Green gentrification in European and North American cities
Open accessAbstract
Although urban greening is universally recognized as an essential part of sustainable and climate-responsive cities, a growing literature on green gentrification argues that new green infrastructure, and greenspace in particular, can contribute to gentrification, thus creating social and racial inequalities in access to the benefits of greenspace and further environmental and climate injustice. In response to limited quantitative evidence documenting the temporal relationship between new greenspaces and gentrification across entire cities, let alone across various international contexts, we employ a spatially weighted Bayesian model to test the green gentrification hypothesis across 28 cities in 9 countries in North America and Europe. Here we show a strong positive and relevant relationship for at least one decade between greening in the 1990s–2000s and gentrification that occurred between 2000–2016 in 17 of the 28 cities. Our results also determine whether greening plays a “lead”, “integrated”, or “subsidiary” role in explaining gentrification.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Building green and climate-responsive cities with an equity-focused approach can advance long-term health equity rather than perpetuating or deepening patterns of unequal urban development.
“Building green and climate-responsive cities with an equity-focused approach (127, 128) can advance long-term health equity rather than perpetuating or deepening patterns of unequal urban development (129-132).”
From Bridging Sectors and Disciplines to Gain a Critical Understanding of the Eco-Social Determinants of Health Inequities: The ESDHI-EU Conference (2025) · cites this paper as [129]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Parks and People: An Environmental Justice Inquiry in Baltimore, Maryland
Boone, C. G., Buckley, G. L., Grove, J. M., & Sister, C. (2009) · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · doi:10.1080/00045600903102949 · Cited by 828 · see citing works
Rigolon, A., Browning, M., & Jennings, V. (2018) · Landscape and Urban Planning · doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2018.05.026 · Cited by 444 · see citing works
Anguelovski, I., Connolly, J. J., Garcia-Lamarca, M., Cole, H., & Pearsall, H. (2019) · Progress in Human Geography · doi:10.1177/0309132518803799 · Cited by 416 · see citing works
Self-citationAnguelovski, I., Brand, A. L., Connolly, J. J. T., Corbera, E., Kotsila, P., Steil, J., Garcia-Lamarca, M., Triguero-Mas, M., Cole, H., Baró, F., et al. (2020) · Annals of the American Association of Geographers · doi:10.1080/24694452.2020.1740579 · Cited by 309 · see citing works
Self-citationFrom Green Gentrification to Resilience Gentrification: An Example from Brooklyn
Gould, K. A., & Lewis, T. L. (2018) · City & Community · doi:10.1111/cico.12283 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 69
- [1]Gaffin SR Rosenzweig C Kong AY Adapting to climate change through urban green infrastructure Nat. Clim. Change 2012 2 704 704 10.1038/nclimate1685 · DOI
- [2]Baró F Contribution of ecosystem services to air quality and climate change mitigation policies: the case of urban forests in Barcelona, Spain Ambio 2014 43 466 479 10.1007/s13280-014-0507-x 24740618 PMC3989519 · DOI
- [3]Elmqvist T., Gómez-Baggethun E. & Langemeyer J. in Routledge Handbook of Ecosystem Services. (eds M. Potschin, R. Haines-Young, R. Fish, & R.K. Turner) 452–468 (Routledge, 2016).
- [4]De la Sota C Ruffato-Ferreira V Ruiz-García L Alvarez S Urban green infrastructure as a strategy of climate change mitigation. A case study in northern Spain Urban Forestry Urban Green. 2019 40 145 151 10.1016/j.ufug.2018.09.004 · DOI
- [5]Chen WY The role of urban green infrastructure in offsetting carbon emissions in 35 major Chinese cities: a nationwide estimate Cities 2015 44 112 120 10.1016/j.cities.2015.01.005 · DOI
- [6]Huang C Managing the health effects of temperature in response to climate change: challenges ahead Environ. Health Perspect. 2013 121 415 419 10.1289/ehp.1206025 23407064 PMC3620746 · DOI
- [7]Triguero-Mas M Natural outdoor environments and mental and physical health: relationships and mechanisms Environ. Int. 2015 77 35 41 10.1016/j.envint.2015.01.012 25638643 · DOI · Paper page
- [8]Wolch J Byrne J Newell J Urban green space, public health, and environmental justice: the challenge of making cities ‘just green enough’ Landsc. Urban Plan. 2014 125 234 244 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.01.017 · DOI
- [9]Anguelovski, I. Neighborhood as Refuge: Environmental Justice, Community Reconstruction, and Place-remaking in the City (MIT Press, 2014).
