Nature as a Privilege: Assessing the differences in neighborhood greenspace and benefits for climate resilient communities

Keywords: Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Urban Geography, Greenspace
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Greenspaces have a multitude of effects on our individual lives and the health of communities. This is especially true when it comes to mitigating the effects of climate change. On a large scale, the importance of greenspace in relation to climate related disasters continues to grow. It is a key mediating factor for improving air and water quality, lowering noise levels, and improving temperature regulation, among other things. Ensuring that local communities have equal access to greenspace and its benefits is therefore critical to enhance community resilience to climate change. Previous research exploring greenspace equity from a purely quantitative lens has largely relied on measures of geographic accessibility to assess greenspace equity. While useful, these studies may miss many of the important local nuances that make greenspace usable and effective at promoting climate resilience. As such, more work is needed that blends the largely quantitative approaches used to determine accessibility with qualitative measures of greenspace usability/quality. In this research, I aim to bridge this gap by analyzing the quality and accessibility of greenspaces. Using a sample of parks for the US Southeast, in person qualitative observational data is combined with a quantitative socio-environmental assessment to explain the perceived benefits of greenspace and its distribution with respect to the socio-demographic characteristics of the community.