Applying Remote Sensing Technologies in Urban Landscapes of the Mediterranean

Abstract

There has been increasing pressure on water resources in cities due to the proliferation of urban green areas. In the Mediterranean climate, only a small part of the plants’ water needs is supplied by rainfall during the winter months. Thus, in Algarve (Portugal) irrigation of the urban landscapes is required almost all year round. The aims of this study were to evaluate the maintenance of the urban landscapes of São Brás de Alportel (Algarve) during a year, based on the characterization of the vegetation of the urban gardens, the climate data, the analysis of the irrigation systems, the calculation of the plants water requirements and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). By crossing all this information, it was possible to understand if the current maintenance level is the most suitable for sustainable irrigated urban landscapes. In most of the gardens, it was possible to establish a relationship between the gross irrigation water requirements and NDVI. In general, the NDVI allowed us to study the urban landscape, through the monthly observation of the differences in the appearance and development of the vegetation.

Bioremediation Based on Remote Sensing Technology in Urban Polluted River Treatment

“…(2) Application of polluted river treatment The remediation of polluted rivers is a comprehensive project [14]. The basic content includes not only the treatment of water quality, but also the planning of the surrounding environment.…”

Despite Being Distinguished as the 2020 European Green Capital, Lisbon Has Lost Public Green Areas over the Previous Decade

“…In the case of PGA and ST, the municipality (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa) made the data available. Since geoprocessing tools have been used successfully to assess urban vegetation [30,31], we used them to estimate the UGI. The UGI cover was estimated from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) obtained from multispectral satellite images (Landsat 7-8).…”

Os benefícios sociais dos corredores verdes são mais imediatos do que os ecológicos: exemplo da recém implementada rede em Lisboa

“…Para isso, caracterizamos os benefícios que em 2020 a rede de CVs proporcionou em termos de: i) conectividade biológica, com base no número de espaços verdes que são conectados por um determinado CV, e na sua extensão; ii) acesso da população a espaços com diferentes funções, com base nas estruturas biofísicas disponíveis e que determinam a(s) função(ões) do CV; iii) acesso da população a mobilidade 'limpa', com base no número de CVs que existem nas diversas freguesias Lisboetas; e iv) aumento da área dos CVs coberta por vegetação, combinando o cálculo do valor de NDVI (obtido através de imagens multiespectrais de satélite Landsat 7-8 para os anos de 2010 e 2020) com ferramentas de geoprocessamento (Moreno, et al, 2020;Pedras, et al, 2020). Atendendo a que muitos dos CVs tinham sido implementados muito recentemente, a nossa hipótese é que, nesta fase de recém-implementação, os benefícios sociais (acesso da população a mobilidade 'limpa' e a espaços multifuncionais) sejam mais evidentes do que os ecológicos (aumento da área dos CVs coberta por vegetação).…”