Skip to main content

Salman Qureshi

Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Department of Geography, Senior Scientist

Followers

81

Following

17

Co-authors

6

Public Views

Urbanization and socio-ecological complexities; Climate change, ecosystem services and spatial analysis; Modelling coupled human and natural systems; Environmental cognition and landscape perception; Social wellbeing and urban sustainability
Phone: +49-(0)30-2093 6803

less

Indian Institute of Science

University of Jammu, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Tatjana Veljanovski

Jean-Louis Roujean

AKHOURI PRAMOD KRISHNA

Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra (Ranchi) India

maitiniyazi maimaitijiang

Wataru Takeuchi

The University of Tokyo

Interests

Uploads

Papers by Salman Qureshi

The Shadow Effect on Surface Biophysical Variables Derived from Remote Sensing: A Review

Land

In remote sensing (RS), shadows play an important role, commonly affecting the quality of data re... more In remote sensing (RS), shadows play an important role, commonly affecting the quality of data recorded by remote sensors. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance to detect and model the shadow effect in RS data as well as the information that is obtained from them, particularly when the data are to be used in further environmental studies. Shadows can generally be categorized into four types based on their sources: cloud shadows, topographic shadows, urban shadows, and a combination of these. The main objective of this study was to review the recent literature on the shadow effect in remote sensing. A systematic literature review was employed to evaluate studies published since 1975. Various studies demonstrated that shadows influence significantly the estimation of various properties by remote sensing. These properties include vegetation, impervious surfaces, water, snow, albedo, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and land surface temperature. It should be noted that shadows al...

Evaluation of Seasonal, Drought, and Wet Condition Effects on Performance of Satellite-Based Precipitation Data over Different Climatic Conditions in Iran

Remote Sensing, 2021

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) are the mos... more The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) are the most important and widely used data sources in several applications—e.g., forecasting drought and flood, and managing water resources—especially in the areas with sparse or no other robust sources. This study explored the accuracy and precision of satellite data products over a span of 18 years (2000–2017) using synoptic ground station data for three regions in Iran with different climates, namely (a) humid and high rainfall, (b) semi-arid, and (c) arid. The results show that the monthly precipitation products of GPM and TRMM overestimate the rainfall. On average, they overestimated the precipitation amount by 11% in humid, by 50% in semi-arid, and by 43% in arid climate conditions compared to the ground-based data. This study also evaluated the satellite data accuracy in drought and wet conditions based on the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and different seasons. The results showed...

Quantifying the human disturbance intensity of ecosystems and its natural and socioeconomic driving factors in urban agglomeration in South China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2021

The impact of human activities on terrestrial ecosystems is becoming more intense than ever in hi... more The impact of human activities on terrestrial ecosystems is becoming more intense than ever in history. Human disturbance analyses play important roles in appropriately managing the human–environment relationship. In this study, a human disturbance index (HDI) that uses land use and land cover data from 1980, 2000, 2010, and 2018 is proposed to assess the human disturbance of ecosystems in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The HDI is first calculated by classifying the human disturbance intensity into seven levels and 13 categories from weak to strong in ecosystems. Then the driving factors of the HDI spatial pattern change are explored using a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The results showed that the spatial pattern of the HDI was high in the middle and low in the surrounding areas. The intensity of human disturbance increased, and the medium and high disturbance areas expanded during 1980–2018, especially in Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, and Dongguan. Human disturbance displayed an obvious spatial heterogeneity. The GWR model had a better explanation effect of the analysis of the HDI change drivers. The driving effect of the socioeconomic conditions was significantly stronger than that of the natural environmental. This study assists in understanding the distribution and change characteristics of the ecological environment in areas with strong human activities and provides a reference for related studies.

Spatial prediction of the urban inter-annual land surface temperature variability: An integrated modeling approach in a rapidly urbanizing semi-arid region

Sustainable Cities and Society

The inter-annual land surface temperature (LST) is a meteorological indicator of urban environmen... more The inter-annual land surface temperature (LST) is a meteorological indicator of urban environments, affecting energy consumption and quality of life. In this study, the annual LST variability (ALSTV) of a rapidly urbanizing region in Iran including Karaj, Shahriar and Mohammad-Shahr cities and their surrounding suburbs was estimated using Landsat-8 images. Pixel-based image classification and object-based segmentation techniques were employed to extract built-up patches and spectrally homogeneous regions. Using the multiple regression analysis, the ALSTV of built-up patches was modeled as a function of their structure and the spatial characteristics of other land-use patches located in their respective segments (as neighborhood factors). A Cellular Automata model was utilized to simulate the expansion of built-up area up to 5% and, therefore, estimate their future ALSTV. The mean ALSTV was highest in urban areas (33.25± 7.41 • C), while the lowest mean value of 24.12± 3.24 • C was in green covers. The ALSTV of built-up patches were positively associated with their area and the percentage and size of neighborhood built-up patches, while negatively with the percentage of neighborhood green patches. To create a thermally comfortable landscape, additional green patch allocation and preventing excessive urban patch growth are required in all large built-up segments.

