Determinations of Urban Political Ecology: The Distribution Pattern Canopy Cover of Tree and Spatial inequality in Tehran

Extended abstract1-IntroductionInequality of green space distribution is a type of social production which by creating uneven ecological conditions in a feedback cycle plays its role on the quality of environment and intensification of imbalances inside the urban living environment. Most of the studies conducted so far have focused on the development or distribution of public green space but the truth is that public green spaces have not been the only source of urban metabolism (from the viewpoint of green space function) and a great part of the role of urban green space is undertaken by private green spaces. “What effect do private greeneries located in residential areas have on the quality of citizens’ life or what kind of reality is asserted by their development and distribution pattern in the urban life of today’s modern society” were issues of less attention. Thus, considering the interconnection of green space production and distribution pattern (public and private) with the rest of natural, social, economic and fabric conditions, the present research benefits from NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) as a dependent variable which has been influenced by ecological, social, fabric and economic variables and has analyzed them to identify effective factors in Tehran inequality urban green space. The present article theoretically makes use of urban political ecology approach and is considered a correlational research. The required data have been prepared and analyzed by some types of software such as ArcGIS, ArcView, IDRISI, ERDAS Imagine, and SPSS. In conducting this research some techniques have been used such as; “Average Distance to Nearest Neighbor”, “Square Analysis”, “Correlational Analysis and Factor Analysis”. 2-Theoretical basis The present study is theoretically based on an urban political ecology approach. Urban components including green space from urban political ecological perspective are considered a kind of social production whose imagination and change are influenced by political economy, dominant pattern of public and private ownership in society (Heynen, Perkins and Roy, 2006: 3). The aforementioned perspective clearly states that urban material conditions which includes urban environment too are controlled and manipulated by the elite and city experts to serve their interests. This issue is conducive to make some of the urban social groups marginalized and deprived from natural riches and urban environmental artifacts. As a result, the quality of urban environment (physically and socially) increases in some neighborhoods a