqualität, über Allergene oder über für den Menschen gefährliche Tierarten. Eine erforderliche Methodenkombination zum Erhalt von Gesundheitsinformationen kann hingegen bei den Struktur- und Zugangsanalysen von Grünflächen gewährleistet sein. In Kombination mit Modellierungsverfahren können Informationen mit Bezug zur Gesundheitsförderung und damit Aussagen über Grünflächen als Bewegungs-, Entspannungs- und Verbindungsraum gewonnen und darüber hinaus die Analyse im Hinblick auf die Umweltgerechtigkeit ermöglicht werden. Im Hinblick auf die bestehende Herausforderung der Datengenerierung für die Analyse von Umweltgerechtigkeit kann der Fernerkundung somit das Potenzial der flächendeckenden Erfassung von Umwelt- und Gesundheitsinformationen zugesprochen werden. Jedoch muss eine Kombination der Fernerkundungsmethoden mit anderweitig erhobenen Daten qualitativer und quantitativer Art gegeben sein, um das gesamte Spektrum potenzieller Gesundheitsinformationen erfassen zu können
Cities in the developing world are expanding rapidly, and undergoing changes to their roads, buildings, vegetation, and other land use characteristics. Timely data are needed to ensure that urban change enhances health, wellbeing and sustainability. We present and evaluate a novel unsupervised deep clustering method to classify and characterise the complex and multidimensional built and natural environments of cities into interpretable clusters using high-resolution satellite images. We applied our approach to high-resolution (0.3 m/pixel) satellite image for Accra, Ghana, one of the fastest growing cities in sub-Saharan Africa, and contextualised the results with demographic and environmental data that were not used for clustering. We show that clusters obtained solely from images capture distinct phenotypes of the urban natural (vegetation and water) and built (building count, size, density, and orientation; length and arrangement of roads) environment, and population, either as a unique defining characteristic (e.g., bodies of water or dense vegetation) or in combination (e.g., buildings surrounded by vegetation or sparsely populated areas intermixed with roads). Clusters that were based on a single defining characteristic were robust to the spatial scale of analysis and the choice of cluster number, whereas those based on a combination of characteristics changed based on scale and number of clusters. The results demonstrate that satellite data and unsupervised deep learning provide a cost-effective, interpretable and scalable approach for real-time tracking of sustainable urban development, especially where traditional environmental and demographic data are limited and infrequent.
Private domestic gardens have immense potential to contribute to urban biodiversity conservation. However, they are divided into small private plots and managed individually by garden owners. Therefore, engagement in wildlife‐friendly gardening (WFG), which entails alternative management and design choices, relies on the individual willingness of each garden owner.
Using an online survey and qualitative walking interviews with garden owners, our study explores individual internal and external factors underlying engagement in WFG. We interpret and reflect on our findings in the context of gardening as a relational practice between people and nature.
Our findings suggest that motivations for gardening play a central role in how internal and external factors promote or impede WFG. For example, motivations towards organic gardening and learning from nature promote WFG, whereas personal and family care and well‐being motivations seem to impede it.
The perceived and actual garden area, as well as self‐reported insufficient knowledge and social norms, covary the most with engagement in WFG. Engagement in WFG relates to people's relationships with nature, as embodied in social norms of community acceptance and cohesion, and care and respect for nature and others.
Future research into pro‐environmental behaviours in gardens should adopt more relational approaches that go beyond the individual self and take better account of feedback between individual actions and social relations.
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The study sets out the benefits of the new IKONOS satellite image data for urban planning and for urban information tasks in general. Following a brief delineation of the reference modalities, the quality of the data is assessed and the problems for georeferencing are pointed up. Diverse fields of application of the data in urban planning and administration are then enumerated. Classification of IKONOS satellite data using, respectively, a pixel and a segment-based approach is described. To this end, classifiers arrived at using the ExpertClassifier (ERDAS) and eCognition (Definiens) classification programs are introduced and their respective recognize and classification qualities compared. ExpertClassifier draws on a pixel-based classification strategy which has performance limitations where high-resolution images are concerned but is ideal in implementation terms. In the case of eCognition, pixels of homogeneous areas are collected into segments. Besides the spectral signature, it is also possible to use form, size and neighbourhood and hierarchy relations as means of classifying segments. Such classification properties grow in importance as the image resolution increases.