Assessment of Runoff Components of River Flow in the Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan, during 1995–2010

Remote Sensing, Jan 9, 2023

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Transforming Research on Recreational Ecosystem Services into Applications and Governance

Land

The science-practice gap has recently been discussed as a critical challenge restricting sustaina... more The science-practice gap has recently been discussed as a critical challenge restricting sustainable growth and development in all facets of our society, including explorations of Recreation Ecosystem Services (RES). To better explore how well the scientific study of RES and its application are connected, this paper aims to synthesize empirical evidence based on an in-depth and systematic literature review. We found that studies of RES have not effectively transformed into the decision-making and long-term planning of our cities. From 2005 to 2020, only 13% of studies referred to specific applications, and about 40% of papers mentioned no applications or practical implications for their research. However, RES research has many potential applications, which can be categorised into six main aspects. In terms of non-spatial improvement: Improved monetary benefits (40%), non-monetary benefits (30%); in terms of spatial improvement: space with high recreational potential or degradation (...

Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia

Remote Sensing

Recently, dust has created many problems, including negative effects on health, and environmental... more Recently, dust has created many problems, including negative effects on health, and environmental and economic costs, for people who live both near to and far from sources of dust. The aim of this study is to evaluate and quantify the impact of dust sources located inside Saudi Arabia on the physical growth and vegetation status of cities. In order to do so, satellite data sets, simulated surface data, and soil data for Saudi Arabia from 2000 to 2021 were used. In the first step, a dust sources map of the study area was generated using multi-criteria decision analysis. Land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover, soil moisture, precipitation, air humidity, wind speed, and soil erodibility factors were considered as effective criteria in identifying dust sources. In the second step, built-up land and vegetation status maps of major cities located at different distances from dust sources were generated for different years based on spectral indicators. Then, the spatiaotemporal ch...

Spatial pattern of the green heat sink using patch- and network-based analysis: Implication for urban temperature alleviation

Sustainable Cities and Society

Despite the evidence on the cooling effects of urban green spaces (UGS), little is known about ho... more Despite the evidence on the cooling effects of urban green spaces (UGS), little is known about how they function as an interconnected network of cold green patches or a green heat sink (GHS) within an urban landscape. This study aimed to analyze the general spatial pattern and connectivity of GHSs using the pertinent indices and Circuitcape tool in an Iranian urban area between 2000 and 2020. Initially, normalized differentiation vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) maps were derived. To construct a network, GHS was extracted by Getis Ord Gi* statistic and the cost map was built by reversing the NDVI. The results showed that UGS and GHSs shrunk by 17% and 31%, respectively, and became highly fragmented, demonstrating smaller sizes but increased in number, density, and shape complexity. According to the network analysis, the overall connectivity of GHSs decreased over time. Finally, five high-priority locations were identified to increase the connectedness of vegetation cover that might improve the thermal environment of the city. This research can direct urban planning towards enhancing a green space network to mitigate the urban temperature within the urban landscape .

Characterizing Spatiotemporal Variations in the Urban Thermal Environment Related to Land Cover Changes in Karachi, Pakistan, from 2000 to 2020

Remote Sensing

Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of urban heat islands and the factors that influence th... more Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of urban heat islands and the factors that influence this phenomenon can help to alleviate the heat stress exacerbated by urban warming and strengthen heat-related urban resilience, thereby contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The association between surface urban heat island (SUHI) effects and land use/land cover features has been studied extensively, but the situation in tropical cities is not well-understood due to the lack of consistent data. This study aimed to explore land use/land cover (LULC) changes and their impact on the urban thermal environment in a tropical megacity—Karachi, Pakistan. Land cover maps were produced, and the land surface temperature (LST) was estimated using Landsat images from five different years over the period 2000–2020. The surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) was then quantified based on the LST data. Statistical analyses, including geographically weigh...

