IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v10y2021i8p814-d607100.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dynamic Changes in Melbourne’s Urban Vegetation Cover—2001 to 2016

Author

Listed:
  • Bhuban Timalsina

    (School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Richmond, VIC 3121, Australia)

  • Suzanne Mavoa

    (Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia)

  • Amy K. Hahs

    (School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Richmond, VIC 3121, Australia)

Abstract

Understanding changes in urban vegetation is essential for ensuring sustainable and healthy cities, mitigating disturbances due to climate change, sustaining urban biodiversity, and supporting human health and wellbeing. This study investigates and describes the distribution and dynamic changes in urban vegetation over a 15-year period in Greater Melbourne, Australia. The study investigates how vegetation cover across Melbourne has changed at five-yearly intervals from 2001 to 2016 using the newly proposed dynamic change approach that extends the net change approach to quantify the amount of vegetation gain as well as loss. We examine this question at two spatial resolutions: (1) at the municipal landscape scale to capture broadscale change regardless of land tenure; and (2) at the scale of designated public open spaces within the municipalities to investigate the extent to which the loss of vegetation has occurred on lands that are intended to provide public access to vegetated areas in the city. Vegetation was quantified at four different times (2001, 2006, 2011, 2016), using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Dynamic changes of gain and loss in urban vegetation between the three periods were quantified for six local government areas (LGAs) and their associated public open spaces using a change matrix. The results showed an overall net loss of 64.5 square kilometres of urban vegetation from 2001 to 2016 in six LGAs. When extrapolated to the Greater Melbourne Area, this is approximately equivalent to 109 times the size of Central Park in New York City.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhuban Timalsina & Suzanne Mavoa & Amy K. Hahs, 2021. "Dynamic Changes in Melbourne’s Urban Vegetation Cover—2001 to 2016," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:814-:d:607100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/8/814/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/8/814/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julie Brunner & Paul Cozens, 2013. "'Where Have All the Trees Gone?' Urban Consolidation and the Demise of Urban Vegetation: A Case Study from Western Australia," Planning Practice & Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 231-255, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julian Bolleter, 2016. "On the verge: re-thinking street reserves in relation to suburban densification," Journal of Urban Design, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 195-212, April.
    2. Wenxiu Chi & Guangsi Lin, 2019. "The Use of Community Greenways: A Case Study on A Linear Greenway Space in High Dense Residential Areas, Guangzhou," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-19, December.
    3. McGreevy, Michael & Harris, Patrick & Delaney-Crowe, Toni & Fisher, Matt & Sainsbury, Peter & Riley, Emily & Baum, Fran, 2020. "How well do Australian government urban planning policies respond to the social determinants of health and health equity?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    4. Karim I. Abdrabo & Heba Hamed & Kareem A. Fouad & Mohamed Shehata & Sameh A. Kantoush & Tetsuya Sumi & Bahaa Elboshy & Taher Osman, 2021. "A Methodological Approach towards Sustainable Urban Densification for Urban Sprawl Control at the Microscale: Case Study of Tanta, Egypt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Shahin Keynoush & Ehsan Daneshyar, 2022. "Defining a Pedagogical Framework for Integrating Buildings and Landscapes in Conjunction with Social Sustainability Discourse in the Architecture Graduate Design Studio," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-27, April.
    6. Rouhollahi, Mina & Whaley, David & Behrend, Monica & Byrne, Josh & Boland, John, 2022. "The role of residential tree arrangement: A scoping review of energy efficiency in temperate to subtropical climate zones," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    7. Helen Brown & Katrina Proust & Barry Newell & Jeffery Spickett & Tony Capon & Lisa Bartholomew, 2018. "Cool Communities—Urban Density, Trees, and Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, July.
    8. Maija Tiitu & Arto Viinikka & Leena Kopperoinen & Davide Geneletti, 2018. "Balancing Urban Green Space and Residential Infill Development: A Spatial Multi-Criteria Approach Based on Practitioner Engagement," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(03), pages 1-26, September.
    9. YunJae Ock & Vivek Shandas & Fernanda Ribeiro & Noah Young, 2024. "Drivers of Tree Canopy Loss in a Mid-Sized Growing City: Case Study in Portland, OR (USA)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-20, February.
    10. Denise Boehnke & Alice Krehl & Kai Mörmann & Rebekka Volk & Thomas Lützkendorf & Elias Naber & Ronja Becker & Stefan Norra, 2022. "Mapping Urban Green and Its Ecosystem Services at Microscale—A Methodological Approach for Climate Adaptation and Biodiversity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-26, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:8:p:814-:d:607100. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.