Prioritizing the provision of urban ecosystem services in deprived areas, a question of environmental justice
- PDF / 768,982 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 20 Downloads / 216 Views
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Prioritizing the provision of urban ecosystem services in deprived areas, a question of environmental justice Wissal Selmi , Slaheddine Selmi, Jacques Teller, Christiane Weber, Emmanuel Rivie`re, David J. Nowak
Received: 9 May 2020 / Revised: 15 October 2020 / Accepted: 6 November 2020
Abstract The distribution of urban ecosystem services (UES) is often uneven across socioeconomic groups, leading to environmental justice issues. Understanding the distribution of UES across a landscape can help managers ensure an equitable distribution of services. While many past studies have focused on the distribution of green spaces in relation to socioeconomic variables, this research analyzes the distribution of UES provided by these green spaces. This research quantified air pollution removal, atmospheric carbon reduction, and surface runoff mitigation provided by urban trees in Strasbourg city (France). The provision of these three UES was studied at the census block scale by creating an index of UES delivery, which was contrasted with a constructed social deprivation index. Our results show that there is no significant association between the delivery of UES and social deprivation. Some deprived populations benefit from high UES delivery. Results also suggest that mapping associations between UES delivery and social deprivation should be integrated with future development plans to enhance the equitable distribution of UES. This study provides insights into the French context where studies about the distribution of UES at a small-area level remain lacking. Keywords Deprivation Environmental justice Urban ecosystem services Urban trees
INTRODUCTION Numerous studies have stressed the importance of quantifying urban ecosystem services (UES) at different scales and integrating them into decision-making processes (Ernstson et al. 2010; Kremer et al. 2016; Yang et al.
2018). However, while the concept of UES represents a bridge between social and ecological systems within a city, little is known about the relationship between social systems and ecosystem services delivery at the local level (Amini Parsa et al. 2019). This issue is increasingly addressed within the environmental justice (EJ) framework, given the recognition of urban green spaces (UGS) and their UES as local solutions to both local (e.g., air pollution, intense precipitation events) and global environmental burdens (e.g., climate change) (Zhao and Sander 2015; Amini Parsa et al. 2019; Escobedo et al. 2019) and the growing conviction that uneven exposure to environmental burdens and benefits among social groups affects city sustainability (Baro´ et al. 2019). The concept of EJ was mainly developed in the USA in the 1970s, with a focus on the relationship between socioeconomic groups and the distribution of environmental burdens and benefits, assuming that disadvantaged communities are most exposed to environmental risks (Greenberg and Cidon 1997; Agyeman et al. 2002; Kruize et al. 2007; Brown et al. 2012; Raddatz and Mennis 2013; Boyce et
Data Loading...
