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Do urban environmental inequalities influence demand for nature based solutions?
Combining individual-level survey data and geo-referenced administrative noise data for four European cities (Bern, Zurich, Hanover, and Mainz; n = 7,450), we test the social gradient hypothesis, which states that exposure to residential noise is higher for households in a lower socioeconomic position (measured by income and migration background). In addition, we introduce and test the ‘environmental shielding hypothesis’, which states that, given environmental ‘bads’ in the neighbourhood, privileged social groups have better opportunities to shield themselves against them. Our results show that, for many residents of the four cities, observed road traffic and aircraft noise levels are above World Health Organization limits. Estimates of spatial error regression models only partly support the social gradient hypothesis. While we find significant but relatively small income effects and somewhat stronger effects of having a (non-Western) migration background, these effects are not significant in all cities. However, especially high-income households are more capable of avoiding exposure to indoor noise. Due to their residence characteristics and having the resources to maintain high standards of noise protection, these households have more capabilities to shield themselves against environmental bads in their neighbourhood. This supports the environmental shielding hypothesis.
Livability, resilience, and justice in cities are challenged by climate change and the historical legacies that together create disproportionate impacts on human communities. Urban green infrastructure has emerged as an important tool for climate change adaptation and resilience given their capacity to provide ecosystem services such as local temperature regulation, stormwater mitigation, and air purification. However, realizing the benefits of ecosystem services for climate adaptation depend on where they are locally supplied. Few studies have examined the potential spatial mismatches in supply and demand of urban ecosystem services, and even fewer have examined supply–demand mismatches as a potential environmental justice issue, such as when supply–demand mismatches disproportionately overlap with certain socio‐demographic groups. We spatially analyzed demand for ecosystem services relevant for climate change adaptation and combined results with recent analysis of the supply of ecosystem services in New York City (NYC). By quantifying the relative mismatch between supply and demand of ecosystem services across the city we were able to identify spatial hot‐ and coldspots of supply–demand mismatch. Hotspots are spatial clusters of census blocks with a higher mismatch and coldspots are clusters with lower mismatch values than their surrounding blocks. The distribution of mismatch hot‐ and coldspots was then compared to the spatial distribution of socio‐demographic groups. Results reveal distributional environmental injustice of access to the climate‐regulating benefits of ecosystem services provided by urban green infrastructure in NYC. Analyses show that areas with lower supply–demand mismatch tend to be populated by a larger proportion of white residents with higher median incomes, and areas with high mismatch values have lower incomes and a higher proportion of people of color. We suggest that urban policy and planning should ensure that investments in “nature‐based” solutions such as through urban green infrastructure for climate change adaptation do not reinforce or exacerbate potentially existing environmental injustices.
Urban heat stress poses a major risk to public health. Case studies of individual cities suggest that heat exposure, like other environmental stressors, may be unequally distributed across income groups. There is little evidence, however, as to whether such disparities are pervasive. We combine surface urban heat island (SUHI) data, a proxy for isolating the urban contribution to additional heat exposure in built environments, with census tract-level demographic data to answer these questions for summer days, when heat exposure is likely to be at a maximum. We find that the average person of color lives in a census tract with higher SUHI intensity than non-Hispanic whites in all but 6 of the 175 largest urbanized areas in the continental United States. A similar pattern emerges for people living in households below the poverty line relative to those at more than two times the poverty line. Individual exposure to heat is associated with adverse health and economic outcomes. Here, the authors show that people of color and people living in poverty bear a disproportionate burden of urban heat exposure in almost all major cities in the continental United States.
The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has mainstreamed as an interdisciplinary framework in the urban sustainability and resilience agenda. While the uptake of ES in urban areas is deeply entangled with multiple values, trade-offs, institutions, management and planning approaches, there is still a lack of a comprehensive and systematic framework to address environmental justice (EJ) in urban ES assessments. This article presents a systematic literature review to examine what factors are critical for the effective inclusion of an EJ lens in urban ES appraisals. More specifically, we assessed how distributional, procedural and recognitional EJ dimensions have been addressed, and in relation to which types of urban ES. Our results reveal that EJ considerations are currently focused on the (un)equal distribution of ES and the associated green and blue infrastructure with regard to socioeconomic groups, with special attention to income and race/ethnicity as the main mechanisms of social stratification. There is also a predominant focus on regulating and cultural ES, analyzing their role on resilience and adaptive capacity on one hand, and recreational values, social cohesion and place-making on the other. In this review, we also evaluate the interconnected dimensions of justice and their constraints, and lay out pathways for new research into intersectional and restorative approaches to justice in ES assessments. Finally, we interrogate what the role of urban ES-based planning might be in making more inclusive and just cities and explore its implications for policy and practice.
Variations of willingness to pay (WTP) in geographical space have been characterised by the presence of localised patches of higher and lower values. However, to date, spatial valuation studies have not explored whether the distribution of hot (cold) spots of WTP is particular to each environmental good or if it follows similar patterns to other, comparable, environmental goods. We address this question by contrasting the spatial patterns of hot (cold) clusters of WTP for improvements in several ecosystem services. We geocoded individual‐specific WTP estimates derived from a discrete choice experiment exploring preferences for ecosystem service improvements for three different catchment areas in Scotland comprising urban, agricultural, riverine and estuarine ecosystems. The local Moran's I statistic was used to find statistically significant local clusters and identify hot spots and cold spots. Finally, Multi‐type Ripley's K and L functions were used to contrast the spatial patterns of local clusters of WTP among ecosystem services, and across case studies. Our results show that hotspots of WTP for environmental improvements tend to occur close to each other in space, regardless of the ecosystem service or the area under consideration. Our findings suggest that households sort themselves according to their preferences for estuarine ecosystem services.
