In Maghreb, vegetation cover, a crucial factor for the sustainability of urban ecosystems, is undergoing significant change in cities. After the French colonial period giving key consideration to public vegetation in the new towns built such as in Sousse, Algiers or Marrakesh, the importance attached to greenery in cities is not clearly defined in independent Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and today consideration of urban vegetation in Maghrebian spatial planning policy is still nascent. By taking a spatialized approach involving satellite remote sensing we show an overall decline in vegetation cover in the cities of Algiers, Sousse and Marrakech between the 1970s and the 2020s with two distinct periods; a swift and fairly steady decline in greenery until 2000, slowing significantly and even reverses slightly after this date. The spatial distribution of vegetation across the cities has also changed, much more uniform in 1973 than during the later periods where greenery became increasingly concentrated within clearly defined areas. A neighborhood-based analysis of the vegetation cover makes it possible to connect the contrasting spatial distribution and variation observed with the public spatial and urban planning policies since the 1970s, as well as since the colonial period and their implications in terms of socio-environmental justice and socio-spatial segregation generated by the spatial organization of vegetation in Algiers, Sousse and Marrakesh. Today, the proportion of green space per capita shows that these cities have an overall average (of 3.1 sq.m. per capita for Marrakesh), falling short of the minimum 10 sq.m. per capita recommended by UN-Habitat.

In Maghreb, vegetation cover, a crucial factor for the sustainability of urban ecosystems, is undergoing significant change in cities. After the French colonial period giving key consideration to public vegetation in the new towns built such as in Sousse, Algiers or Marrakesh, the importance attached to greenery in cities is not clearly defined in independent Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and today consideration of urban vegetation in Maghrebian spatial planning policy is still nascent. By taking a spatialized approach involving satellite remote sensing we show an overall decline in vegetation cover in the cities of Algiers, Sousse and Marrakech between the 1970s and the 2020s with two distinct periods; a swift and fairly steady decline in greenery until 2000, slowing significantly and even reverses slightly after this date. The spatial distribution of vegetation across the cities has also changed, much more uniform in 1973 than during the later periods where greenery became increasingly concentrated within clearly defined areas. A neighborhood-based analysis of the vegetation cover makes it possible to connect the contrasting spatial distribution and variation observed with the public spatial and urban planning policies since the 1970s, as well as since the colonial period and their implications in terms of socio-environmental justice and socio-spatial segregation generated by the spatial organization of vegetation in Algiers, Sousse and Marrakesh. Today, the proportion of green space per capita shows that these cities have an overall average (of 3.1 sq.m. per capita for Marrakesh), falling short of the minimum 10 sq.m. per capita recommended by UN-Habitat.