**The Role of Trees in Improving the Urban Landscape, (Case Study Vli Asr Street of Tehran city)**

Fardad Edalatkhah<sup>1</sup> , Mahdi Shafaghati2, \*, Akram Norouzi<sup>2</sup> , Somaye Motaghi<sup>2</sup> , Maryam Mirbahaei<sup>3</sup>

1 Municipality of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Payame Noor University, Taleghan, Iran

3 Payame Noor University, Varamin, Iran

\* Corresponding author, Tel.: +982122446512; fax: +982122488550.

Email: m\_shafagati@yahoo.com

#### **Abstract**

City landscaping is the art of visually and structurally integrating the complex of buildings, roads and elements present in them, as well as all those spaces which give shape to urban environments. These include natural spaces inside city precincts which play a decisive role in creating urban landscapes with a decisively different appearance. Among natural elements influencing urban landscapes, trees are of paramount importance owing to their particular structure and spatial function. Like buildings, trees have structures which help create plant-based architectural styles. In lieu with overall changes that a city experiences in the course of its subsequent historical stages, the selection criteria for the varieties of trees to be planted in the city change, too. Meanwhile, almost all cities in the world today host a large proportion of open space with distinctive physical characteristics each. These include streets, squares, and spaces adjacent to car parks. Tree selection criteria for each of these spatial categories vary accordingly as determined by professional city landscaping architects. Based on research findings and the field study carried out, this article tries to assess and highlight the role played by landscaped and natural elements in the greater urban architecture, and draw up certain conclusions as a result.

**Keywords:** urban landscape, tree species, Vali Asr Street Tehran, Urban environment

## **1. Introduction**

Exactly as the establishment of developed urban areas is considered to be one of the greatest achievements of human civilization, city landscaping is can also be taken as a measure of the degree and nature of a civilization and the collective psyche of a nation. Although the view which regards cities as phenomena independent of the human will is not held as widely to date (3), there is still a deep-seated approach to the subject which has strong following and tries to interpret and analyze the city and her landscapes regardless of humankind as their simultaneous creator and perceiver (7).

© 2012 Edalatkhah et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

## **2. Concepts**

The urban landscape is a concept that lingers in the human memory even after one has evacuated a landscaped spot and results from the interaction between man (the onlooker) and his living environment. (1)

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These have been lining the road ever since it was built over 80 years ago and now amount to a total of 11,000. The plane trees of the Avenue are long considered to be a unique symbol of Iran's capital city, a national treasure and a cultural heritage which for many residents of the older gen-

Unsettling reports have been published in ever-growing numbers on the immanent extinction of Tehran's historic plane trees. One of the best-researched among reports published very recently blames the following factors for the growing threat that has put the life of these priceless trees

c) The release of sewage and other pollutants into the running water resources of Tehran; d) The disposal of a wide range of toxic chemicals such as detergents, industrial chemicals, cement and other construction materials, industrial oils and gasoline in the city's soil and

e) Physical damage incurred on the root system of the trees as a result of constant diggings,

f) Changes in top soil levels exposing the trees' root systems to ambient, erosive climatic

h) High-rise buildings which block solar radiation reaching the canopy of the trees;

eration revive endless nostalgic memories of the city's rich and exciting history.

a) The demolition of the surface- and ground-water runways of the city;

**4. The plane trees of Vali Asr Avenue**

**5. The current situation of the trees**

b) Mismanagement in irrigation;

curb lining and concrete injection projects;

g) Physical mistreatment of the trees by humans;

i) Highly polluted air all the year round (6), (2).

**Figure 2.** Old picture from vali Asr street in Tehan city,Iran

water resources;

factors;

on the edge:

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The most decisive feature of such a concept is its being subjective-objective, human-concrete, social-spatial which can be comprehended solely via the human experience and his interaction with his surrounding environements.

There are three major approaches to the qualitative entity of the urban landscape:


## **3. The case study on Vali Asr Avenue in Tehran**

This is a major thoroughfare 18 kilometres long linking the northern and southern tips of the city along an almost straight north-south vertical line. Yet, perhaps the most important reason behind the outstanding role of this road in Tehran is the fact that it acts like a historical bridge connecting the junctures the city went through before and after the road was built. This road is, in effect, a showcase of Tehran's social, cultural, political, religious, etc developments, especially, over the past 100 years, and therefore, her historical backbone.

**Figure 1.** New picture from vali Asr street in Tehan city,Iran

## **4. The plane trees of Vali Asr Avenue**

These have been lining the road ever since it was built over 80 years ago and now amount to a total of 11,000. The plane trees of the Avenue are long considered to be a unique symbol of Iran's capital city, a national treasure and a cultural heritage which for many residents of the older generation revive endless nostalgic memories of the city's rich and exciting history.