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly being promoted as a means to address societal and environmental challenges, especially flood risk reduction. In the context of rapidly urbanizing catchments, NBS can take part of the development of sustainable cities, either by conserving peri-urban ecosystems from urban sprawl or by developing green infrastructure in the cities. Both can provide a wide range of co-benefits (e.g., climate regulation, air quality regulation), but also generate some negative effects (e.g., mobility issues, unsafety, allergens). We develop and implement a Discrete Choice Experiment survey to analyse people’s perception of co-benefits and negative effects, and associated preferences for the two types of NBS at a catchment scale. The results obtained from 400 households living in a French Mediterranean catchment highlight that people associate numerous co-benefits to NBS, but also negative effects. Our estimations reveal that resident households are ready to contribute large amounts through a tax increase for the development of NBS (from 140 to 180 EUR/year, on average). There is however a strong heterogeneity of preferences at the catchment scale influenced by income, location of the respondent along an urban–rural gradient, and perception of the importance of ecosystem services. These differences may reflect urban environmental inequalities at the catchment scale, which are important to take into account in order to avoid distributive inequalities.
In a rising urban age planning for cities around the globe is increasingly based on assessments of ecosystem services, making enhanced considerations of ecosystem service justice critically important. Yet, justice remains a ‘blind spot’ in urban ecosystem service models and research, which can be traced back to the ecological and economic legacies of the concept itself. This legacy reproduces the normative focus on natural capital as a guarantee of sustaining ecosystem services, enforces a static understanding of nature that insufficiently considers human agency, and conceptualizes ecosystem service flows from nature to humans in a way that does not reflect the social-ecological structure and constantly shifting priorities of the urban realm. In response, this conceptual paper aims at broadening the analytical foundation for justice in urban ecosystem service assessments by presenting a model that links the co-production of urban ecosystem services (including infrastructure, institutions, and perceptions) with established lines of recognition, procedural, and distributional justice. It further highlights the need to embed these classical dimensions of justice within both spatial (downscaled and inter-scalar approaches) and temporal (interrelated past, present, and future conditions) justice frames. Relying on urban environmental, social, spatial and temporal justice theory as well ecosystem service scholarship, we outline theoretical entry points and provide practical examples for weaving notions of justice into urban ecosystem service research and practice, while highlighting future research needs.
Urban green spaces provide cultural ecosystem services, and urban policies typically aim to enhance these services by targeting new investments in deprived areas. The implementation of urban greening policies is one way to reduce inequalities in well-being, for example by targeting areas where increased access to green spaces will benefit citizens of low socioeconomic status. Most research has addressed the targeting of green infrastructure development by considering income and access to green spaces, while few studies have considered a multidimensional definition of well-being. The aims of this paper are to i) integrate inputs from the economic and political philosophy literature to propose a broader definition of well-being, including health, education, insecurity, and social relations; ii) develop a criterion to prioritise areas where urban greening would have the greatest impact on well-being inequalities; and iii) apply this criterion to the Paris metropolitan area (Ile-de-France region), a spatially heterogeneous region where areas deprived of access to green spaces are not systematically deprived in other dimensions. Our analysis shows that the city of Paris and the inner suburbs would be targeted when considering inequality in access to green spaces only. The results differ when inequalities in income or multidimensional well-being are taken into account, in which case the northern inner suburbs and some outer suburbs become a higher priority.
Understanding how the value of environmental goods and services is influenced by their location relative to where people live can help identify the economically optimal spatial distribution of conservation interventions across landscapes. However, capturing these spatial relationships within the confines of a stated preference study has proved challenging. We propose and implement a novel approach to incorporating space within the design and presentation of stated preference choice experiments (CE). Using an investigation of preferences concerning land use change in Great Britain, CE scenarios are presented through individually generated maps, tailored to each respondent’s home location. Each choice situation is generated in real time and is underpinned by spatially tailored experimental designs that reflect current British land uses and incorporate locational attributes relating to physical and administrative dimensions of space. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first CE study to integrate space into both the survey design and presentation of choice tasks in this way. Presented methodology provides means for testing how presentation of spatial information influence stated preferences. We contrast our spatially explicit (mapped) approach with a commonly applied tabular CE approach finding that the former exhibits a number of desirable characteristics relative to the latter.
Ecosystem disservices (EDS) highlight the negative effects of nature on human well-being. Like ecosystem services (ES), EDS impact economic and non-economic aspects of human life within social-ecological systems (SES). The concept of EDS has been much debated, with strongly differing opinions regarding its utility and implications. In this opinion paper, we emphasize its relevance and complementarity to the ES concept for analyzing SES, and advocate applying EDS to SES research more systematically. Firstly, we highlight that though EDS are now sometimes studied, they remain neglected compared to ES. Secondly, we propose five reasons why EDS and ES are complementary concepts. Thirdly, we suggest that EDS are critical to understanding stakeholders’ behavior regarding ecosystems. Drawing on existing studies, we illustrate how stakeholders in SES simultaneously perceive and benefit or suffer from ES and EDS. We further suggest that, under certain conditions, EDS may influence people’s behavior more than ES. Such 'EDS-biased behavior' implies that, under certain circumstances, targeting EDS reduction may be more effective than targeting ES increase to encourage nature-friendly behaviors. Finally, we provide five recommendations to further integrate ES and EDS in research, as a pathway towards improving the understanding of SES and the effectiveness of sustainability policies.
