In 2017, Kyiv was recognized as the greenest capital of Europe with a population of more than 2 million people – such data were contained in the study of urbanist Philip Gartner, based on the study of satellite images by the method of determining point types, which the author called the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. In total, 43 capitals were analyzed within a radius of 5 km around the city center. This, of course, is good news, but an ordinary citizen of Kyiv, walking around the city, is unlikely to agree with the results of this study. Analysts at DC Evolution analyzed the green areas of the capital in more detail – in full, by structure in the context of regions and categories, as well as the potential for their development and improvement.
Saturation of Kyiv with green areas
According to the Kyiv City State Administration, the total area of Kyiv is 83.4 thousand ha, the area of the green zone is 16.2 thousand ha, which is 19.3% of the total. But in addition to green areas, a significant area of Kyiv is occupied by forestries and unsuitable areas for recreation, remote from buildings. “That is why we recalculated the ratio of the green zone to the total, excluding from the total forestry area, which is 25.4 thousand ha, and as a result we received 27.7% of the green zones. The greenest district of Kyiv is Goloseevsky with an indicator of 47.6%, followed by Obolonsky (37.76%) and Dniprovsky (31.02%). Svyatoshinsky district turned out to be the least green – there are only 11.65% of green areas,” says a DC Evolution study.
According to the Kyiv City State Administration, over the past two years, the green zone, adapted for recreation of Kyiv residents and guests of the capital, has increased by 2 thousand hectares or 14.5%. Most of all, the area of the green zone of the Darnitsky district increased – by 964 hectares or almost three times. The green areas of the Shevchenkovsky, Podolsky, Desnyansky, Solomensky and Pechersky districts have not changed.
Provision of green areas
According to the data for 2018 by the number of officially registered citizens, the highest population density in the Solomensky, Pechersky and Shevchenkovsky districts is 94, 82 and 84 people / ha, respectively. In addition to the fact that the Solomensky district has the highest population density, it also records the lowest green area per person – 14 square meters. Thus, if the ratio of the green zone to the whole area is low in Svyatoshinsky district, the population density in it is much lower than in Solomensky (almost 3 times), therefore, in terms of the area of the green zone per person, it is 1.5 times ahead of Solomensky. Goloseevsky, Obolonsky and Podolsky districts remain the least densely built-up area with the largest green area per person. The Dnieper district, which ranks third in terms of the ratio of green to built-up area, is only fifth in the ranking of green areas per person due to the high population density compared to Podolsky and Darnitsky. Darnitsky district is the fourth in terms of the ratio of green areas per person, although the ratio of green area to total is only 15%, because the population density is almost the lowest.
“We analyzed in more detail the correlation of the coefficient of the green zone to the total area and population. The circles on the graph reflect the ratio of the green zone to the total – the larger the ball, the greater the percentage of the green zone. Thus, the relationship between the ratio of the green zone to the built-up area and the ratio of the area of the district to the population is weak (only -0.33). The comparison result suggests that there may be a large population density and a large area of green areas in the same area, due to the fact that in some areas there is a large average number of storeys, as well as due to the areas of additional infrastructure (roads, general buildings and etc.),” the DC Evolution study notes.
Green Zone Structure
“After analyzing 191 green zones, we identified the TOP-10 green zones of Kyiv in areas that make up 60% of the total green area of the capital. Most of the green areas included in the list are located in the Goloseevsky and Obolonsky districts, which actually corresponds to the rating of the greenest areas of the capital. The greenest zone of Kyiv – Goloseevsky National Nature Park – has an area of 4.4 thousand hectares, which is 27.5% of the city’s green zones,” DC Evolution analysts say.