- [10]Teig E Collective efficacy in Denver, Colorado: Strengthening neighborhoods and health through community gardens Health Place 2009 15 1115 1122 10.1016/j.healthplace.2009.06.003 19577947 · DOI
- [11]Fisher, D. R., Svendsen, E. S. & Connolly, J. Urban Environmental Stewardship and Civic Engagement: How Planting Trees Strengthens the Roots of Democracy. (Routledge, 2015).
- [12]Jennings V Bamkole O The relationship between social cohesion and urban green space: an avenue for health promotion Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019 16 452 10.3390/ijerph16030452 PMC6388234 30720732 · DOI · Paper page
- [13]Rigolon A A complex landscape of inequity in access to urban parks: a literature review Landsc. Urban Plan. 2016 153 160 169 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.05.017 · DOI
- [15]Liotta C Kervinio Y Levrel H Tardieu L Planning for environmental justice-reducing well-being inequalities through urban greening Environ. Sci. Policy 2020 112 47 60 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.03.017 · DOI
- [16]Wüstemann H Kalisch D Kolbe J Access to urban green space and environmental inequalities in Germany Landsc. Urban Plan. 2017 164 124 131 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.04.002 · DOI
- [17]Baró, F., Camacho, D., Pérez del Pulgar, C., Triguero-Mas, M. & Anguelovski, I. School greening: Right or privilege? Examining urban nature within and around primary schools through an equity lens. Landsc. Urban Plan.208, 104019 (2021).
- [18]Mavoa S Area-level disparities of public open space: a geographic information systems analysis in metropolitan Melbourne Urban Policy Res. 2015 33 306 323 10.1080/08111146.2014.974747 · DOI
- [19]Heynen N Perkins H Roy P The political ecology of uneven urban green space Urban Aff. Rev. 2006 42 3 25 10.1177/1078087406290729 · DOI
- [20]Boone CG Cadenasso ML Grove JM Schwarz K Buckley GL Landscape, vegetation characteristics, and group identity in an urban and suburban watershed: why the 60s matter Urban Ecosyst. 2010 13 255 271 10.1007/s11252-009-0118-7 · DOI
- [21]Baró F Calderón-Argelich A Langemeyer J Connolly JJ Under one canopy? Assessing the distributional environmental justice implications of street tree benefits in Barcelona Environ. Sci. Policy 2019 102 54 64 10.1016/j.envsci.2019.08.016 31798338 PMC6855261 · DOI
- [22]Schwarz K Trees grow on money: Urban tree canopy cover and environmental justice PLoS ONE 2015 10 e0122051 10.1371/journal.pone.0122051 25830303 PMC4382324 · DOI
- [25]Calderón-Argelich A Tracing and building up environmental justice considerations in the urban ecosystem service literature: a systematic review Landsc. Urban Plan. 2021 214 104130 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104130 · DOI
- [26]Schell, C. J. et al. The ecological and evolutionary consequences of systemic racism in urban environments. Science369 eaay4497 (2020). 32792461
- [27]Anguelovski I Connolly J Brand AL From landscapes of utopia to the margins of the green urban life: For whom is the new green city? City 2018 22 417 436 10.1080/13604813.2018.1473126 · DOI
- [29]Gould, K. A. & Lewis, T. L. Green Gentrification: Urban Sustainability and the Struggle for Environmental Justice (Routledge, 2017).
- [30]Haase D Greening cities–To be socially inclusive? About the alleged paradox of society and ecology in cities Habitat Int. 2017 64 41 48 10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.04.005 · DOI
- [33]Shokry, G., Connolly, J. J. & Anguelovski, I. Understanding climate gentrification and shifting landscapes of protection and vulnerability in green resilient Philadelphia. Urban Clim.31, 100539(2020).