An expanding literature addresses spatial dimensions related to the elicitation, estimation, interpretation and aggregation of stated preference (SP) welfare measures. Recognizing the relevance of spatial dimensions for SP welfare analysis and the breadth of associated scholarly work, this article reviews the primary methods, findings, controversies and frontiers in this important area of contemporary research. This review is grounded in a typology that characterizes analytical methods based on theoretical foundations and the type of statistical modelling applied. The resulting interpretive appraisal seeks to (1) summarize and contrast different theoretical arguments and points of departure within the spatial SP literature, (2) synthesize findings, insights and methods from the literature to promote a more holistic perspective on the treatment of spatial dimensions within SP welfare analysis, (3) evaluate and reconcile divergent approaches in terms of theoretical grounding, ability to identify relevant empirical effects, and relevance for SP valuation, and (4) discuss outstanding questions and research frontiers.
I study how the distribution of environmental goods and income affect the economic valuation of local public goods. I find that how environmental inequality affects societal willingness to pay (WTP) environmental local public goods is determined by their substitutability as well as by how their provision is correlated with income. Specifically, environmental inequality decreases societal (WTP) for substitutes, but this effect is reversed if environmental goods are complements or distributed strongly in favour of richer households. Moreover, I show that sorting of richer households into places where environmental good endowment is high increases (decreases) societal WTP if and only if it is a substitute for (complement to) consumption goods. I propose novel adjustment factors for structural benefit transfer to control for differences in the spatial distribution of environmental local public goods. Using forest preservation in Poland as an empirical example, I find that societal WTP is up to 4 percent higher for equal access to forests and up to 8 percent higher for an equal distribution of both income and access to forests.
Spatial planning has to deal with trade-offs between various stakeholders’ wishes and needs as part of planning and management of landscapes, natural resources and/or biodiversity. To make ecosystem services (ES) trade-off research more relevant for spatial planning, we propose an analytical framework, which puts stakeholders, their land-use/management choices, their impact on ES and responses at the centre. Based on 24 cases from around the world, we used this framing to analyse the appearance and diversity of real-world ES trade-offs. They cover a wide range of trade-offs related to ecosystem use, including: land-use change, management regimes, technical versus nature-based solutions, natural resource use, and management of species. The ES trade-offs studied featured a complexity that was far greater than what is often described in the ES literature. Influential users and context setters are at the core of the trade-off decision-making, but most of the impact is felt by non-influential users. Provisioning and cultural ES were the most targeted in the studied trade-offs, but regulating ES were the most impacted. Stakeholders’ characteristics, such as influence, impact faced, and concerns can partially explain their position and response in relation to trade-offs. Based on the research findings, we formulate recommendations for spatial planning.
A key challenge of landscape planning and management is coping with multiple ecosystem service (ES) potentials and needs in complex social-ecological systems such as urban regions. However, few studies have analyzed both the supply and demand sides of ES bundles, i.e., sets of associated ES that repeatedly appear together across time or space. This paper advances a framework to identify, map and assess ES bundles from a supply-demand approach to inform landscape planning and management. The framework is applied to the Barcelona metropolitan region, Spain, covering five ES and using eleven spatial indicators. Each indicator was quantified and mapped at the municipal level (n=164) combining different proxy- and process-based models. Our results show significant associations among ES, both at the supply and demand sides. Further, we identified five distinct ES supply-demand bundle types and characterized them based on their specific ES relationships and their main underlying social-ecological conditions. From our findings, we contend that land sharing strategies should be prioritized in urban and agricultural areas to increase landscape multifunctionality while assuring the conservation of large periurban forest areas that are critical for delivering a wide range of local ES highly demanded by the urban population.
We are increasingly confronted with severe social and economic impacts of environmental degradation all over the world. From a valuation perspective, environmental problems and conflicts originate from trade-offs between values. The urgency and importance to integrate nature's diverse values in decisions and actions stand out more than ever.
Valuation, in its broad sense of ‘assigning importance’, is inherently part of most decisions on natural resource and land use. Scholars from different traditions -while moving from heuristic interdisciplinary debate to applied transdisciplinary science- now acknowledge the need for combining multiple disciplines and methods to represent the diverse set of values of nature. This growing group of scientists and practitioners share the ambition to explore how combinations of ecological, socio-cultural and economic valuation tools can support real-life resource and land use decision-making.
The current sustainability challenges and the ineffectiveness of single-value approaches to offer relief demonstrate that continuing along a single path is no option. We advocate for the adherence of a plural valuation culture and its establishment as a common practice, by contesting and complementing ineffective and discriminatory single-value approaches. In policy and decision contexts with a willingness to improve sustainability, integrated valuation approaches can be blended in existing processes, whereas in contexts of power asymmetries or environmental conflicts, integrated valuation can promote the inclusion of diverse values through action research and support the struggle for social and environmental justice.
The special issue and this editorial synthesis paper bring together lessons from pioneer case studies and research papers, synthesizing main challenges and setting out priorities for the years to come for the field of integrated valuation.
In this paper, we reflect on the implications for science, policy and practice of the recently introduced concept of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), with a focus on the European context. First, we analyse NBS in relation to similar concepts, and reflect on its relationship to sustainability as an overarching framework. From this, we derive a set of questions to be addressed and propose a general framework for how these might be addressed in NBS projects by funders, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. We conclude that:
Many environmental valuation studies using stated preferences techniques are single-site studies that ignore essential spatial aspects, including possible substitution effects. In this paper substitution effects are captured explicitly in the design of a labelled choice experiment and the inclusion of different distance variables in the choice model specification. We test the effect of spatial heterogeneity on welfare estimates and transfer errors for minor and major river restoration works, and the transferability of river specific utility functions, accounting for key variables such as site visitation, spatial clustering and income. River specific utility functions appear to be transferable, resulting in low transfer errors. However, ignoring spatial heterogeneity increases transfer errors.