The fast growing megacity Karachi as a frontier of environmental challenges: Urbanization and contemporary urbanism issues

Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, Nov 30, 2010

... Raza (2001) developed comprehensive details of agencies which are potential users of the spat... more

Integrating Quantity and Quality to Assess Urban Green Space Improvement in the Compact City

Land, 2021

Urban green space (UGS) has gained much attention in terms of urban ecosystems and human health. ... more Urban green space (UGS) has gained much attention in terms of urban ecosystems and human health. Measures to improve green space in compact cities are important for urban sustainability. However, there is a knowledge gap between UGS improvement and planning management. Based on the integration of quantity and quality, this research aims to identify UGS changes during urban development and suggest ways to improve green space. We analyse land use changes, conduct a hotspot analysis of land surface temperature (LST) between 2005 and 2015 at the city scale, and examine the changes in small, medium and large patches at the neighbourhood scale to guide decision-makers in UGS management. The results show that (i) the redevelopment of urban brownfields is an effective method for increasing quantity, with differences depending on regional functions; (ii) small, medium and large patches of green space have significance in terms of improving the quality of temperature mitigation, with apparent...

Revealing the differences of urban parks’ services to human wellbeing based upon social media data

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2021

Abstract Urban green spaces provide a range of services to urban residents; however, how these di... more Abstract Urban green spaces provide a range of services to urban residents; however, how these distinct spaces provide different services, if any, to human wellbeing has been seldom addressed. Using large volumes of social media data considering broad user groups and publicly available content, we developed a method to transform unstructured online comments into a structured assessment of nine categories of ecosystem services. An ‘ecosystem services lexicon’ was created based on 6853 words under twenty-eight subcategories of parks' services to human wellbeing using the word2vec model. The application of the ecosystem service lexicon to urban parks in Beijing revealed that all ecosystem services were perceivable to urban park users; however, the perception frequency of the ecosystem services varied across different parks. Additionally, the perceived ecosystem services were bundled together; four types of bundles were identified with varied dominant services. Technically, this study offered a novel technical procedure that can transfer unstructured free comments into a structured assessment of urban parks' perceived services to human wellbeing. Theoretically, the study revealed small-scale ecosystem service bundles from users' opinions and called for a further cross-scale understanding of ecosystem service bundles. Practically, the study findings can help inform evidence-based park policies, planning, and management.

A New Integrated Approach for Municipal Landfill Siting Based on Urban Physical Growth Prediction: A Case Study Mashhad Metropolis in Iran

Remote Sensing, 2021

Due to irregular and uncontrolled expansion of cities in developing countries, currently operatio... more Due to irregular and uncontrolled expansion of cities in developing countries, currently operational landfill sites cannot be used in the long-term, as people will be living in proximity to these sites and be exposed to unhygienic circumstances. Hence, this study aims at proposing an integrated approach for determining suitable locations for landfills while considering their physical expansion. The proposed approach utilizes the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) to weigh the sets of identified landfill location criteria. Furthermore, the weighted linear combination (WLC) approach was applied for the elicitation of the proper primary locations. Finally, the support vector machine (SVM) and cellular automation-based Markov chain method were used to predict urban growth. To demonstrate the applicability of the developed approach, it was applied to a case study, namely the city of Mashhad in Iran, where suitable sites for landfills were identified considering the urban growth in...

Monitoring and Modeling the Patterns and Trends of Urban Growth Using Urban Sprawl Matrix and CA-Markov Model: A Case Study of Karachi, Pakistan

Land, 2021

Understanding the spatial growth of cities is crucial for proactive planning and sustainable urba... more Understanding the spatial growth of cities is crucial for proactive planning and sustainable urbanization. The largest and most densely inhabited megapolis of Pakistan, Karachi, has experienced massive spatial growth not only in the core areas of the city, but also in the city’s suburbs and outskirts over the past decades. In this study, the land use/land cover (LULC) in Karachi was classified using Landsat data and the random forest algorithm from the Google Earth Engine cloud platform for the years 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Land use/land cover classification maps as well as an urban sprawl matrix technique were used to analyze the geographical patterns and trends of urban sprawl. Six urban classes, namely, the primary urban core, secondary urban core, sub-urban fringe, scatter settlement, urban open space, and non-urban area, were determined for the exploration of urban landscape changes. Future scenarios of LULC for 2030 were predicted using a CA–Markov model. The study found t...

