Residential and Green Areas Land Use Evaluation of a Proposed Smart City Using Geospatial Techniques

Abstract

The research problem can be summarized in practically verifying that the use of geospatial technologies contributes to developing methods of producing and updating master plan maps for smart cities, and then conducting an evaluation of some basic land uses in the city, represented by residential areas and green areas, according to the standard criteria adopted in urban planning. The study area is located in the Republic of Iraq - Najaf Governorate. The digital processes were divided into four successive stages. In the first stage, a geometrically corrected satellite image of the study area was obtained. In the second stage, this image was used as a reference for the geometric correction of the master plan map of the proposed smart city. Regarding the digital processing of the third stage, it was implemented to prepare a spatial database for the proposed smart city. This database includes two parts: the first part represents the graphical maps (as a feature class), while the second part represents the tabular information (attribute) associated with these graphical maps. Finally, the fourth stage included an analytical assessment of land uses in relation to the residential sector and green areas, based on the standard criteria adopted in urban planning. The research found that land uses allocated for housing were outside the standard criteria, with an increase of 20%. As for the uses of green areas, they were also outside the standard criteria, with an increase of 10%.