Effects of Availability and Accessibility of Blue-Green Infrastructure on Environmental Justice and Health Equality

Abstract

Rapid urbanization, especially in developing countries, and population growth lead to a wide range of health risks in many cities. Recent researches have also shown a linear relationship between two factors of green spaces and health. Besides, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) emphasize access to safe, green, and public spaces for all people. This paper aims to indicate that accessibility and availability of blue-green infrastructure are more important than other factors in health issues. Our research method is case-study, and therefore, we chose Qazvin City in Iran as a developing city in the Middle East. In recent years, Qazvin has faced with an upward trend in urban development and population growth. Then, to find the relation between the availability and accessibility of BGI and health justice, we analyze the total number of monthly ambulance calls for all six Qazvin districts. We visualize the distribution of the ambulance calls for each district and show the BGI distribution on the city map and calculate the amount of BGI availability and accessibility of each city district by GIS. Then we set the ranking for BGI availability and accessibility and conduct a linear correlation analysis with the total number of ambulance calls and health variables and employ Spearman’s Rho as the correlation measure.Consequently, the results demonstrate a significant relationship between the availability and accessibility of BGI and the number of ambulance calls. In other words, the inhabitants of the districts with a low level of availability and accessibility to BGI suffer from environmental injustice and health inequality. Finally, we conclude that urban planning can help to reduce health inequalities by improving blue-green infrastructure.