Human has been evolving in a natural environment over a long time; thus, he is habitual to adapt it. Green spaces are obligatory landscapes in an urban structure that provide a natural environment and accelerate other life events. In contrast, unplanned urbanization, and conversion from green to grey structures have damaged natural environmental resources. Studies through different angles have highlighted the importance of urban green spaces for human well-being but now need to identify their role according to the potential. The demands of urban green spaces may differ with the change of population size, types of grey structure, urban expansion, the altitude of the place, and geographical location. Therefore, this systematic review aims to analyse the significance of urban green spaces for human wellbeing. The study opted for a systematic process during the selection and organization of studies for this review. After analysing, 46 studies were finalized with the consensus of three review authors. Accordingly, literature was analysed under the central theme of ''Urban Green Spaces for Human Well-being.'' Human Well-being was assessed under six subthemes; physical, psychological, mental, social, subjective, and environmental well-being. The review concluded that urban green spaces are the primary pillar for a sustainable urban place and human wellbeing due to highly positive and positive correlations. Moreover, the study did not find any demarcation line between green spaces and grey structures according to any specific need. Therefore, the study suggested that the role of urban green spaces for human well-being should be analysed according to their potential and required optimal ratio under different communities' urban specific environments and social behaviour.Keywords Urban green spaces Á Human well-being Á Environmental sustainability Á Social behaviour Introduction Urban Green Space is a sum of green paved, open and burial places, sports grounds, private gardens, formal and informal green forests, road verges, derelict land, and horticulture within a city (Duan et al., 2018;Wang & Akbari, 2016). Human life exists on the earth due to its suitable natural environment and other living
Urban vegetation has a decisive role in sustaining homogeneous Land Surface Temperature (LST) in a built-up environment. However, urban areas are facing rapid changes in land use/land cover (LULC) over the last few decades as green cover is being replaced by built-up structures. Consequently, LST is increasing and urban heat island (UHI) effects are expanding. In this context, this study was organized to assess urban green cover changes in Lahore and their impact on LST and UHI effects. For this, climate data was collected from the Pakistan Meteorological Department and Landsat images were acquired from Earth Explorer. LULC and LST maps were generated for 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 in ArcGIS 10.8. Also, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) were computed to analyze the effects of vegetation and built-up areas on LST and UHI. The study found that over the last three decades, built-up area increased 113.85% by removing 392.78 km2 of green cover in the study area. Similarly, a rapid expansion of the high LST range and UHI effects was found towards the eastern and southern parts of the study area. Moreover, a negative correlation was found between LST and NDVI, whereas the correlation between LST and NDBI was found to be positive. Therefore, it was concluded that the continuation of green cover reduction is highly damaging because this might render the city more fragile ecologically. So, the study calls the attention of the responsible authorities for suitable measures against continuous green cover loss in the study area.
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.
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