Quantification of urban greenery using hemisphere-view panoramas with a green cover index

ABSTRACT Urban greenery has positive impacts on the well-being of residents and provides vital ecosystem services. A quantitative evaluation full-view green coverage at human scale can guide space planning management. We developed a still camera to collect hemisphere-view panoramas (HVPs) obtain in situ heterogeneous scenes established panoramic cover index (PGCI) model measure human-scale coverage. case study was conducted Xicheng District, Beijing, analyze relationships PGCI with normalized difference vegetation (NDVI) land surface temperature (LST) different use scenarios. The results show that HVP is useful quantization tool: (1) method adaptively distinguishes characteristics four functional areas, values are ranked as follows: recreational area (29.6) > residential (19.0) traffic (15.9) commercial (12.5); (2) strongly explains NDVI LST, for each unit (1%) increase PGCI, tends by 0.007, (3) LST decrease 0.21 degrees Celsius. This research government managers urban planners tools evaluate complex environments assistance optimizing microclimate.