URBAN GREEN COVER ASSESSMENT AND SITE ANALYSIS IN CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU - A REMOTE SENSING AND GIS APPROACH

Green space distribution plays a imperative role in urban planning since they contribute significantly in enhancing ecological quality of metropolitan areas. It improves air quality, urban health, conserving biodiversity, reducing noise, etc. Removal of vegetation cover can be identified as one of the poorest effects of urbanization. Proper distribution of green spaces in urban environments is consequently more inevitable for the sustainable development and healthy living. Hence, it is necessary to identify the green space requirement quantitatively and spatially. To achieve the goal, high resolution Cartosat-1 satellite data, were used to analyse the spatial pattern. Spatial features like Point feature and polygon features were demarcated from imagery. Individual trees, group of trees, bushes, building area (covering both residential/industrial area), water bodies (lakes, ponds, reservoir, streams, rivers etc.), parks and temples has been considered. The tree cover area covers 72.82Sqkm, Buildings covers 241Sqkm, Parks covers 9.28Sqkm, Water bodies covers 35.73 Sq.km and other area 104.40Sqkm out of 464sq.km area coverage of Chennai municipality. Subsequently, green spaces required to be created are calculated with respect to WHO standards of green spaces per capita for healthy living (9.5 m 2 / person) and a methodology is developed to spatially define appropriate areas to establish them.