Assessment of indicators for sustainable development of Birobidzhan: green spaces

Among other countries, the Russian Federation also has an officially adopted sustainable development strategy covering a block of political, social, economic and environmental items. The last ones are of special attention, including problems from the global climate change to the formation of a comfortable urban environment. In the paper, the authors consider green spaces of Birobidzhan as an important factor of the urban environment quality. They made the analysis of green spaces calculating the following six indicators of sustainable development: percentage of common green spaces, greenness index, green spaces availability, green spaces area per 100 thousand inhabitants, percentage of protected natural areas, and percentage of urban spaces under the canopy of tree can. Most of the parameters have got high values. The greenness index significantly exceeds the urban planning standards. The town natural-recreational area with preserved natural vegetation adds significantly to the estimated indicators value. The conducted research is a starting point in monitoring of changes in the estimated indicators.