Development of a methodology for the evaluation of environmental equity at urban level with high spatial resolution. Case study in Valencia (Spain)

Abstract

Detecting vulnerable areas or areas with less favourable conditions than the rest of the city is essential for public administrations to achieve sustainable development. This paper describes the development of a methodology to obtain the most vulnerable neighbourhoods at an urban scale based on a series of geo-referenced economic, social and environmental variables. In addition, a network of NO2 passive sensors has been deployed to introduce air quality as an environmental variable in the developed methodology. This allows us to identify the neighbourhoods with the worst air quality to determine the areas in the city where vulnerable groups and poor air quality conditions coincide. Finally, results are analysed to see if there is a direct relationship between vulnerable neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods with poorer air quality.Then, the developed methodology has been applied in Valencia (Spain) as a case study. Thus, the methodology developed has been allowed to identify the most vulnerable neighbourhoods based on facilities, demography and socioeconomic variables. This would allow public decision-makers to use available resources to reduce vulnerability efficiency. Finally, cross-referencing vulnerability and air quality results give the location of vulnerable neighbourhoods with the worst air quality, allowing the identification of environmental inequities at an urban level with high spatial resolution. In the pilot case of Valencia, it is concluded that there is no direct relationship between vulnerable neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods with high NO2 levels, although 14.28% meet both conditions.