Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering B 2 (2013) 406-415 Formerly part of Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering, ISSN 1934-8932

D

DAVID PUBLISHING

Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System to Elaborate UQI (Urban Quality Index): A Case of Casablanca, Morocco Aziza Berrada, Hassan Rhinan, Atika Hilali and Youssef Bedraoui Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences Ain Chock, The University of Hassan II, Casablanca 20100, Morocco Received: December 20, 2012 / Accepted: January 10, 2013 / Published: July 20, 2013. Abstract: The urban environmental quality remains currently difficult to be assessed because of overlapping of several natural and anthropogenic factors having socio-economic and environmental outstanding impacts. The fast developing and uncontrolled urbanization is behind the development of some negative side effects on the urban environment. Many studies demonstrate the ability of remote sensing and GIS (geographic information system) to monitor urban environment quality. Casablanca, Morocco’s economical capital is facing a fast growing demographic development amplified by a massive rural depopulation and all this in an anarchic way. This growth of increased urban activity comes often with the proliferation of informal settlement and shantytown to the detriment of farming areas and green spaces. This study is made possible by using a SPOT-5 image of Casablanca city, taken March 16, 2004 merged with 2.5 m spatial resolution and census data. Indicators were defined and listed in social, economic and environmental categories. An index of environmental quality in Casablanca city for the 17 urban municipalities was calculated after the standardization and weighting of indicators used. The results may be useful to city managers and planners who are concerned with urban environment quality issues and sustainable development. Key words: UQI (urban quality index), indicators, remote sensing, census data, metadata, ArcGIS.

1. Introduction Since many years the study of urban environment has attracted many urban planners. Varied and specific studies have been carried out on targeted topics (such as population, buildings, roads, green areas, air quality, health etc.), however few of them have been focused on the global urban quality. Characterized by its complexity and diversity, the urban environment registered during the last decades, a strong growth whose origin is natural and anthropic. This has touched its structure, its morphology and its citizens welfare leading to an urgent need into development, monitoring and planning. As many African countries, this development has affected Morocco too putting the country in front of an Corresponding author: Aziza Berrada, main research field: urban study. E-mail: [email protected].

increasing and impressive urbanization, often anarchic and exaggerated by a massive rural exodus looking for a better life’s quality (employment, housing, education, health) [1]. This growth of increased urban activity comes often with the proliferation of informal settlement and shantytown to the detriment of farming areas and green spaces. According to census data published in 2001 by the ministry of energy, mines, water and environment of Morocco [2], Morocco’s population is estimated at 28.2 million inhabitants in 1999, 51% living in urban areas against 11.6 million inhabitants in 1960 (29% in urban areas) resulting into an imbalance at the national, regional and local levels. In the case of Casablanca, the economic capital and the largest city of Morocco, the urban population has increased from 1.07 million inhabitants in 1960 to 36.31 million inhabitants in 2004, of which 91% were living in urban areas [3].

Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System to Elaborate UQI (Urban Quality Index): A Case of Casablanca, Morocco

Studies have shown that urbanization has major impacts mainly on the quality of life of town people at socio-economic, environmental, health and cultural levels. The downgrading of the life’s quality results in general in reduction of natural areas, pollution, relatively low infrastructure, sanitary problems, urban moving, noise pollution etc.. This is why some searchers mainly urban planners have granted a great interest to this phenomenon globally despite difficulties such as lack and reliability data, intrinsic specificities of city and subjectivity of searchers, etc..

2. Site of Investigation Casablanca, economic capital of Morocco, is the largest city in terms of area and population. Running alongside the Atlantic Ocean on 50 km approximatively, Casablanca is a costal city housing more than 3 million inhabitants on a total area of 1 140.54 km2 [4] (Fig. 1) and a density of 2,630 million inhabitants/km2. It is located at about 100 km from the administrative capital of Morocco (Rabat). Its geographic references are: Lat 33°36' N, long 07°36' W and characterized by a humid climate, a mean temperature of 12 °C in winter and 25 °C in summer and an average rainfall of 400 mm. On the administrative side, the Wilaya of Great Casablanca includes two prefectoral offices (Mohammedia and Casablanca) and two provinces (Nouaceur and Mediouna). At all, Casablanca is gathering 17 municipalities, of which 10 are urban and 7 rural.