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In this paper we investigate the prospects of using geographically weighted choice models for modelling of spatially clustered preferences. The data used in this study comes from a discrete choice experiment survey regarding public preferences for the implementation of a new country-wide forest management and protection program in Poland. We combine it with high-resolution geographical information system data related to local forest characteristics. Using locally estimated discrete choice models we obtain location-specific estimates of willingness to pay (WTP). Variation in these estimates is explained by the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents and characteristics of the forests in their place of residence. The results are compared with those obtained from a more typical, two stage procedure which uses Bayesian posterior means of the mixed logit model random parameters to calculate individual-specific estimates of WTP. The latter approach, although easier to implement and more common in the literature, does not explicitly assume any spatial relationship between individuals. In contrast, the geographically weighted approach differs in this aspect and can provide additional insight on spatial patterns of individuals' preferences. Our study shows that although the geographically weighted discrete choice models have some advantages, it is not without drawbacks, such as the difficulty and subjectivity in choosing an appropriate bandwidth. We find a number of notable differences in WTP estimates and their spatial distributions. At the current level of development of the two techniques, we find mixed evidence on which approach gives the better results.
ABSTRACT. Nature-based solutions promoting green and blue urban areas have significant potential to decrease the vulnerability and enhance the resilience of cities in light of climatic change. They can thereby help to mitigate climate change-induced impacts and serve as proactive adaptation options for municipalities. We explore the various contexts in which nature-based solutions are relevant for climate mitigation and adaptation in urban areas, identify indicators for assessing the effectiveness of nature-based solutions and related knowledge gaps. In addition, we explore existing barriers and potential opportunities for increasing the scale and effectiveness of nature-based solution implementation. The results were derived from an inter-and transdisciplinary workshop with experts from research, municipalities, policy, and society. As an outcome of the workshop discussions and building on existing evidence, we highlight three main needs for future science and policy agendas when dealing with nature-based solutions: (i) produce stronger evidence on nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation and raise awareness by increasing implementation; (ii) adapt for governance challenges in implementing nature-based solutions by using reflexive approaches, which implies bringing together new networks of society, nature-based solution ambassadors, and practitioners; (iii) consider socio-environmental justice and social cohesion when implementing nature-based solutions by using integrated governance approaches that take into account an integrative and transdisciplinary participation of diverse actors. Taking these needs into account, nature-based solutions can serve as climate mitigation and adaptation tools that produce additional cobenefits for societal well-being, thereby serving as strong investment options for sustainable urban planning.
The paper investigates the spatial heterogeneity of public’s preferences for the implementation of a new country-wide forest management and protection program in Poland. Spatial econometric methods and high resolution geographical information system data related to forest characteristics are used to explain the variation in individual-specific willingness to pay (WTP) values, derived from a discrete choice experiment study. We find that respondents’ WTP is higher the closer they live to their nearest forest, and the scarcer forests are in the area where they live. Interestingly, the higher the ecological value of forests in respondents’ area, the more people prefer extending areas of national forest protection. We also investigate spatial patterns in individual-specific WTP scores and in latent class membership probabilities, finding that preferences are indeed spatially clustered. We argue that this clustering should be taken into account in forest management and policy-making.
Recent studies have suggested that some disadvantaged socio-demographic groups face serious environmental-related inequities in Hong Kong due to the rising ambient urban temperatures. Identifying heat-vulnerable groups and locating areas of Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) inequities is thus important for prioritizing interventions to mitigate death/illness rates from heat. This study addresses this problem by integrating methods of remote sensing retrieval, logistic regression modelling, and spatial autocorrelation. In this process, the SUHI effect was first estimated from the Land Surface Temperature (LST) derived from a Landsat image. With the scale assimilated to the SUHI and socio-demographic data, a logistic regression model was consequently adopted to ascertain their relationships based on Hong Kong Tertiary Planning Units (TPUs). Lastly, inequity "hotspots" were derived using spatial autocorrelation methods. Results show that disadvantaged socio-demographic groups were significantly more prone to be exposed to an intense SUHI effect: over half of 287 TPUs characterized by age groups of 60+ years, secondary and matriculation education attainment, widowed, divorced and separated, low and middle incomes, and certain occupation groups of workers, have significant Odds Ratios (ORs) larger than 1.2. It can be concluded that a clustering analysis stratified by age, income, educational attainment, marital status, and occupation is an effective way to detect the inequity hotspots of SUHI exposure. Additionally, inequities explored using income, marital status and occupation factors were more significant than the age and educational attainment in these areas. The derived maps and model can be further analyzed in urban/city planning, in order to mitigate the physical and social causes of the SUHI effect.
This paper assesses the value of urban green spaces, specifically peri-urban forests and their potential substitutes, for the local population on the basis of their residential choice. We applied a choice experiment that focuses on the trade-offs between private housing characteristics and the environmental aspects of neighborhoods. Individual willingness-to-pay is estimated from a latent class model and a mixed logit model along with a Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) space approach. Our results show that green spaces provide both direct use value (recreation) and indirect use value (scenic view). The respondent's value of distance to peri-urban forests depends on recreational use. The ownership of a private garden reduces the WTP for living closer to an urban park.
Context The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has become mainstreamed in environmental planning and management recently, and with that various tools for quantifying ecosystem services have emerged. However, designing the tools for integrated assessment and optimization of multiple ES has become a challenging task. Objectives In order to promote the efficiency of ecosystem planning and management, we develop a spatial decision support tool named SAORES, which provides a platform for exploratory scenario analysis and optimal planning design, rather than ES assessment. Method SAORES is formed with four modules: the scenario development module, the integrated ecosystem service model base, the ecosystem service trade-off analysis module, and the multi-objective spatial optimization module based on NSGA-II. Using SAORES, we make a case study on the Yangou catchment of the Loess Plateau, China. Based on impact assessment of the Grain to green program (GTGP), we optimize the farmland retiring planning, involving multiple objectives which include the eco-compensation and the key ES. Results The integrated assessment shows that, the aim of the GTGP, the water and soil retention are prominent improved. Optimization for GTGP provides a series of optimal solutions, which are better than other single optimized solutions, and are twice the cost-effectiveness of the actual situation. Conclusions SAORES, as a decision support tool, can improve the scenario analysis and multi-objective optimal planning design for ecosystem management and planning. The case study demonstrates the potential and effectiveness of SAORES and spatial multi-objective optimization model for ecosystem service management, especially in the Loess Plateau.
