Assessment of Urban Greenery Status in Major Cities of Oromia, Ethiopia

This work aims at studying different green spaces’experiences in developed countries and extrapolates the experiences to Oromia cities in Ethiopia;in order to investigate and promote greenery infrastructure in selected cities.To do that greenery practice performance data were collected in four cities,which were classified into two groups as good and weak performers.As a result,Adama and Bishoftu cities were good urban greenery performers whereas Burayu and Sebeta were weak performers.The cities were also selected non-randomly to investigate the current urban greenery practice and different green areas in each city.Eight green areas were taken as samples for observation,where qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources.The assessment of data confirmed that green areas along the roadside,recreational parks,open areas,and nursery sites existed in most cities.The urban plan of some cities does exclude most green area components.Greenery sites in Bishoftu and Adama are relatively better,while in Burayu and Sebeta urban greenery are highly abused for changing to another type of land use,e.g.,residential and institutional areas.The technical skills of tree planting,care,protection,and management were also observed as a collective resource.

Daily variation of urban heat island effect and its correlations to urban greenery： A case study of Adelaide

Urban structure and landscape cause an artificial temperature increase in cities, known as the urban heat island effect. The magnitude of such urban-rural temperature difference varies in daily and seasonal basis. Daily patterns of urban heat accumulation in Adelaide is under investigation. In this paper, East-West air temperature profile of Adelaide metropolitan area was mapped in 60 journeys alongside a straight cross route connecting Adelaide Hills to the West Beach under clear sky between 26 July and 15 August 2013. The most intense urban-rural temperature differences of 5.9 ℃ occurred during midnight in Adelaide. However, maximum urban heat variation occurred during the late afternoon when the near-surface urban heat fluctuates by 2 ℃ between the CBD East and Western Parklands. During summer heatwaves, the afternoon heat stress limits public life vibrancy in Adelaide. Increased urban greenery can facilitate resilience to heat by providing shadow and evaporative cooling. A better under- standing of daily urban heat variations and the cooling effect of urban greenery assists urban poticy making and public life management in the context of climate change.

Quantification of urban greenery using hemisphere-view panoramas with a green cover index

Urban greenery has positive impacts on the well-being of residents and provides vital ecosystem services.A quantitative evaluation of full-view green coverage at the human scale can guide green space planning and management.We developed a still camera to collect hemisphere-view panoramas(HVPs)to obtain in situ heterogeneous scenes and established a panoramic green cover index(PGCI)model to measure human-scale green coverage.A case study was conducted in Xicheng District,Beijing,to analyze the quantitative relationships of PGCI with the normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)and land surface temperature(LST)in different land use scenarios.The results show that the HVP is a useful quantization tool:(1)the method adaptively distinguishes the green cover characteristics of the four functional areas,and the PGCI values are ranked as follows:recreational area(29.6)>residential area(19.0)>traffic area(15.9)>commercial area(12.5);(2)PGCI strongly explains NDVI and LST,and for each unit(1%)increase in PGCI,NDVI tends to increase by 0.007,and(3)LST tends to decrease by 0.21 degrees Celsius.This research provides government managers and urban planners with tools to evaluate green coverage in complex urban environments and assistance in optimizing human-scale greenery and microclimate.

Landscaping and performance of some aesthetic plant species in hot, arid conditions of India

Establishment of ornamental and aesthetic plants in hot, arid conditions of India is difficult due to the prevailing climatic, edaphic and biotic factors. Effect of turfgrass on the growth of ornamental plants in hot arid conditions has not been studied so far anywhere in the world. A study was conducted on the campus of Arid Forest Research Institute, Jodhpur, India to assess the performance of a few ornamental plant spe- cies in combination with turfgrass and without turfgrass with respect to different soil tilling intervals. Growth of plants was better with turfgrass than without turfgrass. We suggest adopting a soil tilling interval of 30 days to achieve optimum growth of ornamental plant species in terms of height and crown diameter. Our results can help reduce labor costs and achieving better landscapes in fewer days in hot urban conditions of Indian sub continent.