Bringing nature back to the metropolis for all · Issue Paper #12 · Metropolis Observatory

Date of publication
Author
Galia Shokry & Isabelle Anguelovski
Topic
Gender equality
Sustainability
Metropolitan Governance
Urban design
Land use, -planning and -management
Type of resources
Issue Papers
Climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the lack of green and equal spaces in cities and triggered debates about the necessity to bring nature back to metropolises. Lower-income citizens and minorities also tend to take less advantage of green spaces within cities and live near polluting industries such as waste disposal facilities or factories, risking and worsening their health.

The benefits from urban greening manifest as better good social and physical conditions, really important in the mature development of children, such as improved cardiovascular, respiratory or immune systems, as well as people with mental health disorders and intellectual disabilities that benefit from being in contact with nature.

But the building of green spaces in cities has triggered a trend in which private investors find financial value in them and displace local and vulnerable residents outside of areas of redevelopment. Green plans could be risking the lives of citizens if they don’t consider this problem and don't work with the communities that live in them leading to the increase of gender, economic and social inequalities.

Authors Galia Shokry and Isabelle Anguelovski explore the problems of environmental injustice and highlight solutions that could impact communities that approach nature to their residents in the 12 number of the Issue Papers of Metropolis. This publication explains how collaboration between metropolitan governments and residents is essential to bring fair and greener outcomes for all.
bringing-nature-back-metropolis-all_cover
EN4.29 MB
ES2.82 MB
FR2.79 MB