The spatial heterogeneity of urban green space distribution and configuration in Lilongwe City, Malawi
Description
The present dataset is part of the article under consideration for publication titled “The Spatial Heterogeneity of Urban Green Space Distribution and Configuration in Lilongwe City, Malawi”. In this study, we used remote sensing data and landscape metrics to understand the distribution and configuration of urban green spaces in the city’s neighbourhoods and functional land uses and their relationships with urban form. The study results revealed that 20% of neighbourhoods fail to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended standard of 9 m2 of green space per person, with a predominant concentration of these undersupplied areas in high-density and quasi-residential zones. The study reveals the significant correlation of urban form metrics, namely building coverage, building density, building perimeter area ratio, road density, and the distribution and configuration of urban green spaces. We used the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVIS) as a proxy of green spaces. The NDVI was computed from a 10-metre-resolution Sentinel Level-2A imagery acquired on September 5, 2022 (Product ID: L2A_T36LXK_A028718_20220905T080208). A satellite image covering the entire city of Lilongwe city was obtained from the Copernicus Open Access Hub (https://scihub.copernicus.eu/). The acquired satellite image was clipped to extract study areas using the Lilongwe city boundary shapefile. We used the Microsoft building footprint and open street dataset to compute urban metrics. The population census data for the neighbourhoods was extracted from the 2018 Malawi Population and Housing Census report. The urban green space and urban form metrics were correlated to understand the impact of urban form on urban green spaces.