Environmental Quality and Poverty in Montevideo: A Spatial Approach to Exploring Environmental Injustices

Abstract

The distributive environmental justice approach focuses on analysing the spatial patterns of environmental effects and identifying situations of inequality between different social groups. These inequalities may be related to specific impacts or be the result of accumulated benefits or harms to certain populations, the latter aspect being less investigated globally and, in particular, in Latin America. This work aims to analyse the existence of environmental injustices in the city of Montevideo (Uruguay). For this purpose, an environmental quality index (EQI) composed of five subindices is proposed: pollution, exposure to risks, health impacts, habitat quality and availability of green spaces, and their relationship with the level of poverty is evaluated through descriptive analyses and spatial regression models. The results reveal an inverse relationship between the cumulative environmental quality and poverty level, this being especially marked in the subindices of environmental pollution and habitat quality. In contrast, the availability of green spaces presents a more favourable situation for the poorest groups of the population. This study highlights the importance of analysing environmental injustices through multiple indicator-based approaches and highlights the need to incorporate these perspectives into the study of cities with high levels of segregation.