- [34]Elmqvist T Sustainability and resilience for transformation in the urban century Nat. Sustain. 2019 2 267 273 10.1038/s41893-019-0250-1 · DOI · Paper page
- [35]Keeler BL Social-ecological and technological factors moderate the value of urban nature Nat. Sustain. 2019 2 29 38 10.1038/s41893-018-0202-1 · DOI · Paper page
- [36]Triguero-Mas, M. et al. Natural outdoor environments’ health effects in gentrifying neighborhoods: disruptive green landscapes for underprivileged neighborhood residents. Soc. Sci. Med.279, 113964 (2021). 34020160
- [37]Anguelovski, I. From toxic sites to parks as (Green) LULUs? New challenges of inequity, privilege, gentrification, and exclusion for urban environmental justice. J. Plan. Lit. 1–14, 10.1177/0885412215610491 (2016). · DOI
- [38]Wrathall D Meeting the looming policy challenge of sea-level change and human migration Nat. Clim. Change 2019 9 898 901 10.1038/s41558-019-0640-4 · DOI
- [40]Ürge-Vorsatz D Locking in positive climate responses in cities Nat. Clim. Change 2018 8 174 177 10.1038/s41558-018-0100-6 · DOI
- [41]Cole HV Triguero-Mas M Connolly JJ Anguelovski I Determining the health benefits of green space: Does gentrification matter? Health Place 2019 57 1 11 10.1016/j.healthplace.2019.02.001 30844594 · DOI
- [42]Cole HVS Garcia Lamarca M Connolly JJT Anguelovski I Are green cities healthy and equitable? Unpacking the relationship between health, green space and gentrification J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2017 71 1118 1121 28822977
- [43]Solecki W City transformations in a 1.5 C warmer world Nat. Clim. Change 2018 8 177 181 10.1038/s41558-018-0101-5 · DOI · Paper page
- [44]Rosenzweig C Solecki W Action pathways for transforming cities Nat. Clim. Change 2018 8 756 759 10.1038/s41558-018-0267-x · DOI
- [45]Romero-Lankao P Urban transformative potential in a changing climate Nat. Clim. Change 2018 8 754 10.1038/s41558-018-0264-0 · DOI
- [46]Sovacool BK Linnér B-O Goodsite ME The political economy of climate adaptation Nat. Clim. Change 2015 5 616 618 10.1038/nclimate2665 · DOI
- [49]Pearsall H Eller JK Locating the green space paradox: a study of gentrification and public green space accessibility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Landsc. Urban Plan. 2020 195 103708 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103708 · DOI
- [50]Anguelovski I Connolly J Masip L Pearsall H Assessing green gentrification in historically disenfranchised neighborhoods: a longitudinal and spatial analysis of Barcelona Urban Geogr. 2018 39 458 491 10.1080/02723638.2017.1349987 · DOI · Paper page
- [52]Donovan GH Prestemon JP Butry DT Kaminski AR Monleon VJ The politics of urban trees: Tree planting is associated with gentrification in Portland, Oregon For. Policy Econ. 2021 124 102387 10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102387 PMC8408830 34483719 · DOI
- [53]Ali L Haase A Heiland S Gentrification through green regeneration? Analyzing the interaction between inner-city green space development and neighborhood change in the context of regrowth: the case of Lene-Voigt-Park in Leipzig East. Ger. Land 2020 9 24 10.3390/land9010024 · DOI
- [54]Schinasi LH Associations between greenspace and gentrification-related sociodemographic and housing cost changes in major metropolitan areas across the United States Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021 18 3315 10.3390/ijerph18063315 33806987 PMC8005168 · DOI
- [55]Chen Y Can smaller parks limit green gentrification? Insights from Hangzhou, china Urban Forest. Urban Green 2021 59 127009 10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127009 · DOI
- [56]Du M Zhang X Urban greening: a new paradox of economic or social sustainability? Land Use Policy 2020 92 104487 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104487 · DOI
- [57]Maantay J Maroko A Brownfields to greenfields: environmental justice versus environmental gentrification Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018 15 2233 10.3390/ijerph15102233 PMC6210586 30321998 · DOI
- [58]Immergluck D Balan T Sustainable for whom? Green urban development, environmental gentrification, and the Atlanta Beltline Urban Geogr. 2018 39 546 562 10.1080/02723638.2017.1360041 · DOI · Paper page
- [59]Maia ATA Calcagni F Connolly JJT Anguelovski I Langemeyer J Hidden drivers of social injustice: uncovering unequal cultural ecosystem services behind green gentrification Environ. Sci. Policy 2020 112 254 263 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.05.021 · DOI
- [60]Goodling E Green J McClintock N Uneven development of the sustainable city: shifting capital in Portland, Oregon Urban Geogr. 2015 36 504 527 10.1080/02723638.2015.1010791 · DOI · Paper page
- [62]Anguelovski, I. & Connolly, J. J. The Green City and Social Injustice: 21 Tales from North America and Europe (Routledge, 2021).
- [64]Arguelles Ramos, L. The Green City and Social Injustice: 21 Tales from North America and Europe (eds I. Anguelovski & J. JT Connolly) (Routledge, 2021).
- [65]MacLaren, A., Kelly, S. & MacLaran, A. Neoliberal Urban Policy and the Transformation of the City: Reshaping Dublin. (Springer, 2014).
- [66]Perez del Pulgar, C. The Green City and Social Injustice: 21 Tales from North America and Europe (eds I. Anguelovski & J. JT Connolly) (Routledge, 2021).
