Trees at the rural-urban interface in Bengaluru: patterns, functions, role and relevance

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Green spaces play an important role in urban and peri-urban areas and are the major defining land cover in rural areas. Depending on their relative position along the rural-urban gradient and the surrounding built-up areas, they serve various functions and it can be expected that social-economic variables of particular quarters exhibit a particular relationship to green spaces spatial pattern. Project C02 researches into these relationships. As a pre-condition to this quantitative analyses, urban-rural indices are analysed and tested for their suitability to integrate patterns of green spaces as indicators. Remote sensing imagery at different spatial resolutions is being used to map and analyse green spaces for greater Banagalore (Landsat and RapidEye) and to determine biophysical characteristics, uses and functions of green spaces (WorldView 3, in a selected transect). The remote sensing image pre-processing and classification as well as the corresponding ground truthing is implemented in close collaboration with the Indian project collaborators; and social data will be sought from official sources including the Bangalore Development Authority. An image segmentation of greater Banaglore will be carried out into areas of similar green spaces patterns as a basis for establishing relationships between biophysical and social variables. A Landsat based time series of land use will be built in order to test the hypothesis that the changes in green spaces configuration follow a similar pattern both over space and over time. Options will be tested to make the time series more accurate and speficic by sub-pixel analyses for green spaces using up-to-date Landsat imagery and high resolution imagery as a basis for spectral unmixing. In addition, as a prototype for the entire research group, a WebGIS will be established that accommodates all spatial data of C02 and serves as a visualization tool which may support identification of joint thematic interests and therefore foster collaboration between FOR projects.