Evaluating Urban Green Space Accessibility and Per Capita Distribution in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Scientific papers across various disciplines have cited the significance of urban green space (UGS), highlighting its benefits for human health and well-being, biodiversity, urban development, and climate resilience (Kondo et al., 2018). In arid and semi-arid regions, where most cities have limited vegetation and high temperatures, the importance of UGS is even greater (Hussein et al., 2017). This research investigates UGS per capita and accessibility as base units in UGS assessment and conditions in semi-arid region. Erbil and Sulaymaniyah cities of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, are studied to present a new way to enhance urban development strategies to improve city resilience facing climate change. Twenty-four satellite images, covering the period from early April to late May in last four years to capture the peak vegetation period, were downloaded from Sentinel-2 MSI, L2A. Three different indices, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) used to evaluate vegetation. They validated by high-resolution orthophotos from Google Earth Pro. Demographic data collected from World pop website. The outcome of UGS per capita analysis will be illustrated by grid cells. In addition, accessibility analysis is based on, first, buffer distances of 300-500 m, second, network distances of 5, 10, or 15 minutes walking from the UGS typology (Hassan et al., 2024). The typology is calssified for Neighborhood Park (0.5–5 hectares), Community Park (5–10 hectares), and District Park (10–50 hectares). The findings provide a detailed analysis of UGS in the cities, pointing out differences in both accessibility and UGS per capita. It offers crucial perspectives for policymakers and urban planners, highlighting the necessity of measures to optimize UGS allocation and augment accessibility in rapidly expanding cities. Reference Kondo, M.C., Fluehr, J.M., McKeon, T. and Branas, C.C., 2018. Urban green space and its impact on human health. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(3), p.445. Hussein, S.O., Kovács, F. and Tobak, Z., 2017. Spatiotemporal assessment of vegetation indices and land cover for Erbil city and its surrounding using MODIS imageries. Journal of Environmental Geography, 10(1-2), pp.31-39. Hassan, Y.N., Ali, Z.F., Üsztöke, L. and Jombach, S., 2024. A Comparative Assessment of UGS Changes and Accessibility Using Per Capita Metrics: A Case Study of Budapest and Vienna. Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, 9, pp.723-734.