=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper31
|storemode=property
|title=A Web-based DSS for Sustainability in Urban Green Zones
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper31.pdf
|volume=Vol-1498
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/VarrasAKTM15
}}
==A Web-based DSS for Sustainability in Urban Green Zones==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper31.pdf
A Web-based DSS for Sustainability in Urban Green
Zones
Grigorios Varras1, Zacharoula Andreopoulou2, Christiana Koliouska3, Evangelos
Tasoulas4, Christos Myriounis5
1
Department of Agricultural Technology, Unit Floriculture & Landscape Architecture,
Technological Educational Institution of Epirus, tel. 2681050235, Greece
e-mail: grvarass@teiep.gr
2
Laboratory of Forest Informatics, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki, Box 247, 54124, tel. 2310992714, Greece,
e-mail: randreop@for.auth.gr
3
Laboratory of Forest Informatics, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki, Box 247, 54124, tel. 2310992722, Greece,
e-mail: ckolious@for.auth.gr
4
Department of Agricultural Technology, Unit Floriculture & Landscape Architecture,
Technological Educational Institution of Epirus, Greece
e-mail: tasoulasv@gmail.com
5
Department of Agricultural Technology, Unit Floriculture & Landscape Architecture,
Technological Educational Institution of Epirus, tel. 2681050235, Greece
e-mail: cmiriounis@yahoo.com
Abstract. The utilization of urban green zones forms a major part of urban
sustainability in the context of the improvement of quality of life of the
citizens. Within the policy for sustainable management of urban green zones,
the tools that are used effectively are new technologies such as web databases,
web DSS, GIS and environmental impact prediction model. This paper
presents the geodatabase, which was used as a background for the GIS and the
ENVI-MET application in order to develop city microclimatic maps.
Microclimatic maps will constitute a very important tool for the decision-
making process in urban forest policy. The results will be presented as a spatial
imaging system, through a software development for the GIS platform where
the effects will be illustrated. The integrated web platform for the management
of urban green zones constitutes an important step for the maintenance and
improvement of quality of life in urban areas, the environmental sustainability,
the environmental information dissemination, the improvement of urban
planning and the web-DSS utilization for the integrated management of urban
green zones.
Keywords: web-based DSS, sustainability, urban green zones, microclimatic
maps, geodatabase.
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1 Introduction
The utilization of urban green zones forms a major part of urban sustainability in the
context of the improvement of quality of life of the citizens. Besides a greater tax
base, preserving green zones, forests, river corridors, maintains the necessary
biodiversity that enables this planet to function, creating oxygen, filtering carbon
dioxide and other natural effluents; these processes are not only beneficial for quality
of life they are critical for life itself (Kantartzis et al. 2007). Within the policy for
sustainable management of urban green zones, the tools that are used effectively are
new technologies such as web databases, GIS and environmental impact prediction
model. Tasoulas and Andreopoulou (2012) indicate that Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) is a discipline that can be adequately exploited in
many scientific fields, aiming to help local authorities/administrative in decision-
making process. This diffusion has already intruded in urban forestry management
and administrators exploit software in order to make their management plans more
virtual (Tasoulas et al 2013).
A database is a tool that local authorities/administrative can use to plan and
standardize their practices for sustainability in urban green zones. Database is an
essential Decision Support (DSS) tool while the web-based application simplifies the
sustainable management of urban forest even more. A web-based DSS is a
computerized system that delivers decision support information or decision support
tools to a manager using a “thin-client” web browser (Engel et al. 2003). Due to the
growing interest in the Web, there are many on-going efforts to develop and
implement Web-based DSS in various areas (Bhargava et al. 2007), such as urban
forest protection.
1.1 Background of the research
The present paper is part of the research program «URBAN: Integrated
Framework of Management, Protection and Utilization of Urban and peri-Urban
Forest» that deals with the study and recording of urban green zones. It is therefore
an integrated research of the selected urban hedgerows in the four major
Municipalities of Epirus Region during which the mapping of environmental impact
is achieved combining the results of the contemporary research in the field of Urban
Foresting, with the latest developments in the field of new ICTs.
The project aims to develop innovative quantitative and qualitative methods
through the development of an innovative model to quantify the impact of “urban
heat island” on the microclimate of the town considering the terrain type, the
existence and the area of surface water, the kind, the exact location and the surface
area of the island, the plant species and their special characteristics.
The tasks that will have been completed during the project implementation are the
following: Studies on the field of natural environment, prediction microclimatic
effects model, analysis of the Integrated Geoinformation System requirements,
Integrated Geographic Information System development, data collection in the field
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and insertion in the database, awareness website development, public dissemination
of research results.
This paper presents the geodatabase, which was used as a background for the GIS
and the ENVI-MET application in order to develop city microclimatic maps.
