Fig. 4. Box-and-whisker plots of log-transformed monthly income for census districts with and without parks, for each race category (A). Three park attributes including distance from residence (B), the percentage of census tract covered by park (C) and park size (D) are plotted against log-transformed monthly income. Please refer to the caption in Fig. 3 for description of data points and trend lines. Park distance, size and cover are also log-transformed.

Abstract

<p>Urban green infrastructure provides ecosystem services that are essential to human wellbeing. A dearth of national-scale assessments in the Global South has precluded the ability to explore how political regimes, such as the forced racial segregation in South Africa during and after Apartheid, have influenced the extent of and access to green infrastructure over time. We investigate whether there are disparities in green infrastructure distributions across race and income geographies in urban South Africa. Using open-source satellite imagery and geographic information, along with national census statistics, we find that public and private green infrastructure is more abundant, accessible, greener and more treed in high-income relative to low-income areas, and in areas where previously advantaged racial groups (i.e. White citizens) reside.</p>