(a) (b) Fig. 1 (a) Morocco’s map (http://www.marocconews.net/); (b) SPOT-5 image of Casablanca city.

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3. Objectives and Assumptions of the Study In order to meet the needs of the urban planners and citizens, the two main objectives of this work are: the 1st objective is to save many researches realized in the city of Casablanca during these last 2 years for a better understanding and surrounding the phenomenon of urbanization. The 2nd is to draw up an urban quality index related to the 17 municipalities of the city of Casablanca on the basis of listed indicators amongst three classes (social welfare, economic welfare and environmental welfare) using multi-sources data. The results of this analysis will allow the local authorities an easy, reliable and efficient tool for a good territorial management. Assuming that groups shown a similar quality of life is brought together and living in the same household/sector.

4. Data and Software Used Multi sources data issued by returns and satellite images processing of the city of Casablanca (Landsat and SPOT-5) have been used. Some of these data result from previous researches realized in our investigation site : • SPOT-5 image of Great Casablanca taken on March 16, 2004 georeferenced, orthocorrected and merged at 2.5 m spatial resolution. • Maps—Urban master plan of the Wilaya of greater Casablanca [3] provided by the Casablanca urban Agency. • Maps—Heat islands and cool areas of Casablanca city [5] (Shapefile). • Slum’s Map of Casablanca city [6] (shapefile). • Map—Land’s use of Casablanca city [7] (Shapefile) •Software: -Envi 4.5 [8] -ArcGIS 9.3 [9]

5. Methodology In this study, the objective is not to identify with

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Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System to Elaborate UQI (Urban Quality Index): A Case of Casablanca, Morocco

of life of its citizens. For that purpose, it has implemented several policies and programs aimed at improving the quality of life. Through the literature, there is no universal definition of urban quality called “welfare”. The study of urban quality has appeared for the first time within the sixties’ years in the areas of development [10] referring to the concept of well-being. In the 70s, the components of quality of life in urban areas were around the socio-economic dimensions, residential areas, accessed to services, local facilities, consumption’s places and democratic and social life [11-15]. According to Whoqol Group Whoqol [16], the quality of life is defined as “an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relationship to their goals, expectations and standards and concerns”.

exhaustiveness all the urban characteristics of Casablanca city having an impact on the urban’s quality of town people, but to deal mainly with those which are necessary and available to assess the urban quality of Casablanca. For that reason the metadata used were issued from satellite images (Landsat and SPOT-5) and GIS combined to other information sources (census data: e.g., urban density). The non availability of some data has been the impediment in this work. The results will provide to the local authorities an observation tool to carry out monitoring and tracking the evolution of metropolitan dynamics along with its impact at the health, social, economic and environmental levels (Fig. 2). 5.1 Urban Quality: Global Concepts Morocco is more and more concerned by the quality SOPT-5 image (March 16, 2004)

Indicators social welfare

Census data (2004)

Landsat 5 TM image (January 8, 2011)

Population density Density of impervious areas Slums

Indicators economic welfare

Indicators environme ntal welfare

Green space

Cool areas Standardization

weighting

UQI Fig. 2 Flow chart of methodology.