#### **5. The current situation of the trees**

Unsettling reports have been published in ever-growing numbers on the immanent extinction of Tehran's historic plane trees. One of the best-researched among reports published very recently blames the following factors for the growing threat that has put the life of these priceless trees on the edge:


**Figure 2.** Old picture from vali Asr street in Tehan city,Iran

## **6. Spotting optimal locations for landscaping**

Landscaped plots must be centrally positioned, that is, they must be located at the heart of a neighborhoods, zone or district of the city. Moreover, such plots should be consistent with the physical structure of the environments that surrounds them. Another crucial criterion is accessibility. City landscapes must be linked with the traffic and transport grid in their four directions to become easily accessible for the greatest number of people and to become safer places for the public as enforcing public security measures in such locations is optimized thus.

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urban areas overall and urban landscapes in particular is of paramount importance. However, the scientific study of these elements and their contribution to urban development in view of their economic as well as budgetary repercussions is no less significant. In other words, imageand landscape-related projects should not be taken into account barely from an architectural and aesthetic but also from an economic standpoint. As regards important traffic axes, strategic decisions must be made in accordance with the prominent position of spatial planning and landscaping projects in urban areas. In other words, the simple fact that budgetary provisions are available to municipal managers must not automatically lead to the illusion that such resources can be allocated to imagined beautification projects arbitrarily to boost development efforts in

[1] Soltani,B.2010,view to green area of Tehran city, journal of environmental science,environment

[5] Riyazi, B, 2009, Development of green space in Tehran, proceeding of green space seminar,

[6] Majnoniyan, H, 2010, Debates about parks, green space and promenade, Tehran city parks and

[2] Bijan zad,M,2010,evaluation of green area of Tehran city, jihad daneshgahi ,press, Tehran. [3] Satari,J,2006,Myth of Tehran city, office of cultural research, environment organization press.

[4] Rasouli, A, 2009, buttonwood, holy tree in Iran, cultural heritage press, Tehran

[8] McPherson, E.G & Nowak,D.G, 2011,The Chicago urban forest climate project.

Tehran city parks and green space organization, Tehran

urban areas in turn.

**10. References** 

organization press.

green space organization, Tehran [7] http://www.darioush-shahbazi.com Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

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## **7. The role and effects of trees in urban landscapes**

City landscaping is the art of visually and structurally integrating the complex of buildings, roads and elements present in them, as well as all those spaces which give shape to urban environments. These include natural spaces inside city precincts which play a decisive role in creating urban landscapes with a decisively different appearance. Among natural elements influencing urban landscapes, trees are of paramount importance owing to their particular structure and spatial function. Like buildings, trees have structures which help create plant-based architectural styles. In lieu with overall changes that a city experiences in the course of its subsequent historical stages, the selection criteria for the varieties of trees to be planted in the city change, too. Meanwhile, almost all cities in the world today host a large proportion of open space with distinctive physical characteristics each. These include streets, squares, and spaces adjacent to car parks. Tree selection criteria for each of these spatial categories vary accordingly as determined by professional city landscaping architects.

## **8. Recommendations**

Any successful management of urban green space requires the serious enforcement of the following measures and/or principles:


## **9. Conclusion**

Both from an architectural-aesthetic point of view and in order to raise the quality of the essential elements in urban livelihoods, paying attention in urban management processes to the image of urban areas overall and urban landscapes in particular is of paramount importance. However, the scientific study of these elements and their contribution to urban development in view of their economic as well as budgetary repercussions is no less significant. In other words, imageand landscape-related projects should not be taken into account barely from an architectural and aesthetic but also from an economic standpoint. As regards important traffic axes, strategic decisions must be made in accordance with the prominent position of spatial planning and landscaping projects in urban areas. In other words, the simple fact that budgetary provisions are available to municipal managers must not automatically lead to the illusion that such resources can be allocated to imagined beautification projects arbitrarily to boost development efforts in urban areas in turn.

