Ecosystem services provided by urban parks play a significant role in visitors’ well-being. The provision of these services depends upon the well-designed green spaces built to fulfil the needs of people. As these services are linked with visitors’ well-being, particular emphasis to indicate them is needed. However, minimal documentation is found regarding these valuable services, particularly in the context of Lahore. So, in this study, an effort was made to highlight visitors’ preferences for the available ecosystem services provided by urban parks in Lahore, Pakistan. These ecosystem services are beneficial in enhancing the well-being of people. Fifteen parks in Lahore were selected in this study to highlight the visitors’ preferences in visiting the parks. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted in these parks to collect information. The questionnaire was compiled to record socio-demographical profiles, usage patterns, choices, and visitors’ opinions about the services provided by the parks. A total of 300 responses were recorded to depict the survey findings. The result highlights that 60-80% of visitors like to come to the parks having maximum services regardless of how distant is from their residence. It also reveals that large-sized parks with maximum facilities attract more visitors than small and medium-sized parks. As in these parks, people only from neighbouring areas visit due to their accessibility. The findings will be helpful for the managers and planners of the urban park to improve the ecosystem services for the well-being of people. It will also indicate the choices of people based on that information, the status of parks can be improved, and new parks can be developed to meet the visitors’ needs.

Infrastructure development is critical to the success of economic growth policies. Remote sensing and GIS tools have an important role to play in the development of various urban infrastructures. Due to the rapid growth of urban population and urbanization, it is necessary to find out the site's suitability for sustainable urban development. The main aim of the study is to study the growth and trend of urbanization, as well as to find out the suitable sites for further urban development in northern Punjab, along the river Jhelum, Pakistan. The study illustrates the use of geographic information system (GIS) and Remote Sensing based techniques i.e. Human Natural Environment Index (HNEI) applied with a foundation of Relief Degree of Land Surface (RDLS), Temperature Humidity Index (THI), Water Resource Index (WRI), and Land Cover Index (LCI) for selection of the suitable site for urban settlements along river Jhelum, Pakistan. For this purpose, Toposheet and Landsat satellite data were used to generate various thematic layers using ArcGIS software. The results were generated in form of five categories i.e., highly suitable, moderately suitable, relatively low suitable, low suitable, and non-suitable. The final results indicated that district Sargodha is most suitable for long-term sustainable urban settlements favored by relief, climate, water availability, land cover scenario, and flood hazard-free area. Eventually, a site suitability map is prepared for further urban development. The present study allows the local people as well as urban planners for the appropriate plans of land use planning in sustainable urban development.

This paper attempts to explore the impact of built-up areas on groundwater levels in district Faisalabad.To understand the rate of built-up area expansion and changes in the level of groundwater in the study area, groundwaterdata has been acquired from the Land Reclamation Department for all tehsils in district Faisalabad. This study wasconducted to assess spatial and temporal variation of groundwater level because of the built-up area change. Descriptivestatistics (Scatter Plot correlation technique) have been applied to figure out changes in groundwater levels. Furthermore,some built-up area extraction methods have been incorporated that are always found to be effective tools for theassessment of built-up area change. The spatial analysis tool Spline has applied to 79 bore points in all tehsils of districtFaisalabad. Results clearly show that a built-up increase of 41 km2in Faisalabad city is causing 1-foot depletion ingroundwater as compared to other tehsils, where a built-up increase is negligible. Such research studies of groundwaterchanges would assist the planners to adopt effective sustainable measures.

This paper attempts to explore the impact of built-up areas on groundwater levels in district Faisalabad. To understand the rate of built-up area expansion and changes in the level of groundwater in the study area, groundwater data has been acquired from the Land Reclamation Department for all tehsils in district Faisalabad. This study was conducted to assess spatial and temporal variation of groundwater level because of the built-up area change. Descriptive statistics (Scatter Plot correlation technique) have been applied to figure out changes in groundwater levels. Furthermore, some built-up area extraction methods have been incorporated that are always found to be effective tools for the assessment of built-up area change. The spatial analysis tool Spline has applied to 79 bore points in all tehsils of district Faisalabad. Results clearly show that a built-up increase of 41 km2 in Faisalabad city is causing 1-foot depletion in groundwater as compared to other tehsils, where a built-up increase is negligible. Such research studies of groundwater changes would assist the planners to adopt effective sustainable measures.

Urban Green Spaces (UGS) curtails all environmental issues and ensure an eco-friendly locale. Similarly, the emergence of UGS is very helpful to cope with emerging urban flooding in cities by setting up the world standard of green space ratio (20 to 25 percent of the area) and green per capita (9m2 ) in a geographical area. Therefore, the present study is conducted to evaluate the causal effect relation of UGS with the frequency of urban flooding. For this purpose, 69 selected union councils are taken as a study area in District Lahore, Pakistan. The relation between UGS and the occurrence of floods is evaluated using geo-statistical and geospatial analysis techniques during the monsoon rainfalls from 2013 to 2019. Furthermore, the data sets of sore points (inundated areas), occurrences of urban flooding (number of event occurrences), green per capita, and green ratio are used. Results revealed that selected union councils in Lahore don’t have enough urban green spaces. There is only a 51 sq km area with adequate UGS that accounts for only 18 percent of the study area. The rest of the area does not meet the world standards of green area. There are some areas including Ravi town, Gulberg town, and Samanabad town with green per capita more than 4 green per capita. On the other hand, there are only 02 union councils including Race Course and Model Town that are comprised of a 20 percent green area. The findings of the study will be helpful for proper urban planning and strategies i.e. with greener structures.