A Landscape – Based Analysis of Spatial Distribution and Dynamics of Tehran Urban Green Spaces

Tehran the capital city of Iran, with a population of about 8 million and an area of over 700 Km2 is one of the most polluted metropolises in the world. Tehran is suffering from a tremendous reduction in its sink capacity for absorption and assimilation of pollution which is generally due to uncontrolled urban sprawl and failure in consideration of ecological aspects into regional land use planning. In order to quantify the configuration and composition of green spaces, Land sat satellite images (dated 1988 & 2002) and land use map (1:2000) were applied. Landscape metrics such as NP, MPS, MNN and CAP were used for the analysis of landscape structure (both configuration and composition) in two landscape scales. Findings revealed that, Tehran has been experiencing severe alterations in the form of perforation and fragmentation as a result of extension of patchy settlements and lack of proper connectivity in the mosaic network of green spaces.