Growing Equity in City Green Space
https://eos.org/features/growing-equity-in-city-green-space
Excerpt: As the COVID-19 pandemic stretched into the summer months of 2020, people around the world began to flock to outdoor green spaces in and around cities. ...However, not all city residents have the same access, geographically and historically, to nearby green space. ...Developing new urban green space—places covered with grass, trees, shrubs, or other vegetation—and infrastructure that works with it is a priority in many cities these days. But experts agree that the solution is more complicated than simply planting more trees in certain spots. Done right, adding new green space in and around our cities can improve human health, revitalize ecosystems, and boost a region’s economy. Done wrong, it can worsen existing socioeconomic and ecological problems or even create new ones. ...Green spaces in and around cities, collectively known as urban forests, can mitigate regional and local flooding from storms, reduce water scarcity, improve air and water quality, regulate temperature, and aid soil nutrient cycling, all while sequestering carbon. ...Environmental justice affirms that all people have the right to land, water, and air that are clean and safe; it requires environmental policy that is free from discrimination and bias and is based on mutual respect and justice for all people. In assessing whether all residents of a city have equitable access to urban forests, the first question to answer is, Where does the city have green space? To tackle this on a citywide scale, most researchers either collect satellite or aerial imagery, which can measure down to only a certain scale, or conduct laborious on-the-ground surveys....