The United Nations specified the need for “providing universal access to greenspace for urban residents” in the 11^th Sustainable Development Goal. Recently, the researchers develop a methodology incorporating fine-resolution population and greenspace mappings and use the results for 2020 to elucidate global differences in human exposure to greenspace. The researchers identify a contrasting difference of greenspace exposure between Global South and North cities. Global South cities experience only one third of the greenspace exposure level of Global North cities. Greenspace exposure inequality (Gini: 0.47) in Global South cities is nearly twice that of Global North cities (Gini: 0.27). The researchers quantify that 22% of the spatial disparity is associated with greenspace provision, and 53% is associated with joint effects of greenspace provision and spatial configuration. These findings highlight the need for prioritizing greening policies to mitigate environmental disparity and achieve sustainable development goals.

@Bin Chen, et al.

Figure 1. Greenspace exposure levels and the associated greenspace exposure inequalities measured by the Gini index for 1028 cities globally.

Larger bubble sizes represent higher levels of greenspace exposure, and warmer colors represent higher levels of greenspace exposure inequality. Administrative boundaries with light blue (pink) shading represent Global North (South) countries.

Source from:

Chen B, Wu S, Song Y, et al. Contrasting inequality in human exposure to greenspace between cities of Global North and Global South. Nat Commun 13, 4636 (2022). doi: 10.1038.s41467-022-32258-4.