Many cities are developing infiltration infrastructures aimed at restoring natural hydrological processes. Among those, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) can generate co-benefits, which contribute to cities’ adaptation to climate change. However, choosing optimal locations for infiltration infrastructures within limited available urban space is a complex spatial problem. It requires taking into account spatial patterns of infiltration potential as well as urban-rural gradients of costs and benefits. To address this, we apply a multi-objective optimization on a simple monocentric model city designed to give generic insights into location choices. We test a series of hypotheses: in comparison with a reference situation, we test the impact of the impossibility to infiltrate rainwater in city centers, the impact of substitution effects due to the presence of urban parks, and the possibility to mix NBS with grey infrastructures. The solutions reveal two polar strategies: locating infrastructures in the city center with higher co-benefits despite higher opportunity costs, or selecting suburban locations with the highest infiltration potential and lower opportunity costs - and a diversity of hybrid solutions. Substitution effects lead to discarding locations near urban parks, especially in centric locations. Finally, mixing NBS and grey infrastructures leads to a specialization of solutions by area and the potential to reach higher benefits at less opportunity costs.
Urban green spaces (UGSs) enhance the quality of urban dwellers’ lives. Thus, efficient policies for improving UGSs—which should reflect urban residents’ needs—are necessary. Additionally, it is crucial to manage the spatial distribution of residents’ preferences to find regions that can produce greater utility within limited budgets. Using online surveys conducted in 2015, which obtained 414 valid responses, this study analyzed urban residents’ preferences for UGS improvement policies and investigated spatial preference heterogeneity for such policies in the planned city of Seongnam, South Korea. A mixed logit model was applied to analyze policy preferences, and the preference heterogeneity level was assessed by coefficient of variation. Additionally, hot spot analysis was performed to examine spatial heterogeneity. The Getis-ord Gi* was computed to identify the spatial clusters of the estimated coefficients and the marginal willingness to pay (WTP). The results indicated a high preference for enhancing quality and connectivity. While the results showed that preference heterogeneity existed in each UGS improvement policy, heterogeneity levels differed per attribute. Statistically significant local spatial clusters of estimated coefficients and marginal WTP were observed for each UGS improvement policy despite global autocorrelation being insignificant. It was observed that estimate coefficients with low coefficient of variation can make extensive spatial clusters; otherwise, the opposite trend might occur. Additionally, marginal WTP hot spots did not change according to attribute but appeared in similar locations. Therefore, spatial heterogeneity analysis is necessary to manage UGSs with higher net utilities given limited budgets. These findings will ensure the satisfaction of all urban residents by identifying their preferences for UGS policies. They will also help prioritize cost-effective implementation of policy considering spatial preference heterogeneity.
Environmental justice (EJ) addresses the unequal distribution of environmental goods and harms and promotes people's right to be involved in environmental decision-making. In recent years, EJ considerations have expanded to the use of Nature-based solutions (NbS) in urban areas, mainly how their planning and implementation can impact human well-being and social justice. However, what constitutes a just solution and how the concept is treated in the literature can take many forms. This study reviews how EJ is conceptualised and analysed in urban NbS research and documents the potential outcomes of diverse interventions. We developed a conceptual framework for the review process, focusing on the EJ definitions transferable to NbS research. We then conducted a systematic review of 152 articles published between 2000 and 2021. Selected articles addressed urban NbS from the recognitional, procedural and distributional interpretations of justice. Publication trends, methods, and demographic variables were recorded for each article. Furthermore, we focused on the means for assessing EJ in empirical terms, such as the framing of justice-related challenges, assessment indicators , and the reported justice outcomes. Findings demonstrate the dominance of research themes, the skewness towards the distributive dimension of justice, and a large variety of metrics and indicators used to assess EJ implications. Our results also show that EJ outcomes have mostly been reported to be mixed or negative. The results are used to identify research gaps and issues that need to be addressed to enhance EJ effects in urban NbS.
Rising inequality threatens the improvement of human well-being. As an important type of green infrastructure within cities, urban green spaces provide ecosystem services and contribute to human health. The inequalities of per capita urban green space area and ecosystem services are critical environmental justice and public health issues but are not well understood. Based on the spatial patterns of green spaces, land rent, and the population of 20 cities in China, we assessed the inequalities of per capita green space area and ecosystem services by using the Gini coefficient. Results showed that, (1) the Gini coefficient (an indicator to measure inequality) of per capita available ecosystem services was 0.430, which was greater than that of per capita green space area (0.357), (2) the inequality of per capita ecosystem services had a negative relationship with city size measured by population and GDP, and (3) the inequality of green space area was negatively related to the subjective quality of life, while the inequality of ecosystem services was negatively related to the economic competitiveness of cities. We suggest that urban planners comprehensively consider multiple indicators (such as per capita green space area, Gini coefficients of per capita green space area and ecosystem services) to simultaneously evaluate the efficiency and equality of green space construction.