#### **10. References**


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**Analysis of Landscape Pattern Changes in** 

**Isfahan City During the Last Two Decades**

Neda Bihamta Toosi, Sima Fakheran\* and Alireza Soffianian

Department of Natural Resources, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran

Urbanization and urban land-use transition are a global concern and one of the greatest challenges for ensuring human welfare. The landscape patterns resulting from urbanization influence processes at local, regional, and global scales. Quantifying the spatio-temporal pattern of urbanization is important for understanding its ecological impacts and can provide basic information for appropriate decision-making. The main goal of this study was to quantify the changes of landscape patterns in Isfahan city, in Iran, during the last two decades. For monitoring spatial pattern changes, land use and land-cover maps of the area were prepared using supervised maximum likelihood classification of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images taken in 1990 and 2010. Five classes of land use including Water, Agricultural land, Urban area, Undeveloped area, and Bare land were identified. The changes of landscape structure were analyzed using several landscape metrics including: Percentage of landscape (PLAND), Number of patches (NP), Largest Patch Index (LPI) and Contagion (CONTAG), which were derived from spatial analysis software FRAGSTATS. The results indicated that the proportion of undeveloped area decreased from 41.87% to 39.65% and proportion of urban areas was significantly increased from 9.88% to

28.73% during the last two decades, mainly due to reduced agricultural area in Isfahan.

**Keywords:** Urbanization, Isfahan, Spatio-Temporal Changes, Landscape metrics, FRAGSTATS

Urbanization, urban expansion and urban land-use transition are a global concern and one of the greatest challenges for ensuring human welfare. Over 50% percent of the world population lives in urbanized areas. Urbanization has profoundly transformed natural landscapes throughout the world, which inevitably has resulted in various effects on the structure, function, and dynamics of ecological systems at a wide range of scales. For example, land transformations associated with urban expansion can significantly affect biodiversity, energy flows, biogeochemical cycles, and climatic conditions at local to regional scales [3]. To improve understanding of urban landscape changes, remote sensed imagery, multiple models, and scenario analysis approaches are widely becoming used. Analyses of land use/cover changes (LUCC) are fundamental for understanding numerous social, economical and environmental problems [5]. To establish this correlation, the first step is to quantify landscape patterns. Landscape metrics are approaches to quantify landscape patterns, mainly, applied to categorical data with spatial interruption [2]. A wide range of metrics are available for the examination of relationships between spatial structure, ecological function,

\*Corresponding author, Email: fakheran@cc.iut.ac.ir

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction** 

© 2012 Bihamta Toosi et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

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## **Analysis of Landscape Pattern Changes in Isfahan City During the Last Two Decades**

Neda Bihamta Toosi, Sima Fakheran\* and Alireza Soffianian

Department of Natural Resources, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran \*Corresponding author, Email: fakheran@cc.iut.ac.ir

#### **Abstract**

Urbanization and urban land-use transition are a global concern and one of the greatest challenges for ensuring human welfare. The landscape patterns resulting from urbanization influence processes at local, regional, and global scales. Quantifying the spatio-temporal pattern of urbanization is important for understanding its ecological impacts and can provide basic information for appropriate decision-making. The main goal of this study was to quantify the changes of landscape patterns in Isfahan city, in Iran, during the last two decades. For monitoring spatial pattern changes, land use and land-cover maps of the area were prepared using supervised maximum likelihood classification of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images taken in 1990 and 2010. Five classes of land use including Water, Agricultural land, Urban area, Undeveloped area, and Bare land were identified. The changes of landscape structure were analyzed using several landscape metrics including: Percentage of landscape (PLAND), Number of patches (NP), Largest Patch Index (LPI) and Contagion (CONTAG), which were derived from spatial analysis software FRAGSTATS. The results indicated that the proportion of undeveloped area decreased from 41.87% to 39.65% and proportion of urban areas was significantly increased from 9.88% to 28.73% during the last two decades, mainly due to reduced agricultural area in Isfahan.

**Keywords:** Urbanization, Isfahan, Spatio-Temporal Changes, Landscape metrics, FRAGSTATS

#### **1. Introduction**

Urbanization, urban expansion and urban land-use transition are a global concern and one of the greatest challenges for ensuring human welfare. Over 50% percent of the world population lives in urbanized areas. Urbanization has profoundly transformed natural landscapes throughout the world, which inevitably has resulted in various effects on the structure, function, and dynamics of ecological systems at a wide range of scales. For example, land transformations associated with urban expansion can significantly affect biodiversity, energy flows, biogeochemical cycles, and climatic conditions at local to regional scales [3]. To improve understanding of urban landscape changes, remote sensed imagery, multiple models, and scenario analysis approaches are widely becoming used. Analyses of land use/cover changes (LUCC) are fundamental for understanding numerous social, economical and environmental problems [5]. To establish this correlation, the first step is to quantify landscape patterns. Landscape metrics are approaches to quantify landscape patterns, mainly, applied to categorical data with spatial interruption [2]. A wide range of metrics are available for the examination of relationships between spatial structure, ecological function,

© 2012 Bihamta Toosi et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

and landscape change, The selection of the metrics depends first of all on the purpose of the study (mostly ecological process) and also on the landscape characteristics [1]. The common usage of the term 'landscape metrics' refers exclusively to indices developed for categorical maps. Landscape metrics are focused on the characterization of the geometric and spatial properties of categorical map patterns represented at a single scale [4]Applying these landscape metrics, this study attempts to quantificationally analyze the landscape pattern changes of Isfahan during the last two decades.