Airborne laser scanners and multi‐spectral scanners provide information on height and spectra that offer exciting possibilities for extracting features in complicated urban areas. We apply an object‐based approach to building extraction from image data in an approach that differs from conventional per‐pixel approaches. Since image objects are extracted based on the thematic and geometric components of objects, quality assessments will have to be made object‐based with respect to these components. The known per‐pixel‐based methods for assessing quality have been examined in the new situation as well as their limitations. A new framework for carrying out quality assessments by measuring the similarity between the results of feature extraction and reference data is proposed in this paper. The proposed framework consists of both per‐object and per‐pixel measures of quality, thus providing measures pertaining to qualitative and quantitative measurements of object quality from thematic and geometric aspects. The proposed framework and measures of quality have been applied to an assessment of the results of object‐based building extraction using high‐resolution laser data and multi‐spectral data in two test cases. The results show that the per‐object‐based method of assessing quality gives additional information to conventional per‐pixel, attribute‐only assessment methods.
Fragmented developed areas usually support source-sink patches for invasive organisms in urban landscapes. Invasive plants that have a different origin than the spreading source have an important role in artificial landscape restoration in degraded areas. However, many alien plant species have invaded the original habitat or ecosystem of native plants; sequentially their fast growing populations colonize neighboring ecosystems easily. Biological contamination sometimes occurs, unbalancing biodiversity in the natural landscape system. Therefore, long-term monitoring for dynamic communities after restoration in urban areas is indispensable for establishing a strategy for sustainable urban management. Under this principle we have examined the spreading of representative naturalized plant species according to recent land use changes. In this study, we have selected two representative invasive plants, Robinia pseudoacacia and Eupatorium rugosum. Their distribution pattern and patch characteristics of population were identified by the data of Seoul Biotope Map and a field survey. As a result of GIS-aided analysis of landscape patches, these two species often occurred in the same place. Concentration patterns of population distribution were found in forest edges disturbed by development of roads and human settlement. Especially, Eupatorium rugosum had extended to inner forest patches although the individuals were scattered. Distribution patterns of those species were partly related to landscape indices such as patch size and shape of the forest edge.
The main topic of this paper is high-resolution image fusion. The techniques used to merge high spatial resolution panchromatic images with high spectral resolution multispectral images are described. The most commonly used image fusion methods that work on the principle of component substitution (intensity-hue-saturation method (IHS), Brovey transform (BT), and multiplicative method (MULTI)) have been applied to Ikonos, QuickBird, Landsat, and aerial orthophoto images. Visual comparison, histogram analyses, correlation coefficients, and difference images were used in order to analyze the spectral and spatial qualities of the fused images. It was discovered that for preserving spectral characteristics, one needs a high level of similarity between the panchromatic image and the respective multispectral intensity. In order to achieve this, spectral sensitivity of multispectral and panchromatic data was performed, and digital values in individual bands have been modified before fusion. It has also been determined that spatial resolution is best preserved in the event of an unchanged input panchromatic image.
This paper addresses information extraction from IKONOS imagery over the Lukole refugee camp in Tanzania. More specific, it describes automatic image analysis procedures for a rapid and reliable identification of refugee tents as well as their spatial extent. From the identified tents, the number of refugees can be derived and a map of the camp can be generated, which can be used for improving refugee camp management. Four information extraction methods have been tested and compared: supervised classification, unsupervised classification, multi-resolution segmentation and mathematical morphology analysis. The latter two procedures based on object-oriented classifiers perform best with a spatial accuracy above 85% and a statistical accuracy above 97%. These methods could be used for refugee camp information extraction in other geographical settings and on imagery with different spatial and spectral resolutions.
This paper compares different image processing routines to identify suitable remote sensing variables for urban classifi- cation in the Marion County, Indiana, USA, using a Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM� ) image. The ETMmultispectral, panchromatic, and thermal images are used. Incorporation of spectral signature, texture, and surface temperature is examined, as well as data fusion techniques for combining a higher spatial resolution image with lower spatial resolution multispectral images. Results indicate that incorporation of texture from lower spatial resolution images or of a temperature image cannot improve classification accuracies. However, incorporation of textures derived from a higher spatial resolution panchromatic image improves the classification accuracy. In particular, use of data fusion result and texture image yields the best classifi- cation accuracy with an overall accuracy of 78 percent and a kappa index of 0.73 for eleven land use and land cover classes.
