greenR: An open-source framework for quantifying urban greenness

• Published in: Ecological indicators 2024-06, Vol.163, p.112108, Article 112108
• Main Author: Mahajan, Sachit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cities; Open source; Street network; Urban analytics; Urban greenness
• ISSN: 1470-160X; 1872-7034
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112108

•Presents a novel index for street-level greenness quantification.•Introduces greenR R package for detailed mapping of urban greenness.•Reveals insights into spatial connectivity and distribution of green spaces.•Facilitates comparative analysis of urban green patterns globally.•Equips policymakers with data for urban greening decisions. How do we quantify the levels of greenness within urban street networks? Numerous attempts to quantify this factor have been made through survey methodologies, remote sensing data, and street view imagery. The results are promising, but are often limited by scalability constraints, including limited data availability, high requirements of computational power, and validation challenges. This study introduces a comprehensive framework for urban greenness assessment, leveraging open-source data to overcome these limitations. Central to this framework is the development of the greenR R package and an accompanying Shiny app, designed to compute, visualize, and analyze a novel proximity-based green index for individual street segments. Beyond this, the framework innovatively extends its analytical capability by integrating accessibility analysis, Green View Index quantification as well as introducing the Green Space Similarity Index, a novel metric that evaluates and compares the characteristics of urban green spaces across different regions. This extension enriches the proposed framework, providing not just a measure of proximity to green spaces, but also insights into their spatial connectivity and distribution. The efficacy of greenR is demonstrated by studying urban greenness patterns across several cities, highlighting the potential impact of such an open-source framework for citizens, urban planners, and policy-makers. This study not only advances our methodological approach to quantifying urban greenness but also provides practical tools and metrics that can inform sustainable urban planning and policy decisions.