Evaluation of the location of cities in terms of land cover on the example of Poland

Abstract

The increasing availability of remote sensing materials of varying spatial resolution inclines to look for methods enabling their use, both at planning the spatial structure of particular urban centers and shaping the global urban development policy on the national level. Urban development valorization should include the evaluation of urban greening while taking into account the surrounding landscape. Therefore, this work aimed at developing a method which would consider those two elements. By using the proposed method, all cities of Poland within their administrative boundaries were classified into generalized types. They are characterized by cities’ location in relation to the dominant landscape background which can be helpful in planning the actions in relation to developing the urban greening, as well as evaluating of the quality of life of the residents at the national level. Due to the landscape element, the decline in the quality of life of residents may concern a large group of cities located within the anthropogenic and agricultural landscape as well as the urban and agricultural, where the harmful effects of pollution from residential energy, industry, and farming often overlap. The method presented in this work can be used in relation to cities in other countries or to larger areas, enabling comparison between them.