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Abstract
For a long time, people have not seen the necessity of measuring the contribution of nature to public health. Increased stress and sedentary lifestyle, levels of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and respiratory diseases, have raised the interest for scientific studies on the relationship between health and nature. The purpose of this study is to analyze the land cover of Tirana Prefecture and its compound categories: agricultural area, artificial surface, forests and semi-natural areas. The main groups of data used in this study are: Maps of land cover for 2006 and 2012; Tirana and its administrative units' population according to census of 2011; the digital map of the territorial division of the Republic of Albania of 2015. The goal is to create the main independent variables that can link health data with land cover data. For this purpose, GIS techniques were used. Analysis was performed for all public administrative units of Tirana Prefecture. From land cover analysis for 2006 and 2012 resulted that public administration units Tiraně, Kavajě, Paskuqan, Kaměz, Kashar, Farkē, Krrabē, Rrogozhinē, Běrxullě have lower agricultural area for capita (2,700-1,200,000 m2/1000 inhabitant). The biggest changes in forest surface (decrease of more than 600 m2/1000 inhabitants), during the period 2006 to 2012 have occurred in public administration units of Farkē, Kashar, Paskuqan, Synej, Lekaj, Pezě, Tiraně, Golem, Gosē. These results will be used to study the relationship between nature and public health. They could be used also to orient public policies.
Keywords: Land cover, digital map, GIS, public administration unit.
Introduction
Landscape-based change and trends assessments have been conducted on ecosystem productivity [10; 11; 14] and land cover [6]. Landscape indicators and models can be used to identify and prioritize areas for conservation [15]. For example, land cover and other biophysical data, combined with rule based habitat models, have been used to prioritize areas for conservation [4, 13]. Different publications show that the urban green spaces, parks and urban forests can help reduce heat and improve air quality. Infants and children breaths twice as much air as an adult, this means they are more exposed to local air pollutants during a period when their lungs are going through vulnerable stages of development [12].
Some reviews have assessed a range of evidence to understand the...