Trees provide important ecosystem services and benefits, with some, such as air pollutant and heat reductions, being linked to improved human health and well-being. The uneven distribution of tree cover in urban areas and subsequently the ecosystem services and benefits it provides has potential implications related to environmental justice, especially if disadvantaged socio-demographic or socio-economic and marginalized communities lack these services and benefits. This study explores the distribution of ecosystem services and benefits provided by tree cover in the Bronx, NY. Utilizing census block group specific spatial datasets, we employ a Mann-Kendall trend test and the Sen slope estimator to describe the relationship between median income, per capita income, percent minorities, population density, poverty percent and total educational attainment, and carbon storage and sequestration, stormwater runoff reduction, air pollutant removal and heat index reduction ecosystem services and benefits for 2010 tree cover conditions. We explore the equality in ecosystem service and benefit distributions across socio-demographic and socio-economic subgroups using the Atkinson inequality and Theil entropy indices decomposed into within and between subgroup inequalities for each ecosystem service and benefit. These inequality indices allow us to better assess current inequalities and work to achieve greater equity in the distribution of ecosystem services. Using population and ecosystem service data, all ecosystem services and benefits appear to be unequally and inequitably distributed in the Bronx, with disadvantaged socio-demographic and socio-economic block groups receiving disproportionately lower ecosystem services from urban trees. The vast majority of the inequality is explained by variations within each socio-demographic and socio-economic subgroup rather than variations between subgroups. To reduce this inequity, efforts should be made to strategically increase services and benefits by initially targeting disadvantaged block groups with extremely low tree cover.
As a response to increasing urbanization and changing weather and climatic patterns, urban green infrastructure (UGI) emerged as a concept to increase resilience within the urban boundaries. Given that implementing these (semi-) natural solutions in practice requires a clear overview of the costs and benefits, valuation becomes ever important. A range of decision-support tools for green infrastructure and ecosystem services exist, developed for various purposes. This paper reviews the potential of 10 shortlisted and existing valuation tools to support investment decisions of urban green infrastructure. In the assessment, the functionality is regarded specifically from the urban planning and decision-making viewpoint. The toolkits were evaluated on 12 different criteria. After analyzing the toolkits on these criteria, the findings are evaluated on the (mis)match with specific requirements in the urban planning and management context. Secondly, recommendations and guidelines are formulated to support the design of simple valuation tools, tailored to support the development of green infrastructure in urban areas. Approaching the valuation toolkits biophysically and (socio-)economically provides an integral overview of the challenges and opportunities of the capacities of each framework. It was found that most tools are not designed for the peculiarities of the urban context. Several elements contribute to the hampering uptake of GI valuation tools. Firstly, the limited effort in the economic case for green infrastructure remains a burden to use toolkits to compare grey and green alternatives. Secondly, tools are currently seldom designed for the peculiarities of cities: urban ecosystem (dis)services, multi-scalability, life-span assessments of co-benefits and the importance of social benefits. Thirdly, toolkits should be the result of co-development between the scientific community and local authorities in order to create toolkits that are tailor made to the specific needs in the urban planning process. It can be concluded that current tools, are not readily applicable to support decision making as such. However, if applied cautiously, they can have an indicative role to pinpoint further targeted and in-depth analyses.
Keywords: InVEST Land use and land cover Protected areas Territorial planning Urban-rural gradient Urban sprawl A B S T R A C T Global trends in land-use changes, including urbanization and abandonment of rural areas, have important repercussions for the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ES). In this study, we assessed and mapped the supply and demand of three ES (water provision, climate regulation, and outdoor recreation) along an urban-rural gradient in the Madrid region (Spain) from 1990 to 2012. We mapped ES supply, based on land use/land cover (LULC) data, using InVEST models and complementary methods, and ES demand, using population density and demand indicators. Then, we explored spatial supply-demand mismatches at a municipality spatial scale. Despite an increase in ES supply in some areas, a general increase in ES demand led to increasing dependence by the Madrid metropolitan area on outlying areas. We found that the number of municipalities that exhibited mismatches between the supply and demand in ES increased throughout the study period, due mainly to urban sprawl. Our results suggest the need for comprehensive land-use planning at the regional scale, taking into account that many ES flows reach beyond municipality boundaries. Finally, we discuss the utility of analyzing spatial mismatches in the supply and demand of ES for land-use planning and decision-making.
Urban ecosystem services (UES) are the benefits supplied by nature to people in urban systems. The supply of UES is threatened because of widespread increasing urbanisation. Modelling scenarios that optimise UES supplies can support sustainable urban planning processes. UES are linked to land use/land cover (LULC) types, which enables the optimisation of UES supply to be based on LULC configurations. However, current modelling approaches are not suitably adapted to the link between UES optimisation and LULC configurations. One possibility to target UES optimal supply is to use mathematical optimisation methods. The objective of this study is to test the combined use of participatory modelling and optimisation models to deliver spatial solutions that maximise UES by optimal urban LULC configurations. An integrated model is built using a multi-objective integer linear programming (MOILP) model along with LULC performance scores to maximise a set of locally supplied UES. This is illustrated with a case study of Lisbon (Portugal) involving the participation of key stakeholders to validate and benchmark the selection of optimisation constraints. Results show land optimally allocated to land cover types with high UES functions combined with a reshuffling and densification of residential land. Thus, the new LULC configuration increased multiple UES supplies while maintaining a level of housing capacity. The model shows clear implications of increasing land cover types whose UES functions are high compared to most other LULC classes. Moreover, incorporating stakeholder participatory modelling offers a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary scientific contribution intersecting mathematical optimisation, UES, and urban planning.
This article proposes contemporary best-practice recommendations for stated preference (SP) studies used to inform decision making, grounded in the accumulated body of peer-reviewed literature. These recommendations consider the use of SP methods to estimate both use and non-use (passive-use) values, and cover the broad SP domain, including contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments. We focus on applications to public goods in the context of the environment and human health but also consider ways in which the proposed recommendations might apply to other common areas of application. The recommendations recognize that SP results may be used and reused (benefit transfers) by governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations, and that all such applications must be considered. The intended result is a set of guidelines for SP studies that is more comprehensive than that of the original National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Blue Ribbon Panel on contingent valuation, is more germane to contemporary applications, and reflects the two decades of research since that time. We also distinguish between practices for which accumulated research is sufficient to support recommendations and those for which greater uncertainty remains. The goal of this article is to raise the quality of SP studies used to support decision making and promote research that will further enhance the practice of these studies worldwide.
