Environmental Justice in The Netherlands: Presence and Quality of Greenspace Differ by Socioeconomic Status of Neighbourhoods

Sjerp de Vries, Arjen E. Buijs and Robbert P. H. Snep
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Sjerp de Vries: Cultural Geography/Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Arjen E. Buijs: Forest and Nature Policy/Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
Robbert P. H. Snep: Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 15, 1-17

Abstract: Making our cities more sustainable includes the need to make the transition a just one. This paper focuses on distributive justice with regard to greenspace in cities. Urbanisation and densification will likely result in less greenspace in urban residential areas, especially in deprived neighbourhoods. This is a threat to the aim of healthy and liveable cities, as greenspace has positive effects on human health and well-being. In this study, we show that in The Netherlands, neighbourhoods with a low socioeconomic status already tend to have a lower presence and quality of greenspace than those with a high socioeconomic status. This outcome is independent of the greenness metric that was used. However, depending on the precise greenness metric, socioeconomic differences in greenness between neighbourhoods are smaller in highly urban municipalities than in less urban municipalities, rather than larger. The paper discusses the implications of these outcomes for policy and planning regarding urban greenspace.

Keywords: distributive justice; access metrics; land use; NDVI; household income; residential property value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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