Fire suppression associated with decades of cattle grazing can result in bush encroachment in savannas. Textural analyses of historical, high resolution images was used to characterize bush densities across a South African study landscape. A control site, where vegetation was assumed to have changed minim-ally for the duration of the image record (1955-1996), was used to standardize textural values between multidate images. Standardized textural values were then converted to estimates of percent woody canopy cover using a simple linear regression model. Results indicate a 30% relative increase in percent woody cover between 1955 and 1996.
An increasing need exists to update older transportation infrastructure, land use/land cover, environmental impact assessment and road network layer maps. Planning and development rely on accurate data layers for new construction and changes in existing routes. Recent developments in commercial satellite products have resulted in a broader range of high quality image data, enabling detailed analysis. This information differs in its characteristic features (e.g. spatial resolution and geolocational accuracy) as well as utility for particular tasks. Transportation features have historically been difficult to accurately identify and structure into coherent networks; prior analyses have demonstrated problems in locating smaller features. Roadways in urban environments are often partly obscured by proximity to land cover or impervious objects. Recent research has focused on object-based methods for classification and different segmentation techniques key to this approach. Software packages such as eCognition have shown encouraging results in assessing spatial and spectral patterns at varied scales in intelligent classification of aerial and satellite imagery. In this study we examine 2.44m QuickBird and 4m Ikonos multispectral imagery for a 7.5' quad (Dead Tiger Creek) near the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Both spectral and object-based approaches are implemented for pre-classification, after which road features are extracted using various techniques. Results are compared based on a raster completeness model developed. Challenges include intricate networks of smaller roads in residential zones and regions of tall/dense tree cover. Observations for these sites will assist in developing a larger-scale analysis plan for the CSX railroad corridor relocation project.
As part of a larger survey of biodiversity in private gardens in Sheffield, UK, we examined the composition and diversity of the soil seed banks in each of 56 gardens. Six soil cores from each garden revealed 2759 seedlings of 119 taxa, although the real species richness is likely to be much higher than this. By far the most abundant species were weedy natives, while the most common alien was Buddleja davidii. Seeds of perennial herbs were more abundant than hundreds of all other life forms combined. More frequent species were also more abundant, but the relationship was weak. Numbers of species in the seed bank and in the garden flora were positively but very weakly related. Seeds were quite evenly distributed between 0 –5 cm and 5 –10 cm soil layers, and most seeds were of species known to have persistent seed banks. Seeds of some species were largely confined to gardens in which the plant was growing, but others were not.
The urbanization of agricultural lands is currently one of the dominant pat-terns of land use change in developed countries. In the United States and parts of Europe, this has led to the implementation of agricultural land preservation programs and riparian protection and replanting efforts along urban streams. The ecological benefits of such programs for the conservation of freshwater biodiversity have yet to be fully explored. We designed a study to investigate the patterns of stream macroinvertebrate community structure along a gradient of agriculture to urban development, and the patterns among urban streams that vary in the amount of intact riparian buffer. In 2001 and 2002, we sampled the 29 small headwater streams comprising the outlying tributaries of four watersheds just north of Washington, D.C., in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. This region has had dramatic urban development over the last 50 years, yet significant efforts have been made to maintain riparian buffers and promote preservation of agricultural land. Macroinvertebrate richness was strongly related to land use, with agricultural streams exhibiting the highest macroinvertebrate diversity. Taxa richness was related negatively and linearly (no statistical threshold) to the amount of impervious surface cover. For the urban streams, there was a strong positive relationship between invertebrate diversity and riparian forest cover. Urban streams with high amounts of intact riparian forest exhibited biodiversity levels more comparable to less urban areas despite high amounts of impervious cover in their catchments. The agricultural headwater streams in this study were not only more diverse than the urban headwaters, but their levels of macroinvertebrate diversity were high compared to other published estimates for agricultural streams. These higher richness values may be due to widespread use of ''best management practices'' (BMPs), including no-till farming and the implementation of woody and herbaceous riparian buffers, which may alleviate many acute stressors caused by cultivation. These findings suggest that, if managed properly, the preservation of agricultural land from development may help conserve stream invertebrate biodiversity, and that maintenance of riparian forests even in highly urbanized watersheds may help alleviate ecological disturbances that might otherwise limit macroinvertebrate survival.