Fine-grained assessment of greenspace satisfaction at regional scale using content analysis of social media and machine learning

Science of The Total Environment, 2021

Assessing perceptions of green spaces is of considerable interest to developers aiming for sustai... more Assessing perceptions of green spaces is of considerable interest to developers aiming for sustainable urbanization. However, there are numerous challenges facing the development of a rapid, effective, and fine-grained method to assess large-scale greenspace perception. Survey-based studies of perception yielded detailed assessments of green spaces but lacked regional comparisons. The few big-data-based studies of greenspace perception lacked fine-grained explorations. Therefore, we used content analysis to interpret perception in two ways: perceived frequency and perceived satisfaction, including overall park satisfaction and satisfaction with individual landscape features. We analyzed social media posts about urban parks in Beijing, China. A structured lexicon was developed to capture detailed landscape features, and machine learning was employed to assess satisfaction levels. Both of these techniques performed well in interpreting greenspace satisfaction from volunteered textual comments. A detailed study of 50 parks demonstrated that overall park satisfaction was positive. Additionally, individual landscape features were more influential than frequency of landscape features in affecting satisfaction. Our framework confirmed the potential of online comments as complementary to traditional surveys in assessing greenspace perception, while enhancing our understanding of this perception on a regional scale. Practically, this study can facilitate sustainable policy-making regarding urban green spaces, specifically through offering a structured landscape-feature lexicon, rapid regional comparison of various parks, and an emphasis on quality rather than quantity of landscape features.

Evaluating the Spectral Indices Efficiency to Quantify Daytime Surface Anthropogenic Heat Island Intensity: An Intercontinental Methodology

Remote Sensing, 2020

The surface anthropogenic heat island (SAHI) phenomenon is one of the most important environmenta... more The surface anthropogenic heat island (SAHI) phenomenon is one of the most important environmental concerns in urban areas. SAHIs play a significant role in quality of urban life. Hence, the quantification of SAHI intensity (SAHII) is of great importance. The impervious surface cover (ISC) can well reflect the degree and extent of anthropogenic activities in an area. Various actual ISC (AISC) datasets are available for different regions of the world. However, the temporal and spatial coverage of available and accessible AISC datasets is limited. This study was aimed to evaluate the spectral indices efficiency to daytime SAHII (DSAHII) quantification. Consequently, 14 cities including Budapest, Bucharest, Ciechanow, Hamburg, Lyon, Madrid, Porto, and Rome in Europe and Dallas, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Phoenix in the USA, were selected. A set of 91 Landsat 8 images, the Landsat provisional surface temperature product, the High Resolution Imperviousness Layer (HRI...

On the Spatial Patterns of Urban Thermal Conditions Using Indoor and Outdoor Temperatures

Remote Sensing, 2021

The changing climate has introduced new and unique challenges and threats to humans and their env... more The changing climate has introduced new and unique challenges and threats to humans and their environment. Urban dwellers in particular have suffered from increased levels of heat stress, and the situation is predicted to continue to worsen in the future. Attention toward urban climate change adaptation has increased more than ever before, but previous studies have focused on indoor and outdoor temperature patterns separately. The objective of this research is to assess the indoor and outdoor temperature patterns of different urban settlements. Remote sensing data, together with air temperature data collected with temperature data loggers, were used to analyze land surface temperature (outdoor temperature) and air temperature (indoor temperature). A hot and cold spot analysis was performed to identify the statistically significant clusters of high and low temperature data. The results showed a distinct temperature pattern across different residential units. Districts with dense urba...

Lurking in the bushes: informality, illicit activity and transitional green space in Berlin and Detroit

cultural geographies, 2020

This paper offers an exploratory overview of different research literatures examining the relatio... more This paper offers an exploratory overview of different research literatures examining the relationship between urban nature or green space on the one hand, and marginalized, stigmatized, and illicit activities on the other. We situate this discussion within the geographic literature concerning assemblage theory and informality, and apply these concepts to urban green space. We offer some comparative examples from Detroit and Berlin, two cities known for their green space and illicit activity, but with very different histories and cultural contexts. For this purpose, we draw on our own primary research in both Detroit and Berlin, examining how the dynamics of these interactions produce diverse and distinctive urban places in some cases and associations of danger or insecurity in others, sometimes both simultaneously. We utilize diverse methodologies, including qualitative interviews and focus groups, mobile explorations, photography, and sketching to provide examples of spaces as com...

Understanding the dynamics and factors affecting cultural ecosystem services during urbanization through spatial pattern analysis and a mixed-methods approach

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021

Understanding the dynamics and factors affecting cultural ecosystem services during urbanization ... more

Automated Built-Up Extraction Index: A New Technique for Mapping Surface Built-Up Areas Using LANDSAT 8 OLI Imagery

Remote Sensing, 2019

Accurate built-up area extraction is one of the most critical issues in land-cover classification... more Accurate built-up area extraction is one of the most critical issues in land-cover classification. In previous studies, various techniques have been developed for built-up area extraction using Landsat images. However, the efficiency of these techniques under different technical and geographical conditions, especially for bare and sandy areas, is not optimal. One of the main challenges of built-up area extraction techniques is to determine an optimum and stable threshold with the highest possible accuracy. In many of these techniques, the optimum threshold value fluctuates substantially in different parts of the image scene. The purpose of this study is to provide a new index to improve built-up area extraction with a stable optimum threshold for different environments. In this study, the developed Automated Built-up Extraction Index (ABEI) is presented to improve the classification accuracy in areas containing bare and sandy surfaces. To develop and evaluate the accuracy of the new...

