Environmental Planning For Sustainable Urban Green Space Development: The Case Of Ambo Town, West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Rapid urbanization is leading to environmental degradation which in turn causes decline of ecosystem services of nature to human beings. This study was mainly aimed to analyze urban green spaces (UGS) ecosystem services to residents in a rapidly growing Ambo town. The combinations of households’ surveys, focus group discussion, key informant interview and observations were used parallel to remote sensing and geographic information system technologies to comprehensively analyze UGS ecosystem services by capitalizing on the strengths of each approach. A total of 210 randomly selected sample households from three kebeles were administered survey questionnaire to assess the perceived ecosystem services, usage preferences and satisfaction with the existing UGS amenities. High-resolution satellite imageries of Sentinel-2 were used to quantify the spectral index and land use land cover (LULC) over the study area from 2018 to 2023 for the same month/season. The ecosystem service value (ESV) of each LULC class was determined for the four major categories and 17 functions based on modified coefficient values. Accordingly, the findings revealed inadequate quantity, uneven distribution and limited accessibility of UGS in the town. Four major LULC classes were identified, including vegetation, grassland, croplands and built-up land, with an overall accuracy of 90.8% and Kappa coefficient of 0.87. The inter-annual change analysis shows that steadily increased and decreased settlement and cultivated lands, respectively. Contrary to expectations, this study did not find an increasing trend for vegetation coverage over the past five years. The results showed that increase in non-ESV LULC, specifically in settlement areas. Consequently, the total ESV of Ambo town UGS declined from 1.84 Mil. USD to 1.64 Mil. USD over five years, dominantly contributed from cultivated land units. The results also revealed that regulating, cultural, supporting and provisioning ESV loss outweighs the ESV gain by 15.3%, 14.0%, 11.1% and 9.6%, respectively. The findings suggest that sustainable urban green space development strategies to compensate ESV losses and create healthier and livable town. Future studies focusing on the role of urban green spaces in promoting public health, wellbeing and environmental justice are needed to enhance the ESV of the environment for life