Contribution of non-park green space to the equity of urban green space accessibility

Abstract

Urban green space (UGS) plays a critical role in promoting a sustainable development of urban ecology and improving inhabitants’ well-beings. Equal access to UGS is vital for enjoying the benefits of UGS. However, those non-park green space (NPGS) that is more closely related to inhabitants’ residence are often ignored when investigating inhabitants’ equity of UGS accessibility. In this study, two scenarios with or without considering NPGS were set up to reveal the contribution of NPGS in improving the equity of UGS accessibility. This study was conducted at a block scale in Wuhan, a megacity in central China. Results indicate that the accessibility to UGS is more equally distributed when considering NPGS compared to without considering NGPS and the contribution of NPGS is 79.32%. The Gini coefficients of the scenario without considering NGPS is higher (0.93) while a lower one in the other scenario (0.62). The Lorenz curve and Gini coefficients indicate an improvement of equity of UGS accessibility after considering NPGS. This study highlights the importance of considering the NPGS when improving the equity of UGS accessibility. This is particularly meaningful in megacities where UGS is scarce and more obviously unequal access to UGS may occur.