Role of green space in urban planning: Outlook towards smart cities

•Per capita green cover of the city.•Geographical variation in green through Proportional green cover.•Allotment of Green space through analyzing the Land surface Temperature.•Readdressing the master plan through these techniques.

The challenges that urbanisation pose is multi-faceted. Land allocation priorities to urban green cover are usually neglected or readily negotiated in the countries that are in transition. Urbanisation devoid of urban green can cause many social and physical impacts on its residents. Hence, locally suitable Green Index should be devised and incorporated in the urban planning of cities, in spite of the size of the city. This analysis is to showcase the green index for the planning of smart cities. The devised green index is verified in the real-world context of Gulbarga city, India, thereby understanding the practicality of this index. The results show scope for alternative green cover, where ever the green index is low. This technique presents intra-city green cover pattern analysis. Such analysis emphasises to reserve the space for green in urban planning for well-being in totality. The aspect of Land Surface Temperature (LST) analysis and correlating the same with the amount of green cover further enhances the process of promoting green cities. The assessment of per capita green space with the standards of World Health Organisation (WHO) identified the scope of greenery initiatives in various parts of the city.

Graphical abstractUrban Green Space play vital role in urban planning. They have a greater contribution to urban heat reduction and many other social, physical and environmental benefits. Smart allocation of green spaces in a city make the purpose successful. Smart allocation depends on strong techniques that are scientifically convincing. Thus, any city's green cover can be assessed using these techniques of Per capita green space and proportional green space. The green space can also be allocated based on the Land surface temperature in order to mitigate the heat.Download high-res image (189KB)Download full-size image