Assessment of the ecological-recreational quality of urban green spaces and their indicators using remote sensing data and online sources
Authors: Misiūnė Ieva , Skorupskas Ričardas , Veteikis Darijus 
Published: November 2024

Natural ecosystems within urban areas play a crucial role in providing essential ecosystem services, thus urban green spaces play a crucial role in ensuring the health and well-being of city residents. Urban parks and other forms of green infrastructure offer a multitude of benefits to city dwellers. Central to the definition of green infrastructure are two core functional attributes: connectivity and multifunctionality (Wang and Banzhaf, 2018; Hansen and Paulet, 2014). Connectivity pertains to both the physical interconnectedness of green spaces and the functional connections facilitating wildlife movement and interaction (Hansen and Pauleit, 2014; Baudry and Merriam, 1988). On the other hand, multifunctionality
refers to the capacity of green infrastructure to fulfill diverse roles and provide a range of advantages within the same area. The concept of multifunctionality suggests that a single green infrastructure intervention can yield multiple interrelated ecological, social, and economic benefits.

Public green spaces, accessible to all city residents, such as parks, squares, and gardens, exhibit substantial variations in landscape composition, biological diversity, and urban infrastructure integration. Consequently, their roles in terms of connectivity, provision of ecosystem services, and benefits received also diverge. In order to provide the responsible authorities with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions in the planning and management of urban parks and other green spaces, the quality assessment of these green spaces is undertaken (Daniels et al., 2017; Baycan-Levent et al., 2009).

Addressing this complex and multidimensional task, diverse tools for comprehensive quality assessment of urban green spaces have emerged in recent years (Knobel et al., 2019; Meng and Wang, 2022). This article reviews the existing evaluation tools for parks, which assess their multifunctionality, as well as discusses the key indicators employed for assessing selected parks in Vilnius.

The review of the tools has revealed the existence of around 40 instruments, detailed in international scientific literature. These tools collectively encompass over 150 individual indicators. While only a few tools propose evaluations using statistical or remote data, the majority involve on-site audits of park areas. However, remote evaluations offer the advantage of saving human and financial resources. When comparing parks within a city or across different cities, remote assessments have demonstrated greater efficiency.

For the analysis of Vilnius city parks, nine pivotal indicators were selected from pre-existing tools, enabling the assessment of the ecological condition, recreational attractiveness, and anthropogenic pressure on these areas. This set of indicators, labeled as ERAL (Ecology-Recreation-Anthropogenic Load), addresses an often-overlooked aspect of assessment – anthropogenic impact. The evaluation revealed that parks with a significant portion of mature trees, particularly those classified as forest parks, exhibited the most favorable ecological condition. Among these parks, the relatively young parks like Ozo, Neries senvagės, and Japoniško sodo demonstrated the highest recreational potential.

Conversely, some of the newer and smaller parks in the city center, marked by lower ecological quality, such as Liuteronų and Reformatų sodai, and Pamėnkalnio skveras, experienced comparatively heightened levels of human-induced pressures.

This evaluation could be broadened, and its outcomes could inform the planning process. Future research could encompass refining the proposed assessment by incorporating additional indicators for ecological status, recreational potential, and anthropogenic impacts, along with more intricate remote sensing or freely accessible internet data. Another avenue of investigation could involve assessing the reliability and quality of such relatively swift and cost-effective remote data and web-based evaluations. Such insights would enhance comprehension of scenarios where such assessments are applicable or not.