Gis-based integrated approach for sustainable management of ecology and environment with green and blue spaces

The Andhra Pradesh state of India has announced a master plan for retaining and improving the green-blue network in the Amaravati Region as the green-blue areas play a potential role to mitigate the adverse effects of urbanization in a sustainable way. The present paper proposes an advanced scheme for improving the existing percentage of green space in the master plan through suitably pre-processing and extracting the green-blue spaces using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. The proposed approach intends to strengthen the environmental dimension and to regain the balance of sustainable development. The urban green space per capita analysis and percentage area of green are determined for measuring greenness. The results from the study enable us to identify the critical areas with less percentage green and recommend possible changes in the planning and greening strategies to the existing master plan. From the analysis, it is suggested that the green space alone be increased by 30 per cent through proposing an additional allocation of vacant plots to linear greens and rooftop gardens. The proposed suggestions would certainly contribute to a liveable and sustainable city through integrated and holistic planning of the green and blue spaces and will eventually benefit the inhabitants of Amaravati.