The Shadow Effect on Surface Biophysical Variables Derived from Remote Sensing: A Review

Land

In remote sensing (RS), shadows play an important role, commonly affecting the quality of data re... more In remote sensing (RS), shadows play an important role, commonly affecting the quality of data recorded by remote sensors. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance to detect and model the shadow effect in RS data as well as the information that is obtained from them, particularly when the data are to be used in further environmental studies. Shadows can generally be categorized into four types based on their sources: cloud shadows, topographic shadows, urban shadows, and a combination of these. The main objective of this study was to review the recent literature on the shadow effect in remote sensing. A systematic literature review was employed to evaluate studies published since 1975. Various studies demonstrated that shadows influence significantly the estimation of various properties by remote sensing. These properties include vegetation, impervious surfaces, water, snow, albedo, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and land surface temperature. It should be noted that shadows al...

Evaluation of Seasonal, Drought, and Wet Condition Effects on Performance of Satellite-Based Precipitation Data over Different Climatic Conditions in Iran

Remote Sensing, 2021

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) are the mos... more The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) are the most important and widely used data sources in several applications—e.g., forecasting drought and flood, and managing water resources—especially in the areas with sparse or no other robust sources. This study explored the accuracy and precision of satellite data products over a span of 18 years (2000–2017) using synoptic ground station data for three regions in Iran with different climates, namely (a) humid and high rainfall, (b) semi-arid, and (c) arid. The results show that the monthly precipitation products of GPM and TRMM overestimate the rainfall. On average, they overestimated the precipitation amount by 11% in humid, by 50% in semi-arid, and by 43% in arid climate conditions compared to the ground-based data. This study also evaluated the satellite data accuracy in drought and wet conditions based on the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and different seasons. The results showed...

Quantifying the human disturbance intensity of ecosystems and its natural and socioeconomic driving factors in urban agglomeration in South China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2021

The impact of human activities on terrestrial ecosystems is becoming more intense than ever in hi... more The impact of human activities on terrestrial ecosystems is becoming more intense than ever in history. Human disturbance analyses play important roles in appropriately managing the human–environment relationship. In this study, a human disturbance index (HDI) that uses land use and land cover data from 1980, 2000, 2010, and 2018 is proposed to assess the human disturbance of ecosystems in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The HDI is first calculated by classifying the human disturbance intensity into seven levels and 13 categories from weak to strong in ecosystems. Then the driving factors of the HDI spatial pattern change are explored using a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The results showed that the spatial pattern of the HDI was high in the middle and low in the surrounding areas. The intensity of human disturbance increased, and the medium and high disturbance areas expanded during 1980–2018, especially in Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, and Dongguan. Human disturbance displayed an obvious spatial heterogeneity. The GWR model had a better explanation effect of the analysis of the HDI change drivers. The driving effect of the socioeconomic conditions was significantly stronger than that of the natural environmental. This study assists in understanding the distribution and change characteristics of the ecological environment in areas with strong human activities and provides a reference for related studies.

Spatial prediction of the urban inter-annual land surface temperature variability: An integrated modeling approach in a rapidly urbanizing semi-arid region

Sustainable Cities and Society

The inter-annual land surface temperature (LST) is a meteorological indicator of urban environmen... more The inter-annual land surface temperature (LST) is a meteorological indicator of urban environments, affecting energy consumption and quality of life. In this study, the annual LST variability (ALSTV) of a rapidly urbanizing region in Iran including Karaj, Shahriar and Mohammad-Shahr cities and their surrounding suburbs was estimated using Landsat-8 images. Pixel-based image classification and object-based segmentation techniques were employed to extract built-up patches and spectrally homogeneous regions. Using the multiple regression analysis, the ALSTV of built-up patches was modeled as a function of their structure and the spatial characteristics of other land-use patches located in their respective segments (as neighborhood factors). A Cellular Automata model was utilized to simulate the expansion of built-up area up to 5% and, therefore, estimate their future ALSTV. The mean ALSTV was highest in urban areas (33.25± 7.41 • C), while the lowest mean value of 24.12± 3.24 • C was in green covers. The ALSTV of built-up patches were positively associated with their area and the percentage and size of neighborhood built-up patches, while negatively with the percentage of neighborhood green patches. To create a thermally comfortable landscape, additional green patch allocation and preventing excessive urban patch growth are required in all large built-up segments.

