Monitoring the urban ecosystem health by introducing a spatial model based on pressure-state-impact-response framework (study area: Sanandaj city)

Abstract

The ever-increasing growth of urban population in worldwide and their unsustainable use of land resources have turned resource planning and management into one of the world's most important environmental challenges. In recent years, the concept of "urban ecosystem health" has been developed to monitor the impacts of human activities on Earth's ecosystems. The present research aims to investigate the ecosystem health status of the Sanandaj city by introducing a spatial decision support system. Urban health indicators were extracted from the Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework and the health status of 26 districts of Sanandaj city has been investigated. Finally, by weighing and integrating of 16 indicators, the total health score in each urban district has been obtained. The results showed that the health status in 9.2% of the areas of Sanandaj were in a very poor to poor, in 30.8% in a poor to moderate, in 52% of the areas in a moderate to strong, and 7.9% of the areas were in a strong to very strong health status. It seems that most of the efforts to restore the health of Sanandaj ecosystem should be focused first on 3, 5, Nanleh and Garizeh and then, on 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 and Naysar districts. The model introduced in this study can be used to monitor the health status of any urban ecosystem which is the most important factor in maintaining the stability and sustainability of urban ecosystems.