Formulating Sustainability Strategies for Urban Green Infrastructures by using the Landscape Changes Assessment (Tehran Metropolitan District 2)

Unbridled physical-spatial development of cities causes changes in land cover and loss of coherence of green infrastructure. One hazard in cities is that the sustainability of these infrastructures is neglected in comparison to urban development. The presence of these infrastructures (riverside lands, gardens, urban parks, agricultural greens, and wastelands) in and around cities can provide countless ecosystem services that would be irreplaceable if lost. In this way, it is necessary to know the process of urban landscape changing to guide planning and management. This research aimed to evaluate and predict the changes in land cover, measure the changes in the landscape structure, and then propose green infrastructure sustainability strategies to guide the landscape management in district 2 in the Tehran metropolitan. This region always had a privileged position due to the crossing of two river valleys (Darakeh and Farahzad). In this research, satellite images of1986, 2000, and 2016 years were used to prepare maps of different land covers by IDRISI software. Also, the Ca-Markov chain was used to predict land cover for 2032 year. According to the purpose, three classes (green space, open space, and man-made space) were considered. Green and open spaces are green infrastructures. Also, for analysing the structural changes, it has been calculated landscape metrics (NP, MPS, MPAR, CONTIG, MESH, SPLIT, LP, PLAND, and Division) by FRAGSTATS software. In total, during the years 1986 to 2016 years, respectively about 617 ha of green lands and 1100 ha of open lands have turned into man-made lands. According to the results that show the widespread replacement of green infrastructures by man-made lands and the loss of their integrity, strategies based on the five principles of landscape ecology have been proposed.