A limited number of studies have addressed environmental inequality, using various study designs and methodologies and often reaching contradictory results. Following a standardized multi-city data collection process within the European project EURO-HEALTHY, we conducted an ecological study to investigate the spatial association between nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), as a surrogate for traffic related air pollution, and ten socioeconomic indicators at local administrative unit level in nine European Metropolitan Areas. We applied mixed models for the associations under investigation with random intercepts per Metropolitan Area, also accounting for the spatial correlation. The stronger associations were observed between NO 2 levels and population density, population born outside the European Union (EU28), total crimes per 100,000 inhabitants and unemployment rate that displayed a highly statistically significant trend of increasing concentrations with increasing levels of the indicators. Specifically, the highest vs the lowest quartile of each indicator above was associated with 48.7% (95% confidence interval (CI): 42.9%, 54.8%), 30.9% (95%CI: 22.1%, 40.2%), 19.8% (95%CI: 13.4%, 26.6%) and 15.8% (95%CI: 9.9%, 22.1%) increase in NO 2 respectively. The association with population density most probably reflects the higher volume in vehicular traffic, which is the main source of NO 2 in urban areas. Higher pollution levels in areas with higher percentages of people born outside EU28, crime or unemployment rates indicate that worse air quality is typically encountered in deprived European urban areas. Policy makers should consider spatial environmental inequalities to better inform actions aiming to lower urban air pollution levels that will subsequently lead to improved quality of life, public health and health equity across the population.
This paper reviews the progress made over the past few years in evaluating and controlling for spatial heterogeneity in stated preference valuation, focussing on applications to environmental valuation. Spatial heterogeneity can strongly impact value estimates, so failure to account for it can compromise their validity and reliability. Incorporating spatial factors into valuation studies not only helps to control for some potential biases, but also produces more precise evaluation of amenities that have mixed use and non-use values. For these reasons and considering the ever-growing need for non-market valuation studies, spatial heterogeneity deserves more attention in the stated preference valuation literature.
In this review we discuss the current state-of-knowledge and identify some of the main issues that have been raised in the literature in relation to spatial heterogeneity in stated preference valuation, including distance-decay, substitution, embedding effects and scale factors. We present several techniques that have been used so far, mostly originating from spatial econometrics and spatial statistics, to control for spatial heterogeneity. Some of the ongoing challenges that require further attention are also highlighted. We conclude by suggesting potential directions for future research in light of recent progress made in related disciplines and the evolution of modern technologies.
In the face of climate change and growing health hazards due to air pollution in urban centers, private car use is being increasingly criticized. At the same time, research suggests that there is an unsatisfied demand for modes of transportation other than private cars. In fact, many cities all over Europe have already established car-restricted or car-free areas. This paper uses a discrete choice experiment to learn more about people's preferences regarding a car-free city center in Berlin, Germany. We find that, given the current infrastructure, around 60% of our respondents are willing to accept a car-free city center. By improving infrastructure for cyclists, willingness to accept a car-free city center strongly increases. Similarly, improving the network of bus stops and train stations as well as rededicating released streets to recreational uses would contribute to a higher acceptance of a car-free city center. Using a random parameters logit model, we have also identified observed and unobserved sources of heterogeneity.
Many studies value urban ecosystem service benefits using residents' willingness to pay and supply-side analyses of ecosystem attributes. But, few studies account for consumer demand and ecosystem dis-services. To address this gap we surveyed 1052 homeowners eliciting consumer demand for key urban forest ecosystem attributes and service-disservice levels in both their properties and surrounding neighborhood. We use an approach integrating focus group, field data, and surveys to identify consumer preferences and trade-offs between urban forest ecosystem structure-functional attributes and their level of services and disservices. This method, called best worst choice, produces more estimates of utility while reducing the likelihood of introducing biases associated with human cognitive tendencies. Results indicate that consumer choices for property value were highest followed by tree condition, a structural proxy for minimizing disservices, and tree shade, a functional proxy for temperature regulation. We also found evidence of trade-offs in demand for different ecosystem services, significant scale effects, and that willingness to pay for ecosystem disservices was negative. Findings suggest that management, and studies that value and map ecosystem services, using fixed scales should account for end-user demand and functional traits, as consumers can discern trade-offs in benefits and disservices across different cognitive and spatial scales.
Cultural services of the landscape contribute to a higher quality of life. The provision of these services differs along the urban–rural gradient, as does their appreciation by local residents. This paper investigates residents’ preferences for cultural services along the urban–rural gradient through a map-based survey in and around the Dutch city of Maastricht. We focus on the importance of location in explaining these preferences, distinguishing the location of residents (relative to the preferred landscape units) and the location of landscape units (relative to their positions on the urban–rural gradient). The study shows that residents prefer nearby locations for all distinguished cultural services. Locations’ valuation along the urban–rural gradient, however, differs by service type: for cultural heritage locations near the city centre are preferred, while outdoor recreation and sports and passive enjoyment of green landscapes are enjoyed more in rural areas. When considering the spatial distribution of the land-use types that provide these services, we further find that people prefer green areas closer to the city for outdoor recreation and sports and passive enjoyment of green landscapes. The results illustrate the heterogeneity of people's preferences for cultural services along the urban–rural gradient beyond the distance from their residences. We recommend policy makers to take the urban–rural gradient into account when valuating landscape units, and in particularly the importance of green landscape units close to the city for different cultural services.
