Isolation Trends of Urban Open Spaces
نویسندگان
چکیده
Urban open spaces are invaluable assets in maintaining ecological health in a highly developed urban matrix. Unfortunately, habitat values and ecological quality of these areas are often challenged by consecutive urbanization. The assessment of changing structure and function of an urban open space system is crucial in maintaining livable cities. General characteristics and types of open spaces are investigated in two case studies one from a developed and another from a developing country. Also, the possible impacts of urban landscape change on the ecological qualities of natural open space patches are explored by using a landscape structure indicator. Even though various conceptual and analytical approaches exist in measuring the ecological integrity of natural systems, this paper specifically deals with isolation issues. Because an isolated open space system loses its ecological integrity, isolation index yields meaningful results for anticipating the possible threats generated by urban structure. Isolation trends of urban open spaces are displayed. Also, numbers yielded by the isolation index are presented. GIS seems to be an appropriate tool to evaluate the intricate attributes involved in the phenomenon. Black and white aerial photographs of the City of Phoenix, Arizona from 1978, 1988 and 1998 are utilized. Also, black and white aerials of the City of Aydin, Turkey from 1977 and 1993 and an Ikonos 2002 image are used for the analysis in ArcGIS 8.3 environment. Comparison of two cases yields some eye-opening facts with regards to the planning and management of urban open spaces, and possible threats to the ecological viability of these precious areas in the future. * Corresponding author.
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