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How densely populated and green are the places we live in? A study of the ten largest US cities

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  • Orsi, Francesco

Abstract

Planners intervening on population density and green space provision to improve the livability of a city should have a deep knowledge about how the two vary throughout it. This paper presents a study conducted in the ten largest US cities to understand what are the conditions of density, public green space provision and greenery provision experienced by their inhabitants, and how these variables are related to each other. Based on 2010 census data, park area shapefiles and high-resolution orthophotos, the three variables were assessed by means of neighborhood operations on 1-m raster files as the number of people, extent of park space and extent of other greenery within a 500-m buffer around each pixel. Results show that only in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia a significant share of the population lives at relatively high densities (>6000 people km−2) and enjoys an adequate provision of public green space (more than 5% of the buffer area). The provision of other greenery is very high (>40%) for most people, especially in the Sun Belt cities, where density is low and the provision of public green space minimal for many. Density and green space provision are generally uncorrelated or weakly negatively correlated, whereas a moderately negative correlation is observed between density and greenery as well as between public green space provision and the provision of other greenery. Future studies should investigate the quality and accessibility of green space in greater detail.

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  • Orsi, Francesco, 2018. "How densely populated and green are the places we live in? A study of the ten largest US cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 300-316.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:76:y:2018:i:c:p:300-316
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.05.015
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