Under one canopy? Assessing the distributional environmental justice implications of street tree benefits in Barcelona

Mostra el registre complet Registre parcial de l'ítem

• dc.contributor.author Baró Porras, Francesc
• dc.contributor.author Calderón-Argelich, Amalia
• dc.contributor.author Langemeyer, Johannes
• dc.contributor.author Connolly, James
• dc.date.accessioned 2021-03-17T08:00:44Z
• dc.date.available 2021-03-17T08:00:44Z
• dc.date.issued 2019
• dc.description.abstract Street trees are an important component of green infrastructure in cities, providing multiple ecosystem services (ES) and hence contributing to urban resilience, sustainability and livability. Still, access to these benefits may display an uneven distribution across the urban fabric, potentially leading to socio-environmental inequalities. Some studies have analyzed the distributional justice implications of street tree spatial patterns, but generally without quantifying the associated ES provision. This research estimated the amount of air purification, runoff mitigation and temperature regulation provided by circa 200,000 street trees in Barcelona, Spain, using the i-Tree Eco tool. Results were aggregated at neighborhood (n = 73) and census tract (n = 1068) levels to detect associations with the distribution of five demographic variables indicating social vulnerability, namely: income, residents from the Global South, residents with low educational attainment, elderly residents, and children. Associations were evaluated using bivariate, multivariate and cluster analyses, including a spatial autoregressive model. Unlike previous studies, we found no evidence of a significant and positive association between the distribution of low income or Global South residents and a lower amount of street tree benefits in Barcelona. Rather, higher ES provision by street trees was associated with certain types of vulnerable populations, especially elderly citizens. Our results also suggest that street trees can play an important redistributive role in relation to the local provision of regulating ES due to the generally uneven and patchy distribution of other urban green infrastructure components such as urban forests, parks or gardens in compact cities such as Barcelona. In the light of these findings, we contend that just green infrastructure planning should carefully consider the distributive implications associated with street tree benefits.
• dc.description.sponsorship We are grateful to Al Zelaya and the wider i-Tree tools team for their valuable technical assistance with i-Tree Eco software and database. We also thank Coloma Rull and Margarita Parès from the Department of Urban Ecology of the Barcelona City Council for their support in street tree data collection and interpretation. Our research colleagues Helen Cole, Isabelle Anguelovski and Isabel Ribeiro have also provided valuable insights and suggestions during the design and development of this research work. Authors acknowledge financial support from the following organizations: 1) Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND (project ENABLE, code PCIN-2016-002), the Juan de la Cierva Incorporación Fund (IJCI-2016-31100), and the Maria de Maetzu Unit of Excellence grant (MDM-2015-0552); 2) the European Research Council (project GREENLULUs; grant agreement ID: 678034); and 3) the EU’s Horizon 2020 framework program for research and innovation (project NATURVATION, grant agreement ID: 730243). Finally, we also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Baró F, Calderón-Argelich A, Langemeyer J, Connolly JJT. Under one canopy? Assessing the distributional environmental justice implications of street tree benefits in Barcelona. Environ Sci Policy. 2019 Dec; 102:54-64. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2019.08.016
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.08.016
• dc.identifier.issn 1462-9011
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46801
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Elsevier
• dc.relation.ispartof Environmental Science & Policy. 2019 Dec; 102:54-64
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/678034
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/730243
• dc.rights Copyright © 2019 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Green infrastructure
• dc.subject.keyword Socio-environmental equity
• dc.subject.keyword Spatial analysis
• dc.subject.keyword Urban climate adaptation
• dc.subject.keyword Urban ecosystem services
• dc.title Under one canopy? Assessing the distributional environmental justice implications of street tree benefits in Barcelona
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion