Abstract
The various benefits of urban green space are gaining increasing attention nowadays. Hence, the distribution of green space has become a scrutinized concern for spatial equity among local governments and the planning scholars. This study is the first quantitative evaluation of urban park accessibility using house-level data in urban China, from the perspective of social equity. We chose Nanjing as the empirical case and examined 2709 real estate units and 79 parks within the city. Accessibility is measured by the 10-min walking distance from homes to the adjacent urban parks. Using the Street Network Analysis model in ArcGIS and the statistical methods in SPSS, the result shows that 60.5% of the real estates in Nanjing are located within a 10-min walk to access urban parks. However, this accessibility is positively correlated with housing prices, and negatively correlated with the age of the buildings, holding all other factors constant. While affluent homeowners capture a high-quality green amenity, newly-built low-income communities, where most residents are classified as a vulnerable population, have the lowest percentage of accessible green space. This study reveals the existing spatial disparities of urban park accessibility among different socio-economic groups in Nanjing, China. Additionally, we found that urban redevelopment projects with greening and the large-scale affordable housing construction are pricing out the urban poor and rural immigrants from the inner city to the urban peripheral areas. This will reduce the accessibility to urban parks and other public service facilities among the lower income families, and exacerbate the inequality among the rich and the poor in terms of their quality of life. Main findings of this study can inform policy decisions regarding equitable park provision in the construction of the green city and the sustainable development in urban China and other developing countries.
Highlights
Green space, including any kind of vegetation covers such as parks, urban forest, gardens, greenways, and tree canopy covers is a key ecological factor and provides various benefits in health, economy, society, and environment to alleviate some of the negative effects of urbanization [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Our research provides a conceivable answer to the questions: Are the marginalized groups experiencing a lower degree of accessibility to urban green space in Nanjing, China, a typical metropolitan city? If yes, what are the reasons behind this inequality? This study provides a practical assessment and policy implications for other developing countries under similar settings, helping to mitigate the fact that public services are usually limited in the developing countries and that the distribution of service usually fails to be equitable, especially for the lower-income class
Our results show that 60.45% of the real estates in the main urban area of Nanjing are located within a 10-min walk to urban green space, indicating that most residents can benefit from the urban park service
Summary
Green space, including any kind of vegetation covers such as parks, urban forest, gardens, greenways, and tree canopy covers is a key ecological factor and provides various benefits in health, economy, society, and environment to alleviate some of the negative effects of urbanization [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Most are limited by the aggregated data at a relatively coarse scale, such as the “Jiedao” (sub-district) level, and fail to capture the micro-scale issues among the different social groups [13,26,27] Their data on the socio-economic attributes of the residents originate from the National Census in China. The result of this study provides important implications for municipal decision-making in the improvement of the built environment and the allocation of urban services and amenities It can inform policy decisions regarding promoting social justice and sustainable development in China, especially among the current era of Ecological Civilization. Part four presents the analysis and results, and the last section summarizes the main findings than can inform policy decisions regarding equitable park provision
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