Connectivity has been an accepted goal in ecological restoration of wilderness areas for some time, but it is a relatively new approach in urban areas. The connectivity analysis presented here explores the numbers and patterns of corridors required to connect urban green spaces as part of an overall biodiversity conservation strategy. Green spaces in this study were weighted based on size and a habitat requirement of 0.5 ha for a hypothetical indicator species. Thirteen potential networks were evaluated using Gamma, Beta, and Cost Ratio indices. The study zone contained 54 green spaces (habitat nodes) with a combined area of 636.5 ha in a total urban area of approximately 2,600 ha. Several models (Travelling Salesman, Paul Revere, and Least Cost to User) were used to evaluate possible connections. These results indicated that at least 325 linkages are necessary to connect half of the nodes. Such large numbers of linkages are only feasible by enhancing the matrix of backyard habitat, planted boulevards, and utility rights-of way found in a city. Strengthening such networks should work well to support the biota protected in urban parks and wildlife refuges and the seasonal migrants that sometimes depend on urban habitats for their survival.
The extent and continued expansion of urbanisation has focused attention on the significance for native biodiversity of those green spaces remaining within such areas and the most appropriate methods of managing them. In the UK, a high proportion of urban space is comprised of the private or domestic gardens associated with residential dwellings, and many recommendations have been made for simple changes to improve their value for biodiversity (wildlife gardening). Here, we report the results of replicated experimental tests of five such common recommendations, involving the introduction to gardens of (i) artificial nest sites for solitary bees and wasps; (ii) artificial nest sites for bumblebees; (iii) small ponds; (iv) dead wood for fungi and other saproxylic organisms; and (v) patches of nettles Urtica dioica L. for butterfly larvae. The broad conclusion is that whilst some methods for increasing the biodiversity of garden environments may be very effective, others have a low probability of success on the timescales and spatial scales likely to be acceptable to many garden owners. If one of the functions of small scale biodiversity enhancement is to develop and encourage awareness of biodiversity and its conservation, then encouragement to conduct particular activities must be balanced with a realistic appraisal of their likely success.
Domestic (‘private’) gardens constitute a substantial proportion of ‘green space’ in urban areas and hence are of potential
significance for the maintenance of biodiversity in such areas. However, the size and nature of this resource and its associated
features are poorly known. In this study, we provide the first detailed audit, using domestic gardens in the city of Sheffield
as a model study system. Domestic gardens, the mean area of which was 151m2, cover approximately 33km2 or 23% of the predominantly urban area of the city. The smaller gardens contribute disproportionately to this total because,
although individually they add little, they are large in number. Conversely, the regions of the city with proportionately
more garden area contribute most to the total garden area of the city, although such regions are limited in number. Based
on the findings of a telephone based survey, 14.4% of dwellings with gardens were estimated to have ponds, 26% to have nest-boxes,
29% to have compost heaps, 48% to hold trees more than 3m tall, and 14% of dwellings were estimated to be home to one or
more cats. Whilst the absolute frequency of these features is low to moderate, by extrapolation they nonetheless yield estimates
for domestic gardens in Sheffield of a total of 25,200 ponds, 45,500 nest boxes, 50,750 compost heaps, 360,000 trees, and
a population of 52,000 domestic cats. These results are considered in the context of the role of gardens in urban areas as
habitats for wildlife and the implications for housing policy.