In cities, land-use decisions made during planning processes determine the availability of ecosystem services fundamental to the wellbeing of urban population. Hence, the inclusion of ecosystem services in planning is essential to promote sustainable urban development. This article investigates to what extent ecosystem services are currently included in urban plans. The ultimate objective is to understand what ecosystem service information is already used, and what is still needed to improve planning decisions. We developed a methodology to review the content of planning documents irrespective of the terminology adopted to refer to ecosystem services, and examined the inclusion of nine urban ecosystem services across three plan components. In our sample of 22 urban plans of Italian cities, we found a high number of actions to address urban ecosystem services and a variety of tools for implementation. However, a two-speed integration emerges: a set of ecosystem services (i.e. recreation and some regulating services linked to typical urban environmental problems) are widely addressed, while others are hardly considered. Shortcomings can be partly ascribed to gaps in the scientific literature. Usable methods to assess urban ecosystem services at the right scale and resolution while also accounting for the multi-functionality of urban green infrastructures are still needed. On the other hand, future urban plans would benefit from a further appropriation of the ecosystem service approach by practitioners and decision-makers. Acknowledging the whole range of urban ecosystem services, defining strategic objectives related to their provision, and explicitly identifying demand and beneficiaries could increase awareness of the values at stake, ensure long-term commitment in the implementation phase, and strengthen planning arguments against conflicting interests.
Green Gentrification looks at the social consequences of urban "greening" from an environmental justice and sustainable development perspective. Through a comparative examination of five cases of urban greening in Brooklyn, New York, it demonstrates that such initiatives, while positive for the environment, tend to increase inequality and thus undermine the social pillar of sustainable development. Although greening is ostensibly intended to improve environmental conditions in neighborhoods, it generates green gentrification that pushes out the working-class, and people of color, and attracts white, wealthier in-migrants. Simply put, urban greening "richens and whitens," remaking the city for the sustainability class. Without equity-oriented public policy intervention, urban greening is negatively redistributive in global cities.
This book argues that environmental injustice outcomes are not inevitable. Early public policy interventions aimed at neighborhood stabilization can create more just sustainability outcomes. It highlights the negative social consequences of green growth coalition efforts to green the global city, and suggests policy choices to address them.
The book applies the lessons learned from green gentrification in Brooklyn to urban greening initiatives globally. It offers comparison with other greening global cities. This is a timely and original book for all those studying environmental justice, urban planning, environmental sociology, and sustainable development as well as urban environmental activists, city planners and policy makers interested in issues of urban greening and gentrification.
Land-use planning is an important determinant for green space policy in cities. It defines land covers and hence the structure and function of urban ecosystems and the benefits these provide to humans, such as air purification, urban cooling, runoff mitigation, and recreation. The ecosystem service approach has helped to attract policy attention to these benefits but the concept remains poorly implemented in urban policy and governance. To address this gap, we advance a framework to bridge ecosystem services into policy processes through Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) as decision support tool. The paper is organized in three main parts. First, we conduct a systematic literature review to assess state-of-the-art knowledge on ecosystem service assessments through MCDA. Next, we build on insights from the literature review to develop the ‘ecosystem services policy-cycle’, a conceptual framework that merges the ‘ecosystem service cascade’ and ‘policy cycle’ models to reinforce the link between ecosystem service assessments and practical applications in urban policy and governance. Next, we illustrate the applicability of the proposed framework along an example about conflicting interests on land use and green space planning following the closure of the Airport Tempelhof in Berlin, Germany. Our results highlight the scope of MCDA as a decision support tool for integrating ecosystem service assessments in green space governance. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of different methodological choices in the use of MCDA in ecosystem service assessments and note that a key strength of this tool in informing green space policies lies in its capacity to accommodate conflicting stakeholder perspectives and to address trade-offs between ecological, social and economic values.
This study presents alternative measures of environmental inequality in the 50 U.S. states for exposure to industrial air pollution. We examine three methodological issues. First, to what extent are environmental inequality measures sensitive to spatial scale and population weighting? Second, how do sensitivities to different segments of the overall distribution affect rankings by these measures? Third, how do vertical and horizontal (inter-group) inequality measures relate to each other? We find substantive differences in rankings by different measures and conclude that no single indicator is sufficient for addressing the entire range of equity concerns that are relevant to environmental policy; instead multiple measures are needed.
Environmental justice has increasingly become part of the language of environmental activism, political debate, academic research and policy making around the world. It raises questions about how the environment impacts on different people’s lives. Does pollution follow the poor? Are some communities far more vulnerable to the impacts of flooding or climate change than others? Are the benefits of access to green space for all, or only for some? Do powerful voices dominate environmental decisions to the exclusion of others?
This paper demonstrates methods that may be combined to characterize otherwise undetectable spatial heterogeneity in stated preference willingness to pay (WTP) estimates that may occur at multiple geospatial scales. These include methods applicable to large-scale analysis with diffuse policy impacts and uncertainty regarding the appropriate scales over which spatial patterns should be evaluated. Illustrated methods include spatial interpolation and multi-scale analysis of hot/cold spots using local indicators of spatial association. An application to threatened and endangered marine species illustrates the empirical findings which emerge. Findings include large scale clustering of nonuse WTP estimates at multiple scales of analysis.
The authors discuss the problems of describing geographic variation data and develop statistical methods for categorizing
sets of populations sampled from different localities. The general approach of the simultaneous test procedures, available
with a variety of statistical tests and for continuous as well as for categorical data, is employed with these techniques.
Geographical regions are defined as sets of connected localities, with connectedness being defined geometrically. Maximal
acceptable connected sets of localities (defined as regions) or coarsest acceptable connected partitions of the entire set
of localities are found by these procedures. These are illustrated with several examples.