The Role of Green Infrastructure Equity Provisions

Keywords: green infrastructure, equity, environmental justice, urban planning, stormwater management
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Environmental justice is becoming more important as socio-economic inequalities intensified within urban populations. Previous studies have demonstrated that white affluent neighborhoods often more benefited from urban green amenities, such as urban parks and street trees (i.e., distributional equity), and underprivileged populations were excluded from decision-making process (i.e., procedural equity). To address such disparities and foster equity in urban environments, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has included equity provisions in some consent decrees. The distributional equity provisions enforce the local governments under the consent decrees to prioritize neighborhoods with historically underprivileged populations for green infrastructure projects. The procedural equity requirements mandate involvement of environmental justice communities in green infrastructure planning process. Taking a qualitative approach, this research assesses if and to what extent the equity provisions had any socio-ecological impacts and contributed to equity improvements by investigating two cities: Cleveland, OH with the most detailed equity mandates, and St. Louis, MO with the least requirements. This study provides some insights into the effectiveness of the federally mandated equity requirements based on the findings from content analysis of planning documents, interviews with green infrastructure managers at federal, state, and local governments, and Google Street View images of before and after the green infrastructure projects.