Hot Islands

Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System to Elaborate UQI (Urban Quality Index): A Case of Casablanca, Morocco

This is a broad conceptual field, encompassing in complex manner the physical health of the person, its psychological status, its independence level, its social relationships, its personal convictions and its relationship with its environment characteristics. According to Lo [17], the concept of quality of life is a collective attribute specific to a community as a whole and not to a single individual. It is characterized by a feeling of well-being, emotional balance, an integration and social equality and a good physical condition, good health, access to services and any other facilities, the organization of activities in the agglomeration, the participation to community or political bodies [18, 19]. However, the citizens’s quality of life can not be limited to only one aspect, it is resulting from many factors, both quantitative and qualitative depending mainly on the needs and expectations of each [20-22]. From which it is capital to develop an UQI (Urban Quality Index) to measure and assess the urban quality of a specific agglomeration. 5.2 UQI In the literature they were talking about the LQI (life quality index) [23] and the EQI (environmental quality index) [24]. Others have integrated the two indices to result into the quality of life and well-being of the ecosystem index [25]. In our case, the development of UQI is a compilation process and qualitative/quantitative data treatment issued by different sources (satellite imagery, census urban). In fact the study will integrate several specific indicators of the urban environment within a full model to calculate UQI. The non availability of census data such as the access to services (education, health, average house hold in comes etc.) has been an obstacle for a proper progress of this work. 5.3 Indicators Identifications of UQI In the studies of urban quality, the difficulty is to select the relevant indicators, targeted and tailored to

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local situations and societal [25]. The indicators used to calculate the UQI of Casablanca city have been identified, collected and then processed and integrated into a single model [26-28]. The categorization of indicators is a difficult step. Usually, it is done retrospectively based on the nature of the indicators. In our case the indicators used are listed in three categories: social welfare, economic welfare and environmental welfare [29-31]. 5.3.1 Indicators of Social Welfare: This type of indicator reflects the level of satisfaction of their citizens’ quality of life compared to some services such as access to health system, schools, shopping centers, transport two indicators have been treated: (Indicator1) population density (Table 1) which corresponds to the number of inhabitants per km2, and it is calculated for the 17 municipalities of Casablanca city. The population density is relatively high because of the population growth and rural depopulation. The population density is inversely linked to the quality of urban life [32] (Indicator 2). The density of the frame (Fig. 3), corresponding to the density of all impervious areas such as roads, roofs of residences etc.. The impervious surface of Casablanca city has been assessed by mapping object-oriented image SOPT-5 fused to 2.5 m [7]. This indicator includes items that meet the vital needs of the population and has a positive impact on urban quality. 5.3.2 Indicators of Economic Welfare The most often used aspect in this category is the average household income. Due to the unusualness of these data, two indicators of economic well-being have been used (Indicator 3) the mapping of existing slums in Casablanca (by [6]) (Fig. 4). This is a binary image (1 & 0) of Casablanca city (slum / non-slums) from an object-oriented classification of SPOT-5 image, catched on March 16, 2004 and resampled to 2.5 M spatial resolution. This kind of habitat is populated by the most deprived social level, with a low or absent infrastructure and no security measure [33] and most

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Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System to Elaborate UQI (Urban Quality Index): A Case of Casablanca, Morocco

Table 1 Population density by municipality. Municipality Ain chock Ain sebaa Al fida Anfa Assoukhour assawda Ben msick El maarif Hay hassani Hay mohammadi Mechouar de casablanca Mers sultan Moulay rachid Sbata Sidi belyout Sidi bernoussi Sidi moumen Sidi othmane

Area in km2 31.02 15.51 3.66 12.51 7.16 3.05 12.01 24.72 4.09 0.41 3.58 6.83 6.47 8.60 12.18 20.15 6.29

Population 253,600.0000 155,489.0000 186,754.0000 95,539.0000 104,310.0000 163,052.0000 180,394.0000 323,944.0000 156,501.0000 3,365.0000 145,928.0000 207,624.0000 122,827.0000 218,918.0000 165,324.0000 289,253.0000 176,983.0000

Population density pers/km2 8,175.3839 10,025.5977 51,078.0171 7,637.4072 14,571.6920 53,540.4216 15,022.9432 13,104.4512 38,275.0651 8,212.3246 40,775.1093 30,409.9597 18,987.3085 25,448.3316 13,574.5135 14,357.5883 28,117.9798

Fig. 3 Imprevious map of the city of Casablanca [7].

