The role of conserved and managed land in ecosystem service inequity

Abstract

Integrating ecosystem services (ESs), i.e., the benefits humans obtain from nature, into decision making is essential for the sustainable management of resilient urban landscapes, where people and nature are interdependent. However, ES spatial assessments often leave unanswered important questions about their relationship to social systems and their implications in management. In this study, we identified ES provisioning areas in the Chicago metropolitan region that have potential to produce ESs across multiple ES-categories (i.e., ES hotspots). We also identified areas lacking this capacity (i.e., ES coldspots). We then analyzed spatial linkages to local demographics. Specifically, we: (1) modelled the distribution of ES hotspots and ES coldspots at 30-m resolution; (2) compared the proportion of total ES-hotspot and ES-coldspot land area to that of racial groups and residents living below the poverty line; and (3) determined overlap of ES hotspots and ES coldspots with conservation, managed and public open land. We found that, at regional level, ES-hotspots correlate negatively with racial minorities. We also observed that a great number of ES hotspots overlap with conserved and government-managed land, but because these land types inversely correlate with racial minorities it is likely that these cannot serve to alleviate race-based ES inequality if targeted. Therefore, we made a number of suggestions on how to circumvent this issue, including acquiring land (for conservation) in areas where racial minorities live the most, particularly targeting vacant lots and grassland within the City of Chicago to address ES inequity in the region.