Urbanization and changing spatial patterns of urban green spaces using landscape metrics based assessment in Historical City Agra, India

Urban green spaces (UGSs) are essential for maintaining ecological integrity, enhancing urban resilience, and improving residents' quality of life. However, conventional assessments primarily quantify green space extent while often overlooking changes in spatial configuration and fragmentation that determine ecological functionality. This study investigates the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban green spaces in Agra, India, during 2008–2024 by integrating remote sensing with landscape ecology. Multi-temporal Landsat imagery was used to extract urban green space (UGSs) through an Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)-based thresholding approach combined with Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) masking, and the extracted maps were validated using classification accuracy assessment. Patch-level and class-level landscape metrics were computed in FRAGSTATS to evaluate changes in landscape composition, fragmentation, connectivity, and spatial organization, while projected population data were used to assess urban green space availability per capita. Results revealed that UGS area declined from 32.23 km 2 (26.10%) in 2008 to 28.77 km 2 (23.30%) in 2016, followed by partial recovery to 31.34 km 2 (25.38%) in 2024. Despite this recovery, landscape metrics indicated persistent fragmentation, increasing patch isolation, reduced cohesion, and limited improvement in landscape connectivity, suggesting that increases in green space extent did not necessarily translate into improved spatial quality. Furthermore, UGS availability per capita declined continuously from 20.82 m 2 /person in 2008 to 14.43 m 2 /person in 2024 due to rapid population growth. The study demonstrates that integrating landscape metrics with remote sensing provides a more comprehensive evaluation of urban green space dynamics than conventional area-based assessments alone. These findings provide valuable evidence for planning strategies aimed at enhancing green space connectivity, ecological resilience, and equitable green infrastructure provision in rapidly urbanizing historical cities.