Assessment of Runoff Components of River Flow in the Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan, during 1995–2010

Remote Sensing, Jan 9, 2023

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Transforming Research on Recreational Ecosystem Services into Applications and Governance

Land

The science-practice gap has recently been discussed as a critical challenge restricting sustaina... more The science-practice gap has recently been discussed as a critical challenge restricting sustainable growth and development in all facets of our society, including explorations of Recreation Ecosystem Services (RES). To better explore how well the scientific study of RES and its application are connected, this paper aims to synthesize empirical evidence based on an in-depth and systematic literature review. We found that studies of RES have not effectively transformed into the decision-making and long-term planning of our cities. From 2005 to 2020, only 13% of studies referred to specific applications, and about 40% of papers mentioned no applications or practical implications for their research. However, RES research has many potential applications, which can be categorised into six main aspects. In terms of non-spatial improvement: Improved monetary benefits (40%), non-monetary benefits (30%); in terms of spatial improvement: space with high recreational potential or degradation (...

Quantifying the Impact of Dust Sources on Urban Physical Growth and Vegetation Status: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia

Remote Sensing

Recently, dust has created many problems, including negative effects on health, and environmental... more Recently, dust has created many problems, including negative effects on health, and environmental and economic costs, for people who live both near to and far from sources of dust. The aim of this study is to evaluate and quantify the impact of dust sources located inside Saudi Arabia on the physical growth and vegetation status of cities. In order to do so, satellite data sets, simulated surface data, and soil data for Saudi Arabia from 2000 to 2021 were used. In the first step, a dust sources map of the study area was generated using multi-criteria decision analysis. Land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover, soil moisture, precipitation, air humidity, wind speed, and soil erodibility factors were considered as effective criteria in identifying dust sources. In the second step, built-up land and vegetation status maps of major cities located at different distances from dust sources were generated for different years based on spectral indicators. Then, the spatiaotemporal ch...

Spatial pattern of the green heat sink using patch- and network-based analysis: Implication for urban temperature alleviation

Sustainable Cities and Society

Despite the evidence on the cooling effects of urban green spaces (UGS), little is known about ho... more Despite the evidence on the cooling effects of urban green spaces (UGS), little is known about how they function as an interconnected network of cold green patches or a green heat sink (GHS) within an urban landscape. This study aimed to analyze the general spatial pattern and connectivity of GHSs using the pertinent indices and Circuitcape tool in an Iranian urban area between 2000 and 2020. Initially, normalized differentiation vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) maps were derived. To construct a network, GHS was extracted by Getis Ord Gi* statistic and the cost map was built by reversing the NDVI. The results showed that UGS and GHSs shrunk by 17% and 31%, respectively, and became highly fragmented, demonstrating smaller sizes but increased in number, density, and shape complexity. According to the network analysis, the overall connectivity of GHSs decreased over time. Finally, five high-priority locations were identified to increase the connectedness of vegetation cover that might improve the thermal environment of the city. This research can direct urban planning towards enhancing a green space network to mitigate the urban temperature within the urban landscape .

Characterizing Spatiotemporal Variations in the Urban Thermal Environment Related to Land Cover Changes in Karachi, Pakistan, from 2000 to 2020

Remote Sensing

Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of urban heat islands and the factors that influence th... more Understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of urban heat islands and the factors that influence this phenomenon can help to alleviate the heat stress exacerbated by urban warming and strengthen heat-related urban resilience, thereby contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The association between surface urban heat island (SUHI) effects and land use/land cover features has been studied extensively, but the situation in tropical cities is not well-understood due to the lack of consistent data. This study aimed to explore land use/land cover (LULC) changes and their impact on the urban thermal environment in a tropical megacity—Karachi, Pakistan. Land cover maps were produced, and the land surface temperature (LST) was estimated using Landsat images from five different years over the period 2000–2020. The surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) was then quantified based on the LST data. Statistical analyses, including geographically weigh...

The fast growing megacity Karachi as a frontier of environmental challenges: Urbanization and contemporary urbanism issues

Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, Nov 30, 2010

... Raza (2001) developed comprehensive details of agencies which are potential users of the spat... more

Integrating Quantity and Quality to Assess Urban Green Space Improvement in the Compact City

Land, 2021

Urban green space (UGS) has gained much attention in terms of urban ecosystems and human health. ... more Urban green space (UGS) has gained much attention in terms of urban ecosystems and human health. Measures to improve green space in compact cities are important for urban sustainability. However, there is a knowledge gap between UGS improvement and planning management. Based on the integration of quantity and quality, this research aims to identify UGS changes during urban development and suggest ways to improve green space. We analyse land use changes, conduct a hotspot analysis of land surface temperature (LST) between 2005 and 2015 at the city scale, and examine the changes in small, medium and large patches at the neighbourhood scale to guide decision-makers in UGS management. The results show that (i) the redevelopment of urban brownfields is an effective method for increasing quantity, with differences depending on regional functions; (ii) small, medium and large patches of green space have significance in terms of improving the quality of temperature mitigation, with apparent...

