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Contrasting inequality in human exposure to greenspace between cities of Global North and Global South
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Abstract
Abstract The United Nations specified the need for “providing universal access to greenspace for urban residents” in the 11th Sustainable Development Goal. Yet, how far we are from this goal remains unclear in the global context. Here, we developed a methodology incorporating fine-resolution population and greenspace mappings and used the results for 2020 to elucidate global differences in human exposure to greenspace, specifically at country, state, county, and city levels. We identified a contrasting pattern of greenspace exposure between Global South and North cities. Global South cities (14.39%) enjoy only one third of the greenspace exposure level of Global North cities (45.84%), even though the South cities are generally located in more rural countries. Greenspace exposure inequality (Gini index: 0.47) in Global South cities is nearly twice that of Global North cities (Gini index: 0.27). The spatial disparity is largely associated with differences in urban greenspace landscape (R2 = 79%). We quantified that 22% of the variation in greenspace exposure inequality is associated with greenspace provision, and that 53% is associated with the joint effect of greenspace provision and spatial configuration. These findings support the idea that urban green is, in economic terms, a normal good, with supply increasing with income, and our analysis is the first to reveal the global pattern of its deficit among urbanized parts of the planet. The results highlight the need for prioritizing greening policies and actions to mitigate environmental disparity and achieve sustainable development goals.
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Increasing equitable access to safe, adequately designed, and high-quality urban green spaces can help reduce the negative health impacts of climate change, reducing heat exposure and flood risk while offering physical and mental health co-benefits.
“Increasing equitable access to safe, adequately designed, and high-quality urban green spaces can help reduce the negative health impacts of climate change, reducing heat exposure and flood risk while offering physical and mental health co-benefits by improving air quality and offering spaces for exercise, social interaction, and connection with nature (panel 4).195,196,199–202”
From The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: facing record-breaking threats from delayed action (2024) · cites this paper as [195]
The Introduction links greenspace access with human health, and the Discussion calls for equitable greening and identifies targeted urban cool-space design as a potential benefit. The paper does not establish that greenspace reduces flood risk or climate-change-related health impacts, nor does it address the claimed benefits through air quality, exercise, or social interaction. Its discussion of cooling also depends on how greenspace is configured. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Research works printed but not linked: 32
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Metadata
- Authors
- Chen, B., Wu, S., Song, Y., Webster, C., Xu, B., & Gong, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Yale University (US)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Xu, Bing
- Gong, Peng
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2022-08-08
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 4636-4636
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9360024
- OpenAlex
- W4290659920
- Cited by
- 362
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 88 · 2025: 128 · 2024: 99 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 7
- FWCI
- 26.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- The University of Hong Kong HKU-100 Scholars Fund
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (72091514, 42090015)
- Tsinghua-Toyota Joint Research
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Green Space and Health
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Urban Arborization and Environmental Studies
- Keywords
- green space exposure, urban green space, global inequality, Global South cities, Global North cities, regional disparities, SDG 11, urban greening policy, population mapping
- MeSH terms
- Parks, Recreational, Sustainable Development, Cities, Humans, United Nations
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