Characterizing variations of greenspace landscapes in relation to neighborhood characteristics in urban residential area of Beijing, China

Urban residential greenspace is considerably contributing to sustainable cities and residents’ well-being. An increasing number of studies have examined the greenspace inequalities and species biodiversity in relation to social theories in private gardens of US and European cities; however, much less studied is landscape configurations, especially in rapidly urbanizing cities like Beijing, China. To demonstrate the fine-scale landscape variations of residential greenspace in Beijing urban area, and also to examine the main predictors of neighborhood characteristics on greenspace landscapes. A greenmap of Beijing urban area was first derived from Pleiades-1A images, then residential greenspace landscapes were examined using six landscape metrics, finally correlation and multiple regression analysis were performed to explore the relationships of greenspace landscape metrics and neighborhood characteristics. The neighborhood characteristics are affecting residential greenspace of Beijing city. The neighborhoods with more and fragmented green coverage, complex patch shape and higher patch size variations are generally more aged, more distant to the city center and have lower plot-ratios. A distance of one additional kilometer to city center increases the vegetation coverage by 0.16% and the mean patch size by 10.17 m2. A neighborhood of one year older increases the patch density by 8.69. Moreover, one unit higher plot-ratio reduces the edge density by 5.66, and the patch size coefficient of variation by 7.03. Urban structure affects residential landscapes, and greenspace management approaches applied to optimize urban human well-being should integrate urban/landscape ecology with residential architecture.