Logo image
Back
Associations between Greenspace and Gentrification-Related Sociodemographic and Housing Cost Changes in Major Metropolitan Areas across the United States
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Associations between Greenspace and Gentrification-Related Sociodemographic and Housing Cost Changes in Major Metropolitan Areas across the United States

Leah H. Schinasi, Helen V. S. Cole, Jana A. Hirsch, Ghassan B. Hamra, Pedro Gullon, Felicia Bayer, Steven J. Melly, Kathryn M. Neckerman, Jane E. Clougherty and Gina S. Lovasi
International journal of environmental research and public health, v 18(6), p3315
01 Mar 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063315
PMID: 33806987
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18063315View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0,  Open

Abstract

Environmental Sciences Environmental Sciences & Ecology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Public, Environmental & Occupational Health Science & Technology
Neighborhood greenspace may attract new residents and lead to sociodemographic or housing cost changes. We estimated relationships between greenspace and gentrification-related changes in the 43 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) of the United States (US). We used the US National Land Cover and Brown University Longitudinal Tracts databases, as well as spatial lag models, to estimate census tract-level associations between percentage greenspace (years 1990, 2000) and subsequent changes (1990-2000, 2000-2010) in percentage college-educated, percentage working professional jobs, race/ethnic composition, household income, percentage living in poverty, household rent, and home value. We also investigated effect modification by racial/ethnic composition. We ran models for each MSA and time period and used random-effects meta-analyses to derive summary estimates for each period. Estimates were modest in magnitude and heterogeneous across MSAs. After adjusting for census-tract level population density in 1990, compared to tracts with low percentage greenspace in 1992 (defined as <= 50th percentile of the MSA-specific distribution in 1992), those with high percentage greenspace (defined as >75th percentile of the MSA-specific distribution) experienced higher 1990-2000 increases in percentage of the employed civilian aged 16+ population working professional jobs (beta: 0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.11, 0.26) and in median household income (beta: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.15, 0.31). Adjusted estimates for the 2000-2010 period were near the null. We did not observe evidence of effect modification by race/ethnic composition. We observed evidence of modest associations between greenspace and gentrification trends. Further research is needed to explore reasons for heterogeneity and to quantify health implications.

Metrics

15 Record Views
15 citations in Web of Science
12 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Environmental Sciences
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Logo image