Unraveling Socio-Ecological Inequities in Outer London: Cluster-Based Resilience Planning

Abstract

The sustainable development of cities urgently requires an understanding of the interaction between social equity and ecological quality, especially in the peri-urban areas that traditional environmental justice research has paid less attention to. Taking Outer London as an example in this study, the Comprehensive Social Equity Index (CSEI) and the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) were constructed to explore the social–ecological coupling relationship and spatial heterogeneity. Four types of socio-ecological coupling were identified through the four-quadrant model, ordinary least squares (OLS), and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR). The results reveal the characteristics of nonlinear coupling: in addition to the dual disadvantages and advantages of society and ecology, there are also regional patterns where social conditions are advantageous, but ecology is degraded, and where society is weak, but ecology is rich. This indicates that there is a complex spatial dislocation relationship between society and ecology in the peri-urban. The research proposes a scale-sensitive governance strategy based on location, emphasizing the coordinated countermeasures of social reinvestment and ecological restoration, providing a new perspective for environmental justice and sustainable planning in the peri-urban areas of the UK.