Accessible Green Spaces? Spatial Disparities in Residential Green Space among People with Disabilities in the United States

Abstract

This article presents new quantitative results on the distribution of residential green space for people with disabilities in the United States, building on and bridging scholarly research in two distinct domains: one involving approaches that quantify disparities in green space access among racialized minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, and the other using qualitative methods that demonstrate that most green spaces remain inaccessible and unwelcoming to disabled visitors. Using generalized additive models (GAMs) that controlled for demographic factors and climatological characteristics, we find that residential areas with more green space generally have a higher proportion of disabled residents. The statistical results run counter to expectations from the literature, thus complicating the prevailing narrative and indicating a need for mixed-methods research to examine multiple dimensions of access and environmental justice. Using cluster analysis to assess spatial trends, we detect residential clusters of high disability and low green space and find that they are located in predominantly non-White, urban, and more socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods compared to clusters of high disability and high green space. Cluster analysis results suggest that there are inequities in green space access at the intersection of disability, race, and class, as well as across the urban–rural continuum.

本文基于两个不同领域的学术研究, 展示了美国残疾人居住绿地分布的量化结果。这两个领域为：对种族少数群体和社会经济弱势群体在使用绿地上的差异的量化, 利用定性方法去证明大多数绿地都无法使用、对残疾人也不友好。利用控制人口因素和气候特征的广义加性模型（GAM）, 我们发现, 拥有更多绿地的居住区通常拥有较高比例的残疾居民。统计结果与文献相反, 使得主流的描述变得复杂。这表明, 需要采用混合方法去探讨绿地使用和环境正义的多个维度。通过利用聚类分析对空间趋势进行评估, 我们发现, 与高残疾和高绿地空间集群相比, 高残疾和低绿地空间的住宅集群主要位于非白人、城市和高度社会经济弱势社区。聚类分析结果表明, 在残疾、种族和阶级等方面和城市—农村区间内, 绿地使用存在着不公平现象。

En este artículo se presentan nuevos resultados cuantitativos sobre la distribución del espacio verde residencial para los discapacitados en los Estados Unidos, a partir de investigación académica y tendiendo un puente entre dos dominios distintos: uno que involucra enfoques que cuantifican las disparidades de acceso a los espacios verdes entre las minorías racializadas y los grupos socioeconómicamente desfavorecidos, y la otra que usa métodos cualitativos para demostrar que la mayor parte de los espacios verdes continúan siendo inaccesibles y poco acogedores para los minusválidos. Usando modelos generalizados aditivos (GAMs) que ejercen control sobre los factores demográficos y las características climatológicas, encontramos que las áreas residenciales que disponen de más espacio verde generalmente tienen una proporción más alta de residentes discapacitados. Los resultados estadísticos van en contra de las expectativas de la literatura, complicando de ese modo la narrativa predominante y promoviendo la necesidad de utilizar investigación de métodos mixtos para examinar las múltiples dimensiones del acceso a la justicia ambiental. Usando el análisis de conglomerados para evaluar las tendencias espaciales, detectamos agrupamientos residenciales de alta discapacidad y bajo espacio verde, y hallamos que están ubicados en vecindarios predominantemente no blancos, urbanos y socioeconómicamente más desfavorecidos en comparación con los agrupamientos de alta discapacidad y altos valores de espacio verde. Los resultados del análisis de conglomerados sugieren la existencia de desigualdades en el acceso al espacio verde en la intersección de discapacidad, raza y clase, lo mismo que en el continuo urbano-rural.

Key Words:

• cluster analysis
• disability
• environmental justice
• GAMs
• green space access

关键词:

• 聚类分析
• 残疾
• 环境正义
• GAM
• 绿色空间使用。

Palabras clave:

• acceso a espacios verdes
• análisis de conglomerados
• discapacidad
• GAMs
• justicia ambiental

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sandy Wong

SANDY WONG is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include health inequities among marginalized populations, social processes of disablement, and environmental influences on well-being.

Johnathan Rush

JOHNATHAN RUSH was a Biostatistician in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029 at the time of this project. He is now a Senior Geospatial Software Engineer at Element 84. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include qualitative geographic information systems and reproducibility in computational geography.

Franklin Bailey

FRANKLIN BAILEY is a Geospatial Developer for a transportation engineering consulting firm and is a graduate of the MSGIS program in the Department of Geography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306. E-mail: [email protected]. His professional interests include transportation and political geography as well as geospatial big data analytics.

Allan C. Just

ALLAN C. JUST is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include modeling environmental exposures and the use of satellite data in epidemiologic studies of climate and health.