Investigating environmental justice in megacities based on analysis of public green space accessibility : a comparative study of Guangzhou and Shenzhen

Abstract

With economic and social development, people's need for a better life is increasing, along with their demand for green public space. Green public spaces are essential for enhancing people's happiness and promoting economic and social development. However, they can also be a double-edged sword, potentially leading to social injustice and hinder sustainable development of society, which the government needs to manage judiciously. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between public green spaces accessibility, environmental justice and ecological gentrification. This paper focuses on the urban core areas (UCAs) of the megacities, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as typical research objects. It proposes three research questions, which are mainly related to the spatial distribution of public green spaces accessibility and housing prices and their correlations, as well as their impacts on environmental justice and ecological gentrification. In this paper, data on public green spaces accessibility and housing prices were obtained using Python, along with related socioeconomic and administrative district data. Geographic data analysis methods, including spatial analysis, and geographically weighted analysis, were employed to quantitatively analyze the geographic patterns of green spaces accessibility and housing prices, in order to comprehensively answer the three core research questions. The findings revealed significant differences in the spatial distribution of green spaces accessibility and housing prices both within and between cities. Further spatial analyses indicated a significant positive spatial correlation between green spaces levels and housing prices. There is a spatial overlap trend between areas rich in green spaces and areas with higher housing prices, and similarly, there is also a spatial overlap trend between areas with scarce green spaces and areas with lower housing prices. This suggested that green space is an important factor influencing the housing prices fluctuation compared to other three control variables. With the advancement of green spaces construction, the nature of surrounding land use changes significantly, and green spaces resources become capitalized into housing prices. This capitalization leads to a significant increase in class replacement and environmental injustice, which exacerbates environmental injustice and ultimately results in ecological gentrification. In summary, this paper comprehensively explores the relationship between public green spaces accessibility, environmental justice and ecological gentrification through quantitative analysis methods. The findings enhance the understanding of the association between implementation of urban green spaces planning and housing price fluctuations, as well as environmental injustice. They are important for proposing policy recommendations to improve environmental justice in megacities in order to promote equitable access to and utilization of public green spaces by urban residents.