Natural layers bearing urban inequality

Abstract

Urbanization processes reshape space — and the human and non-human relationships that play out in and through space — over time. The intensification of urbanization poses a range of threats to the natural environment and correspondingly to the socioeconomic welfare of urban residents. The articles in this issue highlight how, from the soil upon which cities are built to the trees, water and air that give life to urban spaces, inequality has become embedded as a structuring feature of urban natural environments.