The Disparity of Greenness Accessibility across Major Metropolitan Areas in the United States from 2013 to 2022

Minmeng Tang and Xinwei Li ()
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Minmeng Tang: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
Xinwei Li: Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: Urban green space (UGS) is a fundamental infrastructure in modern urban settings, crucial for regulating the urban climate and improving public health. Accessibility to UGS represents a significant environmental justice issue, influencing the sustainable development of local communities. In this work, we comprehensively evaluated the temporal dynamics of UGS accessibility and the disparity in exposure for all 31 metropolitan divisions in the United States from 2013 to 2022. Our findings indicate that there have been no significant changes in both population-weighted UGS exposure and within-city inequality of UGS exposure for all racial/ethnic groups across the study period. Furthermore, a consistent racial/ethnic disparity in UGS exposure was noted throughout the study period, with the White group tending to have higher-than-average UGS accessibility, and all other racial/ethnic groups, including Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander, experiencing lower-than-average UGS accessibility. These findings underscore the urgency for urban planning and policy-making strategies to address these inequities, promoting healthy and sustainable urban development.

Keywords: urban green spaces; racial disparity; environmental justice; megacity regions; long-term changes; spatial heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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