Indicators for measuring urban environmental equity: a scoping review

Abstract

Reducing urban environmental inequity is one of the main objectives in advancing towards more sustainable cities. This situation implies developing tools that allow for an integrated assessment environmental and social impacts, to reveal inequalities in the distribution of resources and environmental risks. Applying indicators by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and statistical tools can be a valid option for fulfilling this aim, since it allows for territorial patterns in disparities to be exposed. The aim of this work is to identify and classify the environmental equity indicators applied to date in studies that use statistical methods and GIS for processing and analysing them. Thus, a scoping review was conducted using the SALSA Framework and PRISMA extension for scoping reviews protocol based on the Scopus, Web of Science and Scielo databases. A total of 31 articles were identified that fulfilled the search criteria and which were developed mainly by countries in North American and Europe. They involved 167 different indicators that demonstrate the complexity and heterogeneity in addressing this topic. Negative aspects of the environment such as pollution, and social factors such as the socioeconomic status, were the most used.