Revealing the differences of urban parks’ services to human wellbeing based upon social media data

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2021

Abstract Urban green spaces provide a range of services to urban residents; however, how these di... more Abstract Urban green spaces provide a range of services to urban residents; however, how these distinct spaces provide different services, if any, to human wellbeing has been seldom addressed. Using large volumes of social media data considering broad user groups and publicly available content, we developed a method to transform unstructured online comments into a structured assessment of nine categories of ecosystem services. An ‘ecosystem services lexicon’ was created based on 6853 words under twenty-eight subcategories of parks' services to human wellbeing using the word2vec model. The application of the ecosystem service lexicon to urban parks in Beijing revealed that all ecosystem services were perceivable to urban park users; however, the perception frequency of the ecosystem services varied across different parks. Additionally, the perceived ecosystem services were bundled together; four types of bundles were identified with varied dominant services. Technically, this study offered a novel technical procedure that can transfer unstructured free comments into a structured assessment of urban parks' perceived services to human wellbeing. Theoretically, the study revealed small-scale ecosystem service bundles from users' opinions and called for a further cross-scale understanding of ecosystem service bundles. Practically, the study findings can help inform evidence-based park policies, planning, and management.

A New Integrated Approach for Municipal Landfill Siting Based on Urban Physical Growth Prediction: A Case Study Mashhad Metropolis in Iran

Remote Sensing, 2021

Due to irregular and uncontrolled expansion of cities in developing countries, currently operatio... more Due to irregular and uncontrolled expansion of cities in developing countries, currently operational landfill sites cannot be used in the long-term, as people will be living in proximity to these sites and be exposed to unhygienic circumstances. Hence, this study aims at proposing an integrated approach for determining suitable locations for landfills while considering their physical expansion. The proposed approach utilizes the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) to weigh the sets of identified landfill location criteria. Furthermore, the weighted linear combination (WLC) approach was applied for the elicitation of the proper primary locations. Finally, the support vector machine (SVM) and cellular automation-based Markov chain method were used to predict urban growth. To demonstrate the applicability of the developed approach, it was applied to a case study, namely the city of Mashhad in Iran, where suitable sites for landfills were identified considering the urban growth in...

Monitoring and Modeling the Patterns and Trends of Urban Growth Using Urban Sprawl Matrix and CA-Markov Model: A Case Study of Karachi, Pakistan

Land, 2021

Understanding the spatial growth of cities is crucial for proactive planning and sustainable urba... more Understanding the spatial growth of cities is crucial for proactive planning and sustainable urbanization. The largest and most densely inhabited megapolis of Pakistan, Karachi, has experienced massive spatial growth not only in the core areas of the city, but also in the city’s suburbs and outskirts over the past decades. In this study, the land use/land cover (LULC) in Karachi was classified using Landsat data and the random forest algorithm from the Google Earth Engine cloud platform for the years 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Land use/land cover classification maps as well as an urban sprawl matrix technique were used to analyze the geographical patterns and trends of urban sprawl. Six urban classes, namely, the primary urban core, secondary urban core, sub-urban fringe, scatter settlement, urban open space, and non-urban area, were determined for the exploration of urban landscape changes. Future scenarios of LULC for 2030 were predicted using a CA–Markov model. The study found t...

Fine-grained assessment of greenspace satisfaction at regional scale using content analysis of social media and machine learning

Science of The Total Environment, 2021

Assessing perceptions of green spaces is of considerable interest to developers aiming for sustai... more Assessing perceptions of green spaces is of considerable interest to developers aiming for sustainable urbanization. However, there are numerous challenges facing the development of a rapid, effective, and fine-grained method to assess large-scale greenspace perception. Survey-based studies of perception yielded detailed assessments of green spaces but lacked regional comparisons. The few big-data-based studies of greenspace perception lacked fine-grained explorations. Therefore, we used content analysis to interpret perception in two ways: perceived frequency and perceived satisfaction, including overall park satisfaction and satisfaction with individual landscape features. We analyzed social media posts about urban parks in Beijing, China. A structured lexicon was developed to capture detailed landscape features, and machine learning was employed to assess satisfaction levels. Both of these techniques performed well in interpreting greenspace satisfaction from volunteered textual comments. A detailed study of 50 parks demonstrated that overall park satisfaction was positive. Additionally, individual landscape features were more influential than frequency of landscape features in affecting satisfaction. Our framework confirmed the potential of online comments as complementary to traditional surveys in assessing greenspace perception, while enhancing our understanding of this perception on a regional scale. Practically, this study can facilitate sustainable policy-making regarding urban green spaces, specifically through offering a structured landscape-feature lexicon, rapid regional comparison of various parks, and an emphasis on quality rather than quantity of landscape features.

