Land Cover Patterns of Urban Lots and Their Contribution to Ecological Functions

Abstract

The green infrastructure of urban lots performs socio-ecological functions and provides several ecosystem services (ESs) in urban environments. By assessing the land cover patterns of such sites, one can deduce ecological functions and potential ESs. We represented the various land cover combinations of lots by mapping and classifying the vegetation quality of 2828 lots in the city of Belo Horizonte, Southeast Brazil. We performed cluster analysis of land cover with weighting according to ecological functions, potential for ES provision, and performance. Most lots (1024, 36.21%) were in the moderate vegetation quality class (trees/native vegetation between 25% and 50% or >50% herbaceous-shrubby vegetation), which included the largest plot of 383,300 m2 and a median plot size of 403 m2. A total of 244 (8.63%) lots were in the highest vegetation quality class (trees/native vegetation between >50% and 100%). The lots included diverse vegetation cover combinations of up to ten land cover types, with two dominant types: herbaceous-shrubby vegetation and tree clumps. Among the four land cover patterns obtained, those covered by tree clusters (1193 lots; 42.18%) had the highest ecological performance and the greatest potential for regulating and supporting ESs. This cluster had the highest average land cover of tree clumps (49%) and the highest averages for native vegetation formations (2–6%). Our study showed a variety of land cover patterns and an expressive percentage of lots with capabilities to provide ecological functions and ESs, which can support urban sustainability policies that have yet to be addressed.