A “ Green Index ” Incorporating Remote Sensing and Citizen ’ S Perception of Green Space

Remote sensing is widely regarded to be useful to get a spatial overview. Typical results are maps showing the spatial extent, changes and intensities of phenomena of the Earth’s surface. Qualitative information is usually only indirectly related to measurable parameters such as vegetation indices. This paper describes a research project carried out together with the city council of Salzburg, Austria. Planners defined the needs for a series of maps which reflect the citizen’s ‘well-being’ and living situation. Among other factors, the ‘greenness’ of the direct neighborhood is an important factor for satisfactorily living conditions. Together with planners, a green index was developed which uses remote sensing information to derive a basic 2-D map of vegetation classes. It reflects the relative proportion of multi-story houses in the direct surrounding and the distances between them. So methodologically, the research aims at linking human viewpoints with ecological aspects of urban green. Such linkages offer the promise of new insights for understanding the perception of urban green space.