A systematic literature review of remote sensing approaches in urban green space research: Towards achieving sustainable development goals

Urban Green Spaces (UGSs) play a vital role in mitigating various urban challenges, particularly climate change and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, rapid urbanisation led to sharp decline in UGS share due to competing infrastructural demands. Presently, urban greening initiatives are primarily focussing on UGS monitoring, especially in highly-dense urban areas. Remote sensing (RS) technologies have emerged as valuable means for data collection and analysis, reducing the need for time-intensive field surveys. Yet, there is a lack of comprehensive review of RS approaches and sensors commonly used in UGS evaluation. This paper addresses this gap by reviewing RS-based UGS studies (2013-2023) using PRISMA technique. Five broad domains of RS application were identified: climate change, landscape pattern, human health and well-being, vegetation functionality, and rapid urbanisation using bibliometric cluster-analysis. Additionally, thematic analysis of bibliographic metadata revealed five key themes predominantly linked to SDGs 11, 13 and 15: spatio-temporal evaluation (29 %), urbanisation impacts (13 %), urban vegetation monitoring (18 %), environmental monitoring (17 %) and urban ecosystem service assessment (23 %). Each theme includes specific RS parameters and metrics creating an inventory of RS-based UGS evaluation methods. Additionally, the study developed a comparative review framework addressing the RS approaches adopted in developed and developing countries.