Accessibility Analysis of Urban Green Space: The Case of Erbil City

Urban green areas are open spaces in urban areas that are mainly covered by vegetation. They can be public or private urban green spaces that include parks, community gardens, forests, and nature reserves. Parks are an important component of urban quality of life if they are well designed and accessible. Accessible parks contribute to physical activity among urban residents. Therefore, the objective of the study was to identify the most significant main accessibility factors that discourage the use of public urban green areas, and examine the extent to which they influence the use of green areas in residential areas of the city of Erbil. This study was conducted in 2017 and 2020 to measure the accessibility of green spaces using network analysis with GIS for Erbil city. The present study represents the first known investigation regarding the accessibility of public green spaces within the city of Erbil. The results show that for community parks, 68% of the population has access with a travel time of 5 minutes, 99% of the population has access with a travel time of 10 minutes, and 100% of the population has access with a travel time of 15 minutes. For district parks, 70% of the population had access with 5 minute drive time. With 10-minute drive time, 96% of the population had access and 100% of the population had access with 15-minute drive time. For neighborhood parks, the results show that 43% of the population had access with 5-minute walk and, 71% of the population had access with 10-minute walk. At 15-minute walk time, 80% of Erbil residents had access to neighborhood parks. Mini parks were accessed by 22% of the population with a 5 minute walk and they were accessed by 52% of the population with a 10 minute walk. With a 15 minute walk, mini parks were accessible to 70% of the population

Accessibility to green space in the Melbourne metropolitan area.

Demand for green space by the public is becoming stronger for aesthetic enjoyment, recreation, clean air and quiet environment. Green space can protect biodiversity, absorb pollutants, adjust urban temperature and increase urban residents’ longevity. Accessibility to green spaces has been regarded as a useful measure of the quality of life in urban areas. Adequate and equitable accessibility to green space for all residents in urban areas is an important planning objective in many urban areas in the world, including the Melbourne Metropolitan Area (MMA), to sustain urban residents’ quality of life and well-being. The relative contributions of different kinds of facilities to the attractiveness of a green space have been weighted in relation to four population groups, determined from the 2011 ABS census data, including young (aged 0-15), adult (aged 16-64), aged (aged 65+), and total (aged 0-115). The accessibility values to neighbourhood green spaces for the four groups of population from each Mesh block (MB) across the MMA are measured with the following four different methods: M2SFCA_G, the 2-step floating catchment area modified by the Gaussion function; M2SFCA_B, the 2-step floating catchment area modified by the Butterworth filter; M3SFCA_G, the 3-step floating catchment area modified by the Gaussion function; and M3SFCA_B, the 3-step floating catchment area modified by the Butterworth filter.. According to MB level accessibility measured with the modified floating catchment area method, on average, the percentage of population with relatively high, Medium +, Medium, Medium -, and low accessibility to green space is about 21.2%, 18.5%, 25.6%, 18.7%, and 16.2%, These findings should provide valuable evidence for urban planners and public policy makers as well as the general public for formulating future urban plans. The methodology developed in this study should be applicable to other metropolitan areas within and even beyond Australia, should the required datasets are readily available and accessible. The thesis also includes some discussions about the relative merits of the four different floating catchment area based methods and some recommendations for future researches