A Longitudinal Analysis of Neighborhood Life Cycle as a Social-Ecological System

Keywords: Social-ecological system, Neighborhood change, Greenspace transformations
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

The human landscape is a system of social and ecological components where people’s and organizations’ choices accumulate across spatial and temporal scales in shaping the environment. Neighborhoods, as dynamic ecosystems of people, built-ups, and nature, exhibit a cyclical pattern of change (1). The indications of neighborhood change are expressed spatially (2) and through demographic and socioeconomic changes (3). To what extent these spatial/ecological changes correspond to the socioeconomic shifts is a matter of question.

Despite the growing interest in the study of neighborhood change as a social/ecological/cultural/political system (4), the empirical findings have limited contribution to the profession and urban policies due to the conceptual and methodological shortcomings (5). An inclusive framework to identify and evaluate the trajectory of neighborhood change that incorporates features of ecology and society is a significant association with the literature on neighborhood change studies. This investigation is novel in the targeted geography (outer ring suburbs) (6,7), the scale (8,9), and the consideration of time (10).

This longitudinal study offers a composite index to track outer ring suburbs’ socioeconomic status of the Angeles Metropolitan Area from 1970 to 2020 in a mixed method analysis. The corresponding ecological factor (green coverage) is monitored by applying the remote sensing method.

The courses of neighborhood change are investigated in terms of a probable correlation with the ecological transformations.