Green space trends in small towns of Kyiv region according to EOS Land Viewer - a case study

The state of ecological balance of cities is determined by the analysis of the qualitative composition of green space. The lack of green space inventory in small towns in the Kyiv region has prompted the use of express analysis provided by the EOS Land Viewer platform, which allows obtaining an instantaneous distribution of the urban and suburban territories by a number of vegetative indices and in recent years - by scene classification. The purpose of the study is to determine the current state and dynamics of the ratio of vegetation and built-up cover of the territories of small towns in Kyiv region with establishing the rating of towns by eco-balance of territories. The distribution of the territory of small towns by the most common vegetation index NDVI, as well as by SAVI, which is more suitable for areas with vegetation coverage of less than 30%, has been monitored. We found that the share of dense vegetation in the territory of towns increased on average from 2.4 to 49.3% during 1990-2018. The share of the vegetation cover of moderate density decreased from 40.8 to 27.1%, and of sparse one from 37.5 to 14.9%. High variability of these indicators is noted. The share of open area for small towns decreased on average from 15.4 to 3.8%. The vegetation-free areas in 1990, 2005 and 2018 accounted for 3.8, 2.6 and 4.4%, respectively, which may indicate the intensive expansion of built-up areas over the last fifteen years. The development of urban greening systems was completely individual and depended not only on natural conditions but also on the manifestations of anthropogenic activity. The reduction of the ecological balance of the territories of small towns as of 2018 took place in the following sequence - Irpin, Tarashcha, Boiarka, Rzhyshchiv, Kaharlyk, Skvyra, Myronivka, Yahotyn, Uzyn.