Greenbelt's impact on urban forest habitat: Insights from morphological analysis in quantifying conservation effects

Urban forests play a crucial role in preserving biodiversity in highly urbanized areas by providing habitats for various species and promoting ecological connectivity. However, managing urban forests presents challenges such as low habitat quality and fragmentation risks. To address these challenges, protected areas serve as a fundamental policy tool. This study analyzes the effect of Greenbelt areas, protected spaces within urban settings, on future land-use and habitat changes. Through morphological analysis of forest areas, this study attempts to analyze the current status of habitats in cities affected by fragmentation and derive the effects of green belts, thereby presenting the direction of biodiversity conservation for city habitats. The Slope, Land-use, Excluded area, Urban, Transportation, Hillshade (SLEUTH) land-use change model was used to predict future land-use changes by applying a scenario that adjusts weights within the Greenbelt areas. In addition, the Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) Tool was used to derive changes by habitat type, which aided in deriving the implications of the Greenbelt regulation on the habitat. Our findings indicate that Greenbelt regulation effectively prevents the reduction of critical Core areas and minimizes damage to Islets, small patches. Comparisons between Core and Edge areas reveal that Edge areas are more vulnerable to development, and the impact of regulating the Greenbelt area is significant. In addition, Greenbelt regulations can help prevent habitat fragmentation by reducing Perforation, which creates cavities within Core areas. This study quantitatively demonstrated that the Greenbelt can play an important role not only in preventing urban expansion but playing an important role in habitat conservation in cities.