Vegetation distribution analysis of green open space in Binjai Timur, North Sumatera Province using normalized difference vegetation index

As the city grows, more and more vegetated land is converted to non-vegetated land. This also occurred at Binjai, a city in the North Sumatera Province, Indonesia. The aim of this study was to examine the urban vegetation cover and its changes between 2015 and 2019. The research was carried out in Binjai Timur, which is one of Binjai’s sub-districts. The distribution of vegetation density was measured using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) value classification. The decrease in the dense class to 10.08 percent was the most significant change in vegetation density class between 2015 and 2019. This was followed by an 8.87 percent increase in the high-density class. This indicates that there is an area with vegetation density increased from lower density to high density. The district has green open spaces in the form of a neighborhood park, cemetery, sub-district park, greenbelt along the road and river, and house yards, according to the field check. These green open spaces were located in low and medium-density areas. The findings suggest that planting trees in those locations and arrangement of vegetation within parks could improve its quality and function. For good quality of urban environments, it is optimizing the use of house yards as vegetated land and boosting green open space quality is required.