Shrub encroachment into arid and semi-arid grasslands in the southwestern United States is of concern because increased shrub cover leads to declines in species diversity, water availability, grazing capacity, and soil organic matter. Although it is well known that shrubs have increased over time, we have little quantitative information related to the non-linear nature of this vegetation change over a particular period. On the Jornada Experimental Range (JER; USDA-ARS) and the adjacent Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center (CDRRC; New Mexico State University) in southern New Mexico, shrub increase has been measured with various ground survey techniques extending back to 1858. For this study, we used 11 aerial photos taken between 1937 and 1996 that covered a 150-ha study area and had sufficient resolution for shrub detection. A QuickBird satellite image provided coverage for 2003. We used image segmentation and object-based classification to monitor vegetation changes over time. Shrub cover increased from 0.9% in 1937 to 13.1% in 2003, while grass cover declined from 18.5% to 1.9%. Vegetation dynamics reflected changes in precipitation patterns, in particular, effects of the 1951–1956 drought. Accuracy assessment showed that shrub and grass cover was underestimated due to the constraint of the pixel size. About 87% of all shrubs >2 m2 were detected. The use of object-based classification has advantages over pixel based classification for the extraction of shrubs from panchromatic aerial and high-resolution satellite imagery. Incorporating both spectral and spatial image information approximates the way humans interpret information visually from aerial photos, but has the benefit of an automated classification routine. Combining several scales of analysis in a hierarchical segmentation method is appropriate in an ecological sense and allows for determining shrub density in coarser level classes. Despite encountering difficulties in analyzing a greatly varying aerial photo data set, including variability in spectral and spatial resolutions, moisture conditions, time of year of observation, and appearance of grass cover, aerial photos provide an invaluable historic record for monitoring shrub encroachment into a desert grassland.
Domestic (ȁ8privateȁ9) gardens constitute a substantial proportion of ȁ8green spaceȁ9 in urban areas and hence are of potential significance for the maintenance of biodiversity in such areas. However, the size and nature of this resource and its associated features are poorly known. In this study, we provide the first detailed audit, using domestic gardens in the city of Sheffield as a model study system. Domestic gardens, the mean area of which was 151 m2, cover approximately 33 km2 or 23% of the predominantly urban area of the city. The smaller gardens contribute disproportionately to this total because, although individually they add little, they are large in number. Conversely, the regions of the city with proportionately more garden area contribute most to the total garden area of the city, although such regions are limited in number. Based on the findings of a telephone based survey, 14.4% of dwellings with gardens were estimated to have ponds, 26% to have nest-boxes, 29% to have compost heaps, 48% to hold trees more than 3 m tall, and 14% of dwellings were estimated to be home to one or more cats. Whilst the absolute frequency of these features is low to moderate, by extrapolation they nonetheless yield estimates for domestic gardens in Sheffield of a total of 25,200 ponds, 45,500 nest boxes, 50,750 compost heaps, 360,000 trees, and a population of 52,000 domestic cats. These results are considered in the context of the role of gardens in urban areas as habitats for wildlife and the implications for housing policy.
Using high resolution imagery such as IKONOS data should make it possible to detect man-made-features such as buildings and roads more easily than with conventional satellite image data. However, due to the higher spatial resolution of IKONOS data, an automatic or semi-automatic detection of such features based only on their spectral characteristics can become difficult, especially in heterogeneous areas such as dense urban areas (see Bauer, T. & Steinnocher, K. in this issue). A typical problem in urban remote sensing is the handling of shadows. Using a DEM and additional semantic information can help to detect such cases and to manage them adequately. Furthermore, when using an additional DEM, significant elevation information of questionable objects can be used to identify their shape. As eCognition is able to use an arbitrary number of channels for the image segmentation and classification, the DEM was used for the initial segmentation and for the subsequent object classification. Thereby, the influence of the DEM on the object generation can be controlled by adjusting the channels' weights. Based upon the underlying concepts of eCognition to generate and classify image objects, different strategies have been developed.
Cities and Natural Process is a book for all concerned with the future of our cities, their design and sustainability, and our quality of life within them. Michael Hough describes how economic and technological values have squeezed any real sense of nature out of the modern city, the ways in which this has led to a divisive separation of countryside and city, wasted much of the city's resources, and shaped an urban aesthetic which is sharply at odds with both natural and social processes. Against this is set an alternative history of ecological values informing proven approaches to urban design which work with nature in the city.
Region-based approaches are suitable for the analysis of high-resolution remotely sensed data. In this context, special emphasis has to be laid on the segmentation of multi-sensoral and multi-scale input data with respect to the geometrical and semantical robustness of the achieved results, but also on the grade of automatization and transparency of the algorithms.
