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Testing the Application of Integrated Digital Photography and Image Processing (IDIP) to Calculate the Characteristics of Urban Greening Over Time: A Pilot Project for Oxford, UK

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A Sustainable Green Future

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Abstract

The integrated digital photography and image processing (IDIP) method was applied as a tool for assessing urban greening in the area of the city of Oxford, UK. The main goal was to quantify urban greening cross-temporally using available digital imagery. This was executed using historical images that were available from Google Earth. A total of 38 images were available from 1945 to 2021. A selection process was executed to choose the best quality images for inclusion in the study. This resulted in a total of 22 images being selected for processing using IDIP. These images were grouped into three sets of like images, comprising groupings of eight, eight, and six images, selected based on their similarity of lighting and colouration. The results convey that 1985–1992 (Set 1) had greener images than 2004–2011 (Set 2) and especially 2014–2020 (Set 3). This is indicative of less urban greening in the area of Oxford, at a maximum average rate of 0.0724% over 20 years of observation, as the city continued to experience urban growth. Interestingly, histogram-based standard deviation values increased over the timeframe of this study. This could be attributed to more broken up green space, meaning that the green area is becoming more fragmented with the expansion of urban development.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    Mary J. Thornbush

Authors
  1. Mary J. Thornbush
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mary J. Thornbush .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Ege University, Bornova, Izmir, Türkiye

    Suphi S. Oncel

Appendix A

Appendix A

The following table summarizes the results from this study and also provides a visual of the outputs. It includes the lab statistics output by the Histogram function for the a channel. The data are organized according to the images included in each set.

Image (Set)

Month/year

Image

% Mean

% Std. dev.

Median

1 (1)

12/1985

46.64

1.95

46.67

2 (1)

12/1986

46.64

1.95

46.67

3 (1)

12/1987

46.64

1.95

46.67

4 (1)

12/1988

46.64

1.95

46.67

5 (1)

12/1989

46.64

1.95

46.67

6 (1)

12/1990

46.64

1.95

46.67

7 (1)

12/1991

46.64

1.95

46.67

8 (1)

12/1992

46.64

1.95

46.67

9 (2)

12/2004

46.93

1.80

47.06

10 (2)

12/2005

46.93

1.80

47.06

11 (2)

12/2006

47.83

2.14

47.84

12 (2)

8/2007

47.33

2.17

47.45

13 (2)

6/2009

47.30

2.20

47.06

14 (2)

12/2009

47.45

2.11

47.45

15 (2)

12/2010

47.45

2.11

47.45

16 (2)

12/2011

47.45

2.11

47.45

17 (3)

3/2014

48.30

2.63

48.63

18 (3)

4/2017

47.55

2.38

47.45

19 (3)

5/2018

47.25

2.47

47.06

20 (3)

7/2019

48.86

2.58

48.63

21 (3)

4/2020

48.77

3.40

49.02

22 (3)

5/2020

47.75

2.10

47.45

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Thornbush, M.J. (2023). Testing the Application of Integrated Digital Photography and Image Processing (IDIP) to Calculate the Characteristics of Urban Greening Over Time: A Pilot Project for Oxford, UK. In: Oncel, S.S. (eds) A Sustainable Green Future. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24942-6_14

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