Assessing the Effects of Urban Development on the Quality of Green Space and the Ecological Capacity of the Areas Surrounding Khorramabad City | ||
| فصلنامه علمی پژوهش های بوم شناسی شهری | ||
| Article 2, Volume 17, Issue 42, February 2026, Pages 21-40 PDF (1.74 M) | ||
| Document Type: Science - Research | ||
| DOI: 10.30473/grup.2026.72019.2877 | ||
| Author | ||
| آیت رشنوفر* | ||
| Ph.D, Department of Urban Planning, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Introduction The increase in urbanization and subsequent expansion of cities and their suburbs since the Industrial Revolution and the end of World Wars have transformed cities into the most concentrated areas for human population and natural resource consumption. The high population density and energy consumption in urban settlements continuously demand more resources, leading to urban sprawl into suburban and exurban areas. This extensive urban development can significantly degrade natural and semi-natural ecological structures (such as rivers, wetlands, forests, and pastures) in and around cities, resulting in reduced biodiversity and ecological process sustainability in urban regions. Thus, maintaining the ecological capacity of cities and their surroundings has become a continuous challenge for urban managers and planners. This study, recognizing the importance of urban environmental and ecological issues, aims to elucidate the ecological dimensions of Khorramabad City through spatial analysis in three stages. Mothodology This research is descriptive-analytical in nature and developmental-applied in purpose. Part of the study was conducted using library research, utilizing various related studies to define the fundamental concepts of the research. Data analysis was performed in three parts: in the first part, using ArcGIS 10.2 and ENVI software, land use changes in the study area over a 31-year period (1989-2021) were evaluated through satellite image processing in four classes. In the second part, the distribution of green spaces within urban areas was assessed using Spatial Analysis tools in ArcGIS 10.2. Finally, the urban areas of Khorramabad were ranked based on four green space indicators-urban parks, neighborhood parks, community parks, and scattered green spaces-using SWARA and PROMETHEE methods. Findings Overall, the results indicate that Khorramabad, as a mid-sized city in Iran, has an unstable environmental status. Unplanned spatial growth in recent years has disrupted the city's physical form and led to the destruction of green and ecological hinterlands. The city also faces the challenge of uneven distribution of urban green spaces, with all analyses indicating a lack of spatial justice in the distribution of these land uses across urban areas, signaling a trend towards unsustainability that requires effective measures. Discussion and Conclusion The analysis results revealed unplanned urban growth, causing significant adverse effects on ecological land uses. Vegetated areas decreased by 33.601% from 1989 to 2021, with a corresponding increase in urban built-up areas. Spatial analysis results showed that green spaces were clustered and not evenly distributed across Khorramabad, with the highest clustering in zones 17, 19, 23, and 24, located in the eastern, central, and southern parts of the city. The distribution of these land uses showed a tendency from north to south, with a central to southeast concentration. The Moran's Index value of 0.035910 indicated a positive spatial autocorrelation. PROMETHEE analysis indicated that Zone 3 had the most desirable green space indicators with a score of 0.24, while Zone 2 had the least desirability with a score of -0.40. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| City; Spatial Analysis; Green Spaces; Ecology; Khorramaba | ||
| References | ||
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