Assessment of public open spaces (POS) and landscape quality based on per capita POS index in Delhi, India

Public open spaces and green cover are a connection between people and nature and are necessary to retain the quality of the urban landscape. Rapid urban growth and population increase put tremendous pressure on public open spaces, which reduces the quality of the urban landscape. The fast urban growth leads to utilize remaining green and open areas of the city for different purposes. As a result, the size of the urban green and open space is decreasing at an alarming rate. Therefore, the study analyses the availability of per capita public open spaces to assess the landscape quality. The green space available per capita in Delhi is about 20 m2, and public open space is 30 m2. Weights have been assigned to five variables selected to assess the landscape quality, and then, it was multiplied by the respective z score (scale-free) of each variable. Finally, we have calculated composite index score to develop a landscape quality index. The per capita share of public open spaces in East Delhi is 7.01 m2 to its total area. Wards with high population density have a comparatively low proportion of public open spaces. It is seen that most of the wards did not match the criteria of WHO and UN for per capita availability of public open spaces. The landscape quality index shows that in more than two-thirds of the wards, the landscape quality is poor. The wards of the central and northern parts of the study area are densely populated and have a low concentration of public open spaces; therefore, they have the least index score on landscape quality. At the same time, the wards of southeastern and eastern parts, where the population density is the lowest, the score of the landscape quality index is high.