Evaluating the Spectral Indices Efficiency to Quantify Daytime Surface Anthropogenic Heat Island Intensity: An Intercontinental Methodology

Remote Sensing, 2020

The surface anthropogenic heat island (SAHI) phenomenon is one of the most important environmenta... more The surface anthropogenic heat island (SAHI) phenomenon is one of the most important environmental concerns in urban areas. SAHIs play a significant role in quality of urban life. Hence, the quantification of SAHI intensity (SAHII) is of great importance. The impervious surface cover (ISC) can well reflect the degree and extent of anthropogenic activities in an area. Various actual ISC (AISC) datasets are available for different regions of the world. However, the temporal and spatial coverage of available and accessible AISC datasets is limited. This study was aimed to evaluate the spectral indices efficiency to daytime SAHII (DSAHII) quantification. Consequently, 14 cities including Budapest, Bucharest, Ciechanow, Hamburg, Lyon, Madrid, Porto, and Rome in Europe and Dallas, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Phoenix in the USA, were selected. A set of 91 Landsat 8 images, the Landsat provisional surface temperature product, the High Resolution Imperviousness Layer (HRI...

On the Spatial Patterns of Urban Thermal Conditions Using Indoor and Outdoor Temperatures

Remote Sensing, 2021

The changing climate has introduced new and unique challenges and threats to humans and their env... more The changing climate has introduced new and unique challenges and threats to humans and their environment. Urban dwellers in particular have suffered from increased levels of heat stress, and the situation is predicted to continue to worsen in the future. Attention toward urban climate change adaptation has increased more than ever before, but previous studies have focused on indoor and outdoor temperature patterns separately. The objective of this research is to assess the indoor and outdoor temperature patterns of different urban settlements. Remote sensing data, together with air temperature data collected with temperature data loggers, were used to analyze land surface temperature (outdoor temperature) and air temperature (indoor temperature). A hot and cold spot analysis was performed to identify the statistically significant clusters of high and low temperature data. The results showed a distinct temperature pattern across different residential units. Districts with dense urba...

Lurking in the bushes: informality, illicit activity and transitional green space in Berlin and Detroit

cultural geographies, 2020

This paper offers an exploratory overview of different research literatures examining the relatio... more This paper offers an exploratory overview of different research literatures examining the relationship between urban nature or green space on the one hand, and marginalized, stigmatized, and illicit activities on the other. We situate this discussion within the geographic literature concerning assemblage theory and informality, and apply these concepts to urban green space. We offer some comparative examples from Detroit and Berlin, two cities known for their green space and illicit activity, but with very different histories and cultural contexts. For this purpose, we draw on our own primary research in both Detroit and Berlin, examining how the dynamics of these interactions produce diverse and distinctive urban places in some cases and associations of danger or insecurity in others, sometimes both simultaneously. We utilize diverse methodologies, including qualitative interviews and focus groups, mobile explorations, photography, and sketching to provide examples of spaces as com...

Understanding the dynamics and factors affecting cultural ecosystem services during urbanization through spatial pattern analysis and a mixed-methods approach

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021

Understanding the dynamics and factors affecting cultural ecosystem services during urbanization ... more

Automated Built-Up Extraction Index: A New Technique for Mapping Surface Built-Up Areas Using LANDSAT 8 OLI Imagery

Remote Sensing, 2019

Accurate built-up area extraction is one of the most critical issues in land-cover classification... more Accurate built-up area extraction is one of the most critical issues in land-cover classification. In previous studies, various techniques have been developed for built-up area extraction using Landsat images. However, the efficiency of these techniques under different technical and geographical conditions, especially for bare and sandy areas, is not optimal. One of the main challenges of built-up area extraction techniques is to determine an optimum and stable threshold with the highest possible accuracy. In many of these techniques, the optimum threshold value fluctuates substantially in different parts of the image scene. The purpose of this study is to provide a new index to improve built-up area extraction with a stable optimum threshold for different environments. In this study, the developed Automated Built-up Extraction Index (ABEI) is presented to improve the classification accuracy in areas containing bare and sandy surfaces. To develop and evaluate the accuracy of the new...