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Analysis of PLAND at the class level provides a general representation of landscape composition. The temporal change of PLAND can be used to obtain an overall idea of landscape change in Isfahan city. In 1990, the agricultural area of Isfahan comprised 46.85% of the total area. From 1990 to 2010, the area of agriculture kept declining (Fig.3). The prop ortion of undeveloped area decreased from 41.87%S to 39.65% in the period of study (Fig.3). Urban growth in the Isfahan maintained a rapid pace during the study period, increasing the percentage of urban area to

**Figure 3.** Comparison of Percentage of landscape in Isfahan city in 1990 and 2010.

**Figure 2.** Land cover of Isfahan city: A.1990, B.2010

**3. Result**

28.73% in 2010 (Fig.3).

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## **2. Materials and methods**

#### **2.1. Study area**

The study area is Isfahan city which is located in centre of Iran and covers 340 km2 (Fig. 1). The city is located in the lush plain of the Zayanderood River, at the foothills of the Zagros mountain range. Zayanderood River divides Isfahan city into north and south parts. Isfahan is one of the most important cities of Iran because of its historical and economic values. Isfahan attracts a large number of tourists each year. The mean annual temperature of Isfahan is approximately 16 ◦C. The altitude of the study area is 1580 meters above mean sea level. The Isfahan metropolitan area had a population of 1,791,069 in the 2010, the second most populous metropolitan area in Iran after Tehran. Urban expansion, population growth, in addition to industrial development, have resulted in degrading environmental quality in Isfahan.

## **2.2. Data and preprocessing**

For monitoring spatial pattern changes, land use and land-cover maps of the area were prepared using supervised maximum likelihood classification of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images taken in 1990 and 2010. Five classes of land use/cover including Water, Agricultural land, Urban area, Undeveloped area, and Bare land were identified. We applied spatial pattern analysis software FRAGSTATS 3.3 to calculate landscape metrics of each class type and total landscape. We chose several class-level metrics including: Percentage of landscape (PLAND), Number of patches (NP), and Largest Patch Index (LPI), and also some landscape-level metrics such as Number of patches (NP), Patch Density and Contagion (CONTAG) were calculated to qualify the landscape pattern dynamics of Isfahan city.

**Figure 1.** Location of Isfahan Province which is in the center of Iran (left) and Isfahan city extent (right).

**Figure 2.** Land cover of Isfahan city: A.1990, B.2010

## **3. Result**

Analysis of PLAND at the class level provides a general representation of landscape composition. The temporal change of PLAND can be used to obtain an overall idea of landscape change in Isfahan city. In 1990, the agricultural area of Isfahan comprised 46.85% of the total area. From 1990 to 2010, the area of agriculture kept declining (Fig.3). The prop ortion of undeveloped area decreased from 41.87%S to 39.65% in the period of study (Fig.3). Urban growth in the Isfahan maintained a rapid pace during the study period, increasing the percentage of urban area to 28.73% in 2010 (Fig.3).

**Figure 3.** Comparison of Percentage of landscape in Isfahan city in 1990 and 2010.

The number of patches (NP) of all land covers types increased from 1990 to 2010. The most changes in Number of patch are related to agriculture area, with increasing from 1335 to 2979 in this period of time (Fig. 4).

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The effectiveness of information on land covers change for spatial planning and decision making. Satellite images and landscape metrics, can be extremely useful for planners in assessing and monitoring the ecological consequences of landscape patterns. The proportion of agriculture reduced from 46.85 to 28.31, The proportion of urban was significantly increased from 9.88 to 28.73 during the study period, mainly due to reduced agricultural area in Isfahan. The synoptic analysis of selected metrics in landscape level showed the landscape has been more fragmented

[1] Evelyn, s, Roosaare, J., Oja, T., Mander, U., 2011, *Analyzing the spatial structure of the Estonian landscapes: which landscape metrics are the most suitable for comparing different landscapes?, Estonian* 

[2] Jin, s., Deng, Wang, k., Hong, Y., Qi, j., 2009, *Spatial-temporal dynamics and evolution of land use change and landscape Pattern in response to rapid urbanization, Landscape and Urban Planning*, 92: p.

