An assessment of urban park access in Shanghai – Implications for the social equity in urban China

•The distribution of urban park services is equitable for marginalised population.•It considers people’s self-movement and spatial externalities of facilities.•Equitable planning approach could mitigate the environmental justice issue. The question whether urban green resources are equitably distrib...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Landscape and urban planning 2017-01, Vol.157, p.383-393
Main Authors: Xiao, Yang, Wang, Zheng, Li, Zhigang, Tang, Zilai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accessibility
Delineation
Demographics
Environmental justice
Governments
Inequalities
Landscapes
Legacy
Marginalised groups
Park access
Parks
Shanghai
Social equity
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Summary:•The distribution of urban park services is equitable for marginalised population.•It considers people’s self-movement and spatial externalities of facilities.•Equitable planning approach could mitigate the environmental justice issue. The question whether urban green resources are equitably distributed across different social groups is a major concern of social equity and environmental justice for both governments and scholars. This topic is particularly relevant for rapidly developing countries such as China where inequality is growing. This paper examines whether and to what extent the distribution of urban park services is equitable for marginalised population in China. We choose Shanghai as the case study and took into account three dimensions of group delineation, namely demographic characteristics, social economic status and social spatial structure. We employ the spatial clustering method to assess the similarities and differences of the association between the spatial patterns of accessibility to urban parks among different social groups. Interestingly, we found that vulnerable groups are favoured over more affluent citizens. Local municipal endeavours have ensured that the access to Shanghai’s parks remains socially equitable. Additionally, we attributed it to the path dependence of China’s socialism legacy before the market-oriented reforms.
ISSN:0169-2046
1872-6062
DOI:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.08.007