Remote sensing data relative to vegetation canopies can only be interpreted if the mechanisms of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with plants and the underlying soil are known. The optical properties of vegetation canopies are not static. They not only vary with time as a function of plant status but also as a function of external (solar elevation, orientation and inclination of the view axis, atmospheric conditions ...) and internal factors (soil colour, row orientation, canopy geometry). -from Author
Temporal and spatial resolution requirements for extracting urban/suburban infrastructure and socio-economic attributes from remote sensor data are presented. The goal is to relate the user information requirements with the current and proposed remote sensing systems to determine if there are substantive gaps in capability. Several remote sensing systems currently provide some of the desired urban/suburban infrastructure and socio-economic information when the required spatial resolution is poorer than 4 by 4 m and the temporal resolution is between 1 and 55 days (e.g., Landsat MSS and Thematic Mapper, SPOT1-4, Bussian TK-350, BADABSAT, Indian IRS-1CD, NOAA A VHBB, GOES, Meteosat). Current high spatial resolution sensor systems such as the Russian SPIN-2 KVR-1000 (2- by 2-m panchromatic; when in orbit) and proposed sensor systems (EOSAT Space Imaging IKONOS 1- by 1-m panchromatic; Earth Watch Quickbird 0.82 by 0.82 m; OrbView-3 1 by 1 m) may provide additional capability. Large-scale metric aerial photography or digital camera imagery with spatial resolutions ranging from ≤ 0.25 to 1 m will still be required to satisfy several important urban/suburban information requirements.
As part of a larger survey of biodiversity in gardens in Sheffield, UK, we examined the composition and diversity of the flora in two 1‐m2 quadrats in each of 60 gardens, and compared this with floristic data from semi‐natural habitats in central England and derelict urban land in Birmingham, UK. Garden quadrats contained more than twice as many taxa as those from any other habitat type. Ca. 33 % of garden plants were natives and 67 % aliens, mainly from Europe and Asia. A higher proportion of garden aliens originated from Asia and New Zealand than in the UK alien flora as a whole; 18 of the 20 most frequent plants in garden quadrats were natives, mostly common weeds. Garden quadrats showed no evidence of ‘nestedness’, i.e. a tendency for scarce species to be confined to the highest diversity quadrats. Conversely, species in all semi‐natural and derelict land data sets were significantly nested. Compared to a range of semi‐natural habitats, species richness of garden quadrats was intermediate, and strikingly similar to the richness of derelict land quadrats. Although species accumulation curves for all other habitats showed signs of saturation at 120 quadrats, gardens did not. Correlations between Sørensen similarity index and physical distance were insignificant for all habitat types, i.e. there was little evidence that physical distance played any part in structuring the composition of the quadrats in any of the data sets. However, garden quadrats were much less similar to each other than quadrats from semi‐natural habitats or derelict land.
The present study explains a quick method for the assessment of the importance of open spaces in towns as habitat for plants and animals; the assessment criteria include the period of development, area, rarity and variety of habitat conditions.
As part of a larger survey of biodiversity in gardens in Sheffield, UK, we examined the composition and diversity of the flora in two 1-m 2 quadrats in each of 60 gardens, and compared this with floristic data from semi-natural habitats in central England and derelict urban land in Birmingham, UK. Garden quadrats contained more than twice as many taxa as those from any other habitat type. Ca. 33 % of garden plants were natives and 67 % aliens, mainly from Europe and Asia. A higher proportion of garden aliens originated from Asia and New Zealand than in the UK alien flora as a whole; 18 of the 20 most frequent plants in garden quadrats were natives, mostly common weeds. Garden quadrats showed no evidence of 'nestedness', i.e. a tendency for scarce species to be confined to the highest diversity quadrats. Conversely, species in all semi-natural and derelict land data sets were significantly nested. Compared to a range of semi-natural habitats, species richness of garden quadrats was intermediate, and strikingly similar to the richness of derelict land quadrats. Although species accumulation curves for all other habitats showed signs of saturation at 120 quadrats, gardens did not. Correlations between Sørensen similarity index and physical distance were insignificant for all habitat types, i.e. there was little evidence that physical distance played any part in structuring the composition of the quadrats in any of the data sets. However, garden quadrats were much less similar to each other than quadrats from semi-natural habitats or derelict land.
Historical background, fundamental concepts, statistical considerations and a case study emphasize the need for absolute precision in applying remotely sensed data. This book is a complete guide to assessing the accuracy of maps generated from remotely sensed data.
This book provides an overview of the structure and function of urban ecosystems as well as a summary of existing information on specific urban habitats. The introduction and first four chapters of the book review characteristics of urban flora and fauna, urban climate and air pollution, soils and vegetation dynamics. The remaining 11 chapters cover the ecology and management of specific urban habitat types, with case studies included.