- [67]García-Lamarca M Urban green grabbing: Residential real estate developers discourse and practice in gentrifying Global North neighborhoods Geoforum 2022 128 1 10 10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.11.016 · DOI
- [68]Cole, H. & Immergluck, D. in The Green City and Social Injustice: 21 Tales from North America and Europe (eds I. Anguelovski & J. JT Connolly) (Routledge, 2021).
- [69]Baró, F. & Anguelovski, I. The Green City and Social Injustice: 21 Tales from North America and Europe (eds I. Anguelovski & J. JT Connolly) (Routledge, 2021).
- [70]Cocola-Gant A Lopez-Gay A Transnational gentrification, tourism and the formation of ‘foreign only’enclaves in Barcelona Urban Stud. 2020 57 3025 3043 10.1177/0042098020916111 · DOI
- [71]Tozer L Hörschelmann K Anguelovski I Bulkeley H Lazova Y Whose city? whose nature? towards inclusive nature-based solution governance Cities 2020 107 102892 10.1016/j.cities.2020.102892 · DOI
- [72]Anguelovski I Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation: critical perspectives from the global north and south J. Plan. Educ. Res. 2016 36 333 348 10.1177/0739456X16645166 · DOI
- [74]Wheeler, S. Planning for Sustainability: Creating Livable, Equitable and Ecological Communities (Routledge, 2013).
- [76]James, P. Urban Sustainability in Theory and Practice: Circles of Sustainability (Routledge, 2014).
- [77]Campbell S Green cities, growing cities, just cities?: urban planning and the contradictions of sustainable development J. Am. Plan. Assoc. 1996 62 296 312 10.1080/01944369608975696 · DOI · Paper page
- [78]Immergluck D Large redevelopment initiatives, housing values and gentrification: the case of the Atlanta Beltline Urban Stud. 2009 46 1723 1745 10.1177/0042098009105500 · DOI
- [79]Chao A Shen T-J Nonparametric estimation of Shannon’s index of diversity when there are unseen species in sample Environ. Ecol. Stat. 2003 10 429 443 10.1023/A:1026096204727 · DOI
- [80]Easton S Lees L Hubbard P Tate N Measuring and mapping displacement: the problem of quantification in the battle against gentrification Urban Stud. 2020 57 286 306 10.1177/0042098019851953 · DOI
- [81]Hammel DJ Wyly EK A model for identifying gentrified areas with census data Urban Geogr. 1996 17 248 268 10.2747/0272-3638.17.3.248 · DOI
- [82]Garcia-Donato G Forte A Bayesian testing, variable selection and model averaging in linear models using R with BayesVarSel R. Journal 2018 10 155 174 10.32614/RJ-2018-021 · DOI
- [83]Moran PAP Notes on continuous stochastic phenomena Biometrika 1950 37 17 23 10.1093/biomet/37.1-2.17 15420245 · DOI · Paper page
Cited by
Sorted by citations
NPCC4: Concepts and tools for envisioning New York City's futures
Balk, D., McPhearson, T., Cook, E. M., Knowlton, K., Maher, N., Marcotullio, P., Matte, T., Moss, R., Ortiz, L., Towers, J., et al. (2024) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/nyas.15121 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Morrison, J., Tumas, N., Moreno Mattar, O., Gutiérrez-Zamora Navarro, M., Pericas, J. M., Martínez Herrera, E., Cash-Gibson, L., Caroz Armayones, J. M., Ruisoto, P., Zografos, C., et al. (2025) · International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services · doi:10.1177/27551938251343485 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Anguelovski, I., Connolly, J. J. T., Cole, H., Garcia-Lamarca, M., Triguero-Mas, M., Baró, F., Martin, N., Conesa, D., Shokry, G., del Pulgar, C. P., Ramos, L. A., Matheney, A., Gallez, E., Oscilowicz, E., Máñez, J. L., Sarzo, B., Beltrán, M. A., & Minaya, J. M.
- Affiliations
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES)
- Universitat de València (ES)
- Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Anguelovski, Isabelle
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2022-07-02
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3816-3816
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9250502
- OpenAlex
- W4283782158
- Cited by
- 471
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 176 · 2025: 116 · 2024: 111 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 10
- FWCI
- 106.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RiuNet (Universitat Politècnica de València) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- VUBIR (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Banco Santander
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (PID2019, IJC-2018-035322-I, CEX2019-000940-M)
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (GA678034, PID2019, PID2019‐106341GB‐I00, CEX2019, 000940-M, CEX2019‐000940‐M)
- European Regional Development Fund (PID2019, CEX2019-000940-M)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Urban Green Space and Health
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
- Keywords
- green gentrification, urban greening, gentrification, green spaces, green infrastructure, environmental justice, climate justice, urban sustainability, cross-city comparison
- MeSH terms
- Bayes Theorem, Cities, Europe, North America
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review