Microclimatic maps will constitute a very important tool for the decision-making
process in urban forest policy. The results will be presented as a spatial imaging
system, through a software development for the GIS platform where the effects will
be illustrated.
2 Paper Preparation
The database contents include geographical entities, vectors and descriptive
information concerning the integrated recording information about the urban green
zones of selected islands (the so called ENVI islands) in 4 cities of Epirus region,
Arta, Ioannina, Preveza and Igoumenitsa. Functional and technical requirements
analysis was carried out in order to constitute part of the digitized Geodatabase
platform. The information recorded is about the area, the existence of surface water,
the type, the exact location of the islands, the plant species and their special
characteristics, such as: botanical and common name, tree height, height were canopy
begins, canopy height, canopy diameter, diameter breast height, perimeter breast
height, tree health, tree stability. The information recorded about the tree damages
are the following: limited growth space, sidewalk elevation, stump decay, trunk
twist, splits on tree trunks, vandalism, damages caused by pruning, drying, broken
branches, asymmetric canopies, tassels caused by pruning, insects, yeasts, liquid
outflow, ivy-pests. The manipulations for the restoration of the damaged trees ban
be: removal, monitoring, scheduled tree pruning, manipulations for tree injuries,
none. The data of polygons that will be collected in public areas, will concern the
shrubs, the herbaceous plants, the surfaces covered with water stones etc, the trees
that cannot be mapped individually.
In addition, the orthophotomaps of National Cadastre and Mapping Agency and of
Google were used as a background for the digitization tasks of urban green zones
through photo-interpretation. Aiming at the dissemination of the environmental
information, the optimization of urban planning with regard to sustainability and the
database utilization for integrated management of urban forest, the database is
available on the web within the Integrated Geo-Information Platform System through
the research program URBAN (http://urbantreemanagement.teiep.gr). The platform
allows the database utilization for the city microclimatic map development for the
quantification of green zones effects on the city microclimate aiming to take the
appropriate measures within a rational policy for the management of urban green
infrastructure in the interests of quality of life of urban network and population.
In Figure 1, the main interface of the Scenario Map is presented. In this step, the
user has to select which one of the four municipalities is interested in.
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Fig. 1. The main interface of the Scenario Map
Then, the user selects the scenario and the index that will be illustrated by the
microclimatic map. There are two possible scenarios: a typical summer day and a
typical hot day. The provided indexes are the following:
• Discomfort Index (DI): expresses the human discomfort because of the air
temperature and humidity
• Predicted Mean Vote (PMV): expresses the mean response of a larger group of
people according to the human thermal comfort sensation
• Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD): expresses the predicted percentage
(%) of people who are thermally dissatisfied in a place
• Sky View Factor (SVF): expresses the solid angle of sky view from land
surface
• Air Temperature (T2m): expresses the air temperature (oC) at 2m height above
the ground
• Surface Temperature (Ts): expresses the surface temperature (oC)
In Figure 2, the microclimatic map regarding the air temperature of a typical
summer day in Preveza city. By locating the mouse cursor on a point of the
microclimatic map, further information about the selected index value is presented.
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Fig. 2. Microclimatic map regarding the air temperature of a typical summer day in Preveza
city
In Figure 3, the microclimatic map regarding the discomfort index of a typical hot
day in Ioannina city.
Fig. 3. Microclimatic map regarding the discomfort index of a typical hot day in Ioannina city
267
The integrated web platform for the management of urban green zones constitutes
an important step for the maintenance and improvement of quality of life in urban
areas, the environmental information dissemination, the improvement of urban
planning and the web-DSS utilization for the integrated management of urban green
zones. The web-DSS gives prominence to the “Sustainable Development” of urban
areas as the fundamental principle for the citizens.
The purposes of the research proposal are summarized in the following axes:
1. Expansion of the experience of the involved research teams in the scientific
field related to the optimum control of shade, temperature, the minimization
of the “urban heat island” effect and
2. Sustainable development enhancement through the design and
implementation of policies by leading citizens and organizations to the
optimal use of urban resources (water supplies, optimizing the
characteristics of urban and peri-urban green zones, etc).
The web-DSS interface is developed in the Greek language because it constitutes
part of a research program of TEI of Epirus called “URBAN: Integrated Framework
of Management, Protection and Utilization of Urban and peri-Urban Forest”. A
future extend of the web-DSS could be the creation of multiple versions of the
interface in other languages aiming to form a useful tool for managers abroad.
However, adjustments should have to be made in the original code of the DSS
whenever it is required, because every type of forest ecosystem is characterized by
different needs.
Acknowledgments. This paper was accomplished within a research program of TEI
of Epirus called URBAN: Integrated Framework of Management, Protection and
Utilization of Urban and peri-Urban Forest. This research has been co-financed by
the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds
through the Regional Operational Program (ROP) of Epirus of the National Strategic
Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program NEA GNOSI.
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