Fig. 4

Slums map of the city of Casablanca [6].

households have no stable income or at least able to meet their daily needs. (Indicator 4). The industrial and commercial areas existing in the various municipalities of Casablanca city (Fig. 5). The presence of industrial and commercial areas are both a source of air pollution, noise and odour and source of employment and development, this kind of land occupation is not easily identifiable on satellite images. For that reason, the map of strategic development plan have been used [3]. After its vectorization, it has been able to get a map of

all industrial and commercial entities present in our investigation site. 5.3.3 Indicators of Environmental Welfare This indicator reflects the impact of urbanization on the urban environment (strong presence of buildings to the detriment of green spaces, water pollution, air pollution, ground pollution, noise pollution, etc.). In the urban environment the presence of green spaces has always been a source of relaxation, unwinding and environmental well-being of citizens.

Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System to Elaborate UQI (Urban Quality Index): A Case of Casablanca, Morocco

Fig. 5 Business and industries map of the city of Casablanca [3].

Fig. 6

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Hot islands of the city of Casablanca [5].

Table 2 Landcover map’s by municipality in km2 Landcover en km² 6.68 2.32 0.53 1.93

Ratio green space/area 0.2153 0.1494 0.1460 0.1544

7.16

1.15

0.1603

3.05 12.01 24.72 4.09

0.42 1.70 4.88 0.62

0.1392 0.1414 0.1975 0.1528

0.41

0.05

0.1296

3.58 6.83 6.47 8.60 12.18 20.15 6.29

0.52 1.04 1.52 1.12 2.19 4.47 1.10

0.1443 0.1528 0.2348 0.1306 0.1799 0.2220 0.1747

Municipality

Area km2

Ain chock Ain sebaa Al fida Anfa Assoukhour assawda Ben msick El maarif Hay hassani Hay mohammadi Mechouar de casablanca Mers sultan Moulay rachid Sbata Sidi belyout Sidi bernoussi Sidi moumen Sidi othmane

31.02 15.51 3.66 12.51

They have a potential role in improving the quality of life of people through the climate control areas [34] and absorption of pollutants and air purification [35-37]. However, this indicator remains the less representative of the good urban quality, coming after social and economic welfare.

Fig. 7 Cool areas of the city of Casablanca [5].

In this category three indicators have been used, obtained by using Landsat ETM + catched on January 8, 2011. (Indicator 5) Green spaces have a positive impact on urban quality (Table 2). (Indicator.6) heat islands that have a negative impact on environmental quality (Fig. 6) in contrast to (Indicator 7) cool areas closely related to the presence of vegetation (Fig. 7) and a good quality life. 5.4 Data Standardization It is a method commonly used to normalize the

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Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System to Elaborate UQI (Urban Quality Index): A Case of Casablanca, Morocco

variables issued from different sources (different units of measurement). It is aimed to standardize data in order to make them comparable and analyzed. In terms of quality of life, the often used method is the “z-score” [38] which change the original values to z-scores, according to the formula: Z-Score = X-M/σ Data: X = Score M = Mean of the distribution σ = standard deviation This type of standardization is the most commonly used because it converts all indicators to a common scale with a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one (Table 3).

case the Barrette’s method have been adapted [30] inspired by the study conducted by the Canadian Council on Social Development in 1999. After many iterations, the formula used is: UQI = 0.55*(-Z-scoreIndicator.1 + Z-scoreIndicator.2) + 0.35*(-Z-scoreIndicator 3 + Z-scoreIndicator.4) + 0.1*(Z-scoreIndicator 5-Z-scoreIndicator6 + Z-scoreIndicator.7)

5.5 Indicators Weighting

5.7 Data Statistical Analysis

After standardization and implementation of the same scale indicators. The weighting is an important step that gives a weight to each variable but remains subjective. Then their integration into a single model to calculate the full urban quality index. In the literature there are several formulas and methods [32]. In our

Five categories have been selected for mapping IT: low, moderate, good, high and very high. Quality of life “moderate” is the average, while the quality of life “Low” is well below average and the quality of life “high”, well above. In a community where the quality. of the social environment is “low”, the most indicators

5.6 Integration in GIS Once the data standardized and weighted. Seven layers of information (Z-score) superimposed have been got. Then they have been integrated with the Z -score values in the Geographic Information System. A tool that enables the treatment and the consolidation multisources data. An UQI is then calculated.

