USING THE URBAN LANDSCAPE MOSAIC TO DEVELOP AND VALIDATE METHODS FOR ASSESSING THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF URBAN ECOSYSTEM SERVICE POTENTIAL Oliver Twanhaw GUNAWAN School of Environment and Life Sciences College of Science and Technology University of Salford, Salford, UK Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, July 2015 Contents Contents ...................................................................................................................... i List of Figures .......................................................................................................... vii List of Tables .......................................................................................................... xiii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... xvii Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... xviii Abstract .................................................................................................................... xx 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Context of research .......................................................................................... 1 1.2. Ecosystem services in the urban environment .................................................. 2 1.3. Thesis structure ................................................................................................ 3 2. Literature Review .................................................................................................. 4 2.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 4 2.2. The ecosystem services framework .................................................................. 4 2.2.1. Ecosystem service definition ...................................................................... 6 2.2.2. Ecosystem service classification systems ................................................ 10 2.3. Ecosystem service measurement ................................................................... 13 2.3.1. Ecosystem service generation ................................................................. 13 2.3.2. Holistic analysis - multiple ecosystem services ........................................ 16 2.4. Ecosystem service accessibility ...................................................................... 20 2.4.1. Ecosystem service accessibility as a measure of ecosystem service consumption ....................................................................................................... 20 2.4.2. Accessibility in a UK context .................................................................... 22 2.5. Ecosystem services and landscape ................................................................ 25 2.5.1. Relating ecosystems to landscape ........................................................... 26 2.5.2. Mapping land cover in the urban environment ......................................... 28 2.5.3. Characterising land use ............................................................................ 30 2.6. Research aim and objectives .......................................................................... 32 2.6.1. Objective 1: Characterising the physical 3D urban environment .............. 34 2.6.2. Objective 2: Characterising ecosystem service generation ...................... 36 2.6.3. Objective 3: Evaluating physical and visual access to aesthetics and recreational ecosystem services ........................................................................ 36 i 3. Methods ................................................................................................................ 38 3.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 38 3.2. Case study site ............................................................................................... 40 3.3. Selecting and measuring ecosystem services ................................................ 45 3.3.1. Regulating services .................................................................................. 46 3.3.2. Cultural services ....................................................................................... 48 3.4. Landscapes .................................................................................................... 49 3.4.1. Land cover typologies .............................................................................. 50 3.4.2. Land use typologies ................................................................................. 51 3.4.3. Land cover classification method ............................................................. 54 3.4.4. Land cover classification parameters ....................................................... 58 3.4.5. Land use characterisation ........................................................................ 60 3.4.6. Spatial units .............................................................................................. 61 3.5. Multiple ecosystem services ........................................................................... 63 3.5.1. Spatial association ................................................................................... 63 3.5.2. Clustering ................................................................................................. 64 3.5.3. Hotspot mapping ...................................................................................... 65 3.6. Accessibility and visibility ................................................................................ 67 3.6.1. Physical accessibility ................................................................................ 67 3.6.2. Visibility .................................................................................................... 69 3.7. Conclusions .................................................................................................... 70 4. Datasets and Pre-processing ............................................................................. 72 4.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 72 4.2. Datasets .......................................................................................................... 74 4.2.1. Remote sensing imagery for base land cover mapping ........................ 74 4.2.2. Detailed topographic data ........................................................................ 77 4.2.3. Digital Surface Model (DSM) .................................................................... 78 4.2.4. Building heights ........................................................................................ 79 4.2.5. Tree heights ............................................................................................. 80 4.2.6. Urban greenspace data ............................................................................ 81 4.2.7 Aesthetics data .......................................................................................... 84 4.2.8 Transport network data ............................................................................. 85 4.2.9 Population data ......................................................................................... 86 ii 4.2.10 Socio-economic data ............................................................................... 87 4.3. Validation ........................................................................................................ 87 4.3.1. Desktop validation .................................................................................... 87 4.3.2. Field surveys ............................................................................................ 88 4.4. Conclusions .................................................................................................... 91 5. Characterising the physical urban landscape .................................................. 92 5.1. General Introduction ....................................................................................... 92 5.2. Land cover introduction ................................................................................... 92 5.3. Spectral indices for land cover classification ................................................... 94 5.3.1. Methodology ............................................................................................. 95 5.3.2. Water ........................................................................................................ 97 5.3.3. Peat .......................................................................................................... 99 5.3.4. Vegetation ................................................................................................ 99 5.3.5. Bare Earth .............................................................................................. 101 5.3.6. Impervious and Mixed ............................................................................ 101 5.4. Implementation of the classification .............................................................. 102 5.4.1. Maximum likelihood classification........................................................... 102 5.4.2. Decision tree classification ..................................................................... 102 5.4.3. Buildings