Planners in urban areas face a dilemma when deciding the future of sites with both conservation and development value. This paper examines the development of a simple geographic information system in Leeds, England, to enable planners to record and assess the ecological value of sites proposed for development. It goes on to explore the potential for developing similar local level data bases for use in the New Zealand urban context.
The analysis of landscape pattern through remote sensing data is relatively widespread in landscape ecology and landscape planning. However, the lack of comparability of results between different image‐processing methods and across spatial resolutions limits the potential usefulness of landscape pattern indices. In this study, 96 sampling plots in Switzerland were investigated covering land‐use intensities ranging from old‐growth forest to intensive agricultural landscapes. The sampling plots were captured using fused Landsat ETM–IRS, Quickbird and aerial photograph data. In order to quantify landscape patterns, seven patch indices (derived by object‐oriented classification) and six grey‐value indices were extracted from the sampling plots. Principal component analysis was applied to the datasets, with the amount of variance in the first four axes compared among the sampling plots. Biplots of indices and sampling plots derived from all datasets were investigated with respect to land‐use intensity patterns. PCA results indicated that increasing spatial resolution corresponded to a slight increase in explained variance. Moreover, image grey‐values explained more variance between the sampling plots than segmented patch indices. Furthermore, biplots of grey‐value indices were capable of grouping sampling plots according to the land‐use intensity gradient, while segmented patch indices failed to adequately represent these.
There are a number of challenges in applying high-spatial resolution satellite image data for analysis of larger urban areas. This paper explores the use of object-oriented image analysis approaches in mapping urban land cover and land use. The study is based on seven IKONOS images covering the Santa Barbara, CA region. Image processing included geometric and atmospheric correction and image segmentation and classification using spectral and spatial information to separate 9 land cover classes 79 % overall accuracy was achieved with this approach. Specific problems are identified due the spectral and spatial complexity of urban areas, causing confusion between different roof types, roads and bare soil and NPV. Further analysis and refinement of the land cover mapping product (in particular buildings) applied two spatial metrics urban land use and socioeconomic information. The results show the importance, capabilities and challenges of object-oriented approaches in providing detailed and accurate information about the physical structure of urban areas and their relationship to urban land use and socioeconomic characteristics that should be further investigated in related studies.
Wild birds are commonly observed in private residential gardens in Great Britain. However, little is known about how their use of this significant and increasingly important habitat is changing and how such changes relate to their population status.
Trends in the use of private residential gardens by wild birds in Great Britain were investigated using weekly bird records from 18 300 gardens over 8 years.
We showed that the use of this habitat is seasonal and cyclic, with the timing and regularity of its periodicity variable between species.
We evaluated the significance of the underlying trends in the cyclic reporting rates. Eighteen species showed clear trends, the three with the most negative year term parameter estimates being ‘red‐listed’ as high conservation concern.
Examining correlations with national scale survey data suggested that garden reporting rates are related to general population trends in a number of species, including several of conservation importance. Other species exhibit important differences between national and garden trends.
Synthesis and applications. Our analysis demonstrates ecologically meaningful trends and provides novel insights into seasonal cycles of habitat exploitation, using relatively simple and cost‐effectively collected data. This will lead to greater understanding of the relationships between gardens and general bird populations and of the times of year at which garden habitats are most important for birds. We have demonstrated the practicality and productivity of ‘citizen science’ in this context, and provided new information on the status of some birds of conservation concern.
Abstract The absence of small birds from many suburban areas may be due to adverse garden characteristics, interspecific aggression or human behaviour such as supplementary food provisioning that encourages predators. We investigated the relationship between these factors and the presence of seven small bird species in Sydney through a community-based survey. The survey was conducted by participants over a 7-day period between 7 am and 10 am in November and early December 2000. Three dominant species, the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), pied currawong (Strepera graculina) and common myna (Acridotheres tristis) were each present in over 59% of gardens. Each small bird species was present in less than 40% of gardens. All small birds were negatively associated with noisy miners, but only the silvereye (Zosterops lateralis) was negatively associated with pied currawongs. None of the species of small birds was negatively associated with common mynas. Four species of small birds were associated with at least one habitat variable, notably the proportion of native vegetation. Although more birds were recorded in gardens in which meat was provided, there were significantly fewer small birds in these gardens. There were also more birds recorded in gardens where seed was provided, with red-browed finches (Neochmia temporalis) positively associated with seed provisioning in most regions of Sydney. The presence of dogs and cats was not related to the total abundance of birds overall or small birds in gardens. While garden characteristics may influence the presence of small birds to some degree, the presence of noisy miners, a species that are thought to aggressively exclude other species from their territories, is likely to be an important influence on these species in suburban areas. Furthermore, supplementary feeding by people is likely to negatively influence some small birds. The presence of carnivorous pets does not seem to influence the presence of small birds at the scale of the individual garden.
