GIS technology for assessment of urban green cover area of Madurai corporation in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

India is one among the developing country that needs attention in the planning and development of urban areas such as smart cities in intention of (urban space index). Remote sensing and geospatial tools includes satellite based systems together with GIS enable a planner to spatially map the urban region in near real time condition, provide management and decision support system for urban planning. An initiative was taken up to map thematic layers Madurai Corporation using high resolution Cartosat-2 satellite data. A visual interpretation technique was employed to delineate spatial features that are individual trees, group of trees, building area, water bodies, parks and temples were derived in GIS environment. Respective thematic are listed as tree cover area 6.0190 km2, Buildings 29.0749 km2, Parks 0.1055 km2, Water bodies 4.0318 km2 and other area 17.4929 km2 out of 52.9054 km2 area coverage of Madurai municipality corporation and total number of trees 2,19,145 trees identified from crown area calculation method. Eventually a methodology is evolved to spatially define applicable green space areas.