Socioeconomic Inequalities in Green Space Quality and Accessibility—Evidence from a Southern European City

• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph14080916
• Publication Date: 2017-08-15T18:35:00Z
• Authors: Elaine Hoffimann; Henrique Barros; Ana Ribeiro
• Keywords: Green areas; Portugal; 4. Education; 1. No poverty; Environment; 01 natural sciences; Article; 12. Responsible consumption; Leisure Activities; Socioeconomic Factors; urban health; green areas; built environment; physical activity; environmental justice; Residence Characteristics; 11. Sustainability; Geographic Information Systems; Humans; Public Health; Cities; Urban health; 10. No inequality; Exercise; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Background: The provision of green spaces is an important health promotion strategy to encourage physical activity and to improve population health. Green space provision has to be based on the principle of equity. This study investigated the presence of socioeconomic inequalities in geographic accessibility and quality of green spaces across Porto neighbourhoods (Portugal). Methods: Accessibility was evaluated using a Geographic Information System and all the green spaces were audited using the Public Open Space Tool. Kendall’s tau-b correlation coefficients and ordinal regression were used to test whether socioeconomic differences in green space quality and accessibility were statistically significant. Results: Although the majority of the neighbourhoods had an accessible green space, mean distance to green space increased with neighbourhood deprivation. Additionally, green spaces in the more deprived neighbourhoods presented significantly more safety concerns, signs of damage, lack of equipment to engage in active leisure activities, and had significantly less amenities such as seating, toilets, cafés, etc. Conclusions: Residents from low socioeconomic positions seem to suffer from a double jeopardy; they lack both individual and community resources. Our results have important planning implications and might contribute to understanding why deprived communities have lower physical activity levels and poorer health.