Assessing spatial equity and accessibility of public green spaces in Aleppo City, Syria

Abstract

This paper examines the accessibility of urban green spaces within the Syrian city of Aleppo before the civil war using an environmental justice approach by indicating the current state of the parameters proximity and quantity in relation to the socioeconomic status of the inhabitants. Therefore, we conducted the average nearest neighbour analysis, facilities over and under coverage analysis, network analysis and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test followed by a post-hoc Tukey honestly significant difference (HSD) test. The findings clearly indicate that the spatial pattern of the distribution of public parks facilities was significantly clustered (p-value < 0.0001), with a Z-score of -16.4. Several neighbourhoods within the western and central parts of the city were identified to have a higher density of facilities, while the majority of the neighbourhoods located in the marginal parts in eastern Aleppo (low income) lack access to urban green spaces. The hierarchy-wise analysis reveals a strong deficit of urban green spaces at lower hierarchies, for example pocket parks and neighbourhood parks, while access to quarter parks and district parks is high. The urban green spaces at higher hierarchies are located in high and middle socioeconomic status areas. Regarding social segregation in park distribution and their accessibility, the data showed that high income neighbourhoods enjoy a significantly higher percentage of park facilities. The approach presented in this paper offers a generic method for the future development of public green spaces for balanced and sustainable planning.