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Abstract. As the world continues to urbanize, ensuring that urban residents have access to green infrastructure and the ecosystem services it provides will be critical. Furthermore, the distribution of green infrastructure within cities should be equitable so that no socioeconomic group is underserved in terms of the benefits derived from ecosystem services. Our goal was to test whether there were any differences among socioeconomic groups in terms of (1) proximity to open space, (2) proximity to Lake Michigan, (3) tree canopy cover, or (4) bird biodiversity in census tracts across Chicago, IL (USA). These four variables were used as proxies for a number of different ecosystem services. We characterized the first three variables with GIS operations using classified Quickbird imagery and other datasets that describe the urban and natural environment. We used MaxEnt to model suitable bird habitat for 52 species that are regularly observed in the area and combined the habitat maps to estimate bird biodiversity in a spatially explicit manner. Our results suggest that census tracts with more low-to mid-income Hispanic residents were farther away from both open space and Lake Michigan, and had less tree canopy cover and bird biodiversity than other census tracts. Tracts characterized mostly by low-income African Americans were not statistically different in terms of proximity to open space, nor in terms of tree canopy cover or bird biodiversity, than those characterized by higher income residents. Those tracts were, however, significantly farther from Lake Michigan compared to the higher income census tracts. This research suggests the potential for environmental injustice in Chicago and we discuss some possible causes and implications of our findings.

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