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Exploring Relationships between Socioeconomic Background and Urban Greenery in Portland, OR Nesbitt, Lorien; Meitner, Michael J.

Abstract

Do urban residents experience societal benefits derived from urban forests equitably? We conducted a broad-scale spatial analysis of the relationship between urban greenery and socioeconomic factors in the Portland metropolitan area. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was derived from National Agriculture Imagery Program images to map urban vegetation cover, and Outdoor Recreation and Conservation Area data were used to identify green spaces. These measures of urban greenery were correlated with census data to identify socioeconomic factors associated with high levels of green inequity. Population density, house age, income, and race were strongly correlated with vegetation cover. However, the distribution of green spaces showed a much weaker relationship with socioeconomic factors. These results highlight the importance of different measures of access to urban greenery and suggest potential solutions to the problem of urban green inequity. Cities can use our methods to conduct targeted urban forest management to maximize urban forest benefits received by residents.

Item Metadata

Title
Exploring Relationships between Socioeconomic Background and Urban Greenery in Portland, OR
Creator
Nesbitt, Lorien; Meitner, Michael J.
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2016-07-29
Description
Do urban residents experience societal benefits derived from urban forests equitably? We conducted a broad-scale spatial analysis of the relationship between urban greenery and socioeconomic factors in the Portland metropolitan area. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was derived from National Agriculture Imagery Program images to map urban vegetation cover, and Outdoor Recreation and Conservation Area data were used to identify green spaces. These measures of urban greenery were correlated with census data to identify socioeconomic factors associated with high levels of green inequity. Population density, house age, income, and race were strongly correlated with vegetation cover. However, the distribution of green spaces showed a much weaker relationship with socioeconomic factors. These results highlight the importance of different measures of access to urban greenery and suggest potential solutions to the problem of urban green inequity. Cities can use our methods to conduct targeted urban forest management to maximize urban forest benefits received by residents.
Subject
Climate change; Equity; Portland; Socioeconomics; Urban forests; Well-being
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2019-05-24
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0378988
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/70315
Affiliation
Forestry, Faculty of; Non UBC; Forest Resources Management, Department of
Citation
Forests 7 (8): 162 (2016)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/f7080162
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
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CC BY 4.0