Continental-scale Analysis of Urban Issues Based on Open Data: Green Spaces, Urban Form and the Future Sustainability of Cities in Africa

The next few decades will bring rapid urbanization and climatic stress to African cities. Green spaces can increase the resilience of cities against heat waves, floods, landslides, and even coastal erosion, as well as improve sustainability by improving air quality, protecting biodiversity, and absorbing carbon. However, quantitative data on urban form, the availability of green spaces, and air pollution are very scarce and difficult to access for African cities. In this work, we use open geospatial data to quantitatively analyze the relationships between urban form, the presence of green spaces, and air quality. The results of this analysis indicate that the presence of green spaces is related to better air quality, but that they must be accompanied by other policies for their presence to be truly effective.