Data-driven exploration of urban green space disparities in the Eastern USA

Abstract

Urban green space, or vegetated areas within cities provide numerous benefits to residents including improved public health, a more holistic environment, and a better economy. While their benefits are widely recognized, US cities tend to lack adequate green spaces, with disadvantaged groups such as low-income residents and people of color often having lower access to quality green spaces. These disparities in urban green space accessibility and quality present an environmental justice challenge and have been traced back to discriminatory policies such as redlining, housing segregation, and historical disinvestment. In this dissertation, I use spatial data including high-resolution tree cover, land surface temperature, and social media data to better understand the current state of green space disparities. In the second chapter, I assess tree cover equity and tree cover goals for five US cities: Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. In the next two chapters, I look at tree cover changes and perceived park quality using Philadelphia as a case study. In Chapter 2, I find that tree cover equity has improved since 2000, but due to gentrification rather than tree cover improvements. Additionally, affluent and White residents are still the most likely to live in high tree cover neighborhoods. In Chapter 3, I find that trees are more likely to grow and be planted in affluent and White neighborhoods, although this has little effect on the urban heat disparities. Finally, in Chapter 4 I find that neighborhoods with lower income, lesser educational attainment, more Black, Hispanic, and disabled residents are all more likely to have more poorly perceived parks. Taken as a whole, this work identifies several green space disparities that are of critical importance to society and specifically of interest to environmental justice scholars and activists, urban planners, and policymakers. In the conclusions section, I summarize a path forward that cities must take to decrease these disparities in the future.