Urban Green Space Development Site Suitability Analysis Using Geospatial Technology: A Case Of Modjo Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

One of the critical issues in urban planning is the determination of appropriate locations for urban green space development in and around the town. This study demonstrates the use of Geospatial technology based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques for selection of suitable sites for urban green space development of Modjo Town. Nine factors (proximity to transportation, proximity to river, proximity to facility location, proximity to noise influence, land use land cover, slope, soil, population density and proximity to residential area) were identified for criteria evaluation. The thematic maps of these criteria were prepared and standardized using pair wise comparison matrix known as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). A weight for each criterion was given by comparing them with each other according to their importance, the consistence of comparing matrix were checked by calculating the consistence ratio (CR). The consistency ratio of this study indicated that 0.04 which is less than 0.1. Thus, consistent matrix was formed which was acceptable in order to combine all the layers. Finally using these weights all maps layer were integrated and overlaid to generate final site suitability map for the urban green space development. The final site suitability map was reclassified to five suitability classes: highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable, currently not suitable and permanently not suitable. The findings of this study revealed that 5.47% area is highly suitable, 27.59%areais moderately suitable, 51.45% area marginally suitable, 11.70% area is currently not suitable and 3.79% area is permanently unsuitable for urban green space development. This result shows that most of the area selected as highly suitable for future urban development are Shrub and bushes, bare land and farm land