Table 3 Z-Score indicator’s. Z-score

Indicators of envirnmental welfare Ratio Municipality Ratio hi/area Ration ca/area green space/area Ain chock 2.3148 0.6093 1.5113 Ain sebaa -0.0079 -0.2233 -0.6877 Al fida -0.2855 -1.5618 -0.8010 Anfa -0.1454 0.4242 -0.5201 Assoukhour assawda -0.9364 0.3529 -0.3233 Ben msick -2.0964 -0.4543 -1.0269 El maarif -0.0781 1.2481 -0.9523 Hay hassani 0.2500 1.2206 0.9182 Hay mohammadi 0.0433 -0.6713 -0.5748 Mechouar de casablanca -0.2961 -1.1956 -1.3470 Mers sultan -0.8927 -1.2689 -0.8551 Moulay rachid -0.5710 -0.2939 -0.5740 Sbata 0.9686 1.3768 2.1616 Sidi belyout 0.8514 -1.3244 -1.3144 Sidi bernoussi 1.0998 -0.3072 0.3289 Sidi moumen 0.6299 1.2973 1.7327 Sidi othmane -0.8621 0.7524 0.1577

Indicators of social welfare Indicators of economic welfare Population density

Imprevious Slums density density

Business and industries density

-0.9878 -0.8647 1.8674 -1.0236 -0.5621 2.0313 -0.5321 -0.6598 1.0153 -0.9854 1.1817 0.4919 -0.2683 0.1617 -0.6285 -0.5764 0.3394

-0.4340 -0.3769 -0.0068 -0.3495 -0.2437 0.0904 -0.3436 -0.4194 -0.0580 3.8307 0.0037 -0.2317 -0.2173 -0.2852 -0.3457 -0.4032 -0.2097

-0.4340 -0.3770 -0.0069 -0.3496 -0.2438 0.0902 -0.3437 -0.4195 -0.0582 3.8292 0.0035 -0.2318 -0.2175 -0.2853 -0.3458 -0.4032 -0.2099

0.2599 1.5613 -0.6587 -0.0503 -0.4554 -0.0279 -0.1333 -0.3480 0.4315 -0.6587 -0.6587 -0.6587 -0.5375 -0.6587 0.0800 3.1719 -0.6587

Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System to Elaborate UQI (Urban Quality Index): A Case of Casablanca, Morocco

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Fida and Benmsik. The map will serve as a tool for urban municipalities to monitor the evolution of metropolitan dynamics and its impact on health, social, economic and environmental.

7. Conclusions

freshness zones and shops. In this commune, there is

This study has showed that the quality of life of citizens could not be limited to only one aspect, it is the result of several factors, both objective and subjective depending mainly on the expectations and needs of each individual. Thus, the study of the welfare of the population and the development of an index of quality of urban life is a process of compilation and processing of quantitative and qualitative data varied sources (satellite imagery, urban census, surveys, etc.). Among the barriers met during this work, there is on one side the difficulty to identify all the urban characteristics of Casablanca city having an impact on the quality of urban dwellers and on the other side the non-availability of reliable and usable data to perfect results in order to meet as possible the field reality. Therefore field surveys are highly recommended as well as incomes data, proximity to health services and education which will be important indicators of social welfare. In the literature, urban planners are taking care more and more about the quality of urban life prompting the implementation of programs and policies by the state to improve the quality of life of its citizens.

also the Palace of the King of Morocco. This commune

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Fig. 8 Urban quality index map.

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6. Results and Discussion Fig. 8 is showing the distribution of the Urban Quality Index for the 17 urban municipalities of Casablanca city. The commune “Mechouar” has the highest UQI. It is the smallest commune with an area of 0.46 km2, no slums, low population density, presence of very low heat islands and strong presence of

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