[3] Luck, M., and Wu, J., 2002, *A gradient analysis of urban landscape pattern: a case study from the Phoenix* 

[4] McGarigal, K and Marks, B.J., 1995, FRAGSTATS: *spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-351, USDA Forest Service, Pasic Northwest* 

[5] Rafaela, P., Leone, A., Boccia, L., 2009, *Land cover and land use change in the Italian central Apennines:* 

This project was supported by a grant from Iran National Science Foundation.

*metropolitan region- Arizona- USA, Landscape Ecology*, 17: p. 327–339.

*A comparison of assessment methods, Applied Geography,* 29: p. 35–48.

**4. Conclusion**

in Isfahan during the last two decades.

*Journal of Ecology*,60: p. 70-80.

*Research Station, Portland*. P.961-978.

**5. Acknowledgments**

**6. References**

187–198.

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**Figure 4.** Comparison of Number of patches (NP) in Isfahan city in1990 and 2010 .

Undeveloped area had the highest values of LPI metric (Fig.4). From 1990 to 2010, the largest variation of LPI metric is associated to agriculture area, with decreasing from 26.22 to 7.6 % (Fig.5).

**Figure 5.** Comparison of Largest Patch Index in 1990 and 2010 in Isfahan city

The synoptic analysis of selected metrics for landscape level indicated the metric values of NP and PD increased from 2333 to 5898 and 1507.53 to 3418.73, respectively in past two decades (table1). The metric values of CONTAGE reduced from 67.63 to 63.22 (table 1).


**Table 1.** Synoptic analysis of spatial metric for Isfahan city

## **4. Conclusion**

The effectiveness of information on land covers change for spatial planning and decision making. Satellite images and landscape metrics, can be extremely useful for planners in assessing and monitoring the ecological consequences of landscape patterns. The proportion of agriculture reduced from 46.85 to 28.31, The proportion of urban was significantly increased from 9.88 to 28.73 during the study period, mainly due to reduced agricultural area in Isfahan. The synoptic analysis of selected metrics in landscape level showed the landscape has been more fragmented in Isfahan during the last two decades.

## **5. Acknowledgments**

This project was supported by a grant from Iran National Science Foundation.

## **6. References**


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**Monitoring Land Use/Cover Changes Using** 

**Study: Falavarjan Area, Isfahan, Iran)** 

\* Corresponding author, E-mail address: fakheran@cc.iut.ac.ir

**Abstract**

an accuracy of 84%.

**1. Introduction** 

Department of Natural Resources, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran

**Different Change Detection Techniques (Case** 

Maliheh Alsadat Madanian, Alireza Soffianian and Sima Fakheran\*

Land use/cover change mapping is one of the basic tasks for environmental monitoring and management. In recent years, a variety of change detection techniques have been developed. This research compares three change detection techniques, including image differencing, image rationing, and image regression to study land use/cover changes in Falavarjan /Iran. The data sources used in this study were Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) and AWiFS images taken in September 1972, and September 2008, respectively. First, images were geometrically and radiometrically corrected. The root mean square (RMSe) obtained 0.5 pixels for each images. The Three change detection methods were performed. Then, a supervised maximum likelihood classification was used as a crossclassification to detect "from-to" change which allowed to assess the accuracy of each change detection technique. Based on accuracy assessment, the image differencing method was the most accurate one with an overall accuracy of 85% in detecting land use/cover changes in Falavarjan area. This was followed by the image rationing technique with

> © 2012 Madanian et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

**Keywords:** Change detection, Image differencing, Image rationing, Post-classification.

classification comparison, change vector analysis, and background subtraction [1,2].

Change detection is the process of identifying differences in the state of an object or phenomenon by observing it at different times [1]. A variety of algorithms have been developed for change detection including, image overlay, image differencing, image regression, image rationing, vegetation index differencing, principal components analysis, spectral/temporal classification, post-

Among the different change detection techniques, image differencing, image rationing, image regression and change vector analysis (CVA) are widespread [3-6]. In theses algorithms, selecting threshold is necessary to determine the changed areas. Petit et al. (2001) found the combination of image differencing and post-classification was better than the only single method in determining "from–to" change in south-eastern Zambia [7]. Berberoglu and Akin (2009) and Prakash and Gupta (1998) compared different change detection methods. They found that each algorithm have its own merits and advantages [8,9]. Angelici et al. (1977) applied the difference of band ratio data and a threshold method to separate change and no change areas [10]. Jensen and Toll

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