Question: How do lawn floras compare with those of semi-natural grasslands? Are the compositions of lawn floras determined by local, within-garden factors (e.g. lawn management and size) or by regional factors (e.g. climate and location)? Are lawn floras nested (like semi-natural grasslands) or not (like cultivated parts of gardens)? Are there gradients of species composition within lawns?
Location: Sheffield, UK.
Methods: We examined the composition of the floras of entire lawns and of two 1-m2 lawn quadrats in 52 gardens.
Results: A total of 159 species of vascular plants was recorded, 60 of them only once. Most lawn species were forbs, but most lawn cover consisted of grasses. Lawn species were predominantly natives. Bigger lawns had more species, but richness was not closely linked to other environmental or management variables. Composition of lawn floras varied with altitude, with woodland and wetland plants more common in the higher west of the city, and weeds of waste ground in the east. The species-area curve derived from 1-m2 lawn quadrats was very similar to that of semi-natural grasslands. Lawn quadrats were significantly nested, with rarer species mostly confined to more species-rich quadrats. Trampling-tolerant Poa annua was more abundant in the part of the lawn nearer the house.
Conclusions: In most respects, lawns behaved much more like semi-natural grasslands than like cultivated flower beds and borders. Species composition of lawns is strongly influenced by local climate. Most lawns show an internal gradient of composition, linked to a gradient of intensity of use.
This paper presents a case study for the application of integrated remote sensing and GIS data for the classification and monitoring of biotopes and habitats in a wet grass- and moor land area in a sub regional scale. The study covers the techniques for a detailed biotope classification, the use of object-based methods for base classification and monitoring, as well as the integration with the existing federal biotope- and land use mapping of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. Dual-date Landsat TM images from spring and summer and IRS-1C data are used for classification, pre-existing floristic vegetation maps as training data. Twenty two wet grass- and moor land vegetation types were separated by the detailed classification. The object-based classification was successfully applied in order to identify hot spots for an update of the biotope register. The results are evaluated using the federal biotope mapping, aerial photographs and detailed floristic mappings at the site ecological scale.
At present there is no ecologically based mapping system designed for application to urban areas in New Zealand. New Zealand’s ecological structure is particularly interesting as it combines indigenous habitats comprising significant numbers of endemic species with a vibrant imported ecology comprising habitats characteristic of their primarily European and Australian origins. In New Zealand, the focus to date in habitat mapping has been on developing vegetation mapping techniques for application to predominantly indigenous habitats in rural areas. Thus, they omit reference to the type of mixed exotic-indigenous vegetation associated with habitats common to urban areas, such as cliff faces, disused quarries, private gardens and grounds, river and rail corridors. A project was undertaken in conjunction with the Dunedin City Council to develop a habitat map of the city. The aim was to produce a map that would accommodate the diverse highly modified habitats characteristic of Dunedin and that would incorporate all types of urban open space ranging from indigenous habitats, such as forest to exotic habitats such as lawns, and residential gardens. The project developed a land use and habitat classification hierarchy applicable to the New Zealand urban context, including a classification system for private gardens. This paper describes the classification system that was developed, its benefits, limitations and application. The map is the first attempt to record all natural land uses, including gardens in any New Zealand city at a detailed level, i.e. at a scale of 1:3000. In all 1100 separate habitat parcels were mapped. The map revealed that whilst Dunedin is a city rich in natural vegetation very little of this is indigenous or even predominantly indigenous vegetation. A Geographic Information System was used to map the urban habitats and store the habitat data. The habitat map and associated data will be used by the council in developing an open space strategy for the city.