Effects of Urbanization on the Dynamics and Equity of Access to Urban Parks from 2000 to 2015 in Beijing, China

New insights into assembly processes and driving factors of urban soil microbial community under environmental stress in Beijing

Rapid urbanization leads to drastic environmental changes, directly or indirectly affecting the structure and function of soil microbial communities. However, the ecological response of soil microbes to environmental stresses has not yet been fully explored. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing to analyze the assembly mechanism and driving factors of soil microbial community under environmental stresses. The results indicated that environmental stresses significantly affected soil properties and the levels of beryllium, cobalt, antimony, and vanadium contamination in soil generally increased from the suburban areas toward the city core. The composition and distribution of soil microbial communities demonstrated clear differences under different levels of environmental stress, but there was no significant difference in microbial diversity. Random forest and partial least squares structural equation modeling results suggested that multiple factors influenced microbial diversity, but antimony was the key driver. The influence of environmental stress led to deterministic processes dominating microbial community assembly processes, which promoted the regional homogenization of soil microbes. Therefore, this study provides new insights into urban soil microbial management under environmental stresses.

Beyond Accessibility: A Multidimensional Evaluation of Urban Park Equity in Yangzhou, China

Evaluating park equity can help guide the advancement of sustainable and equitable space policies. Previous studies have mainly considered accessibility when evaluating park equity while ignoring the selectivity and convenience of entering parks and residents’ recognition of parks. Measuring equity based mainly on spatial thinking has resulted in the social aspects of parks receiving insufficient attention. In this study, we therefore integrated the spatial and social equity of parks and developed a multidimensional framework to evaluate park equity in four dimensions: accessibility (Ai), diversity (Di), convenience (Ci), and satisfaction (Si). Empirical analysis from Yangzhou, China showed that: (1) in Yangzhou’s built-up districts, 23.43% of the communities received high- or relatively high-level park access but 17.72% received little or no park access. (2) The Gini coefficient indicated that all three dimensions showed a mismatch with population distribution, except for satisfaction (Si), which showed a relatively reasonable match. (3) Park access was generally better in communities with better locations, environments, and facilities. High-income groups enjoyed significantly better park access than low- and middle-income groups. These findings could help urban planners and policymakers develop effective policies to reduce inequality in park access.

Literature Review Reveals a Global Access Inequity to Urban Green Spaces

Differences in the accessibility to urban resources between different racial and socioeconomic groups have exerted pressure on effective planning and management for sustainable city development. However, few studies have examined the multiple factors that may influence the mitigation of urban green spaces (UGS) inequity. This study reports the results of a systematic mapping of access inequity research through correspondence analysis (CA) to reveal critical trends, knowledge gaps, and clusters based on a sample of 49 empirical studies screened from 563 selected papers. Our findings suggest that although the scale of cities with UGS access inequity varies between countries, large cities (more than 1,000,000 population), especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), are particularly affected. Moreover, the number of cities in which high socioeconomic status (high-SES) groups (e.g., young, rich, or employed) are at an advantage concerning access to UGS is substantially higher than the number of cities showing better accessibility for low-SES groups. Across the reviewed papers, analyses on mitigating interventions are sparse, and among the few studies that touch upon this, we found different central issues in local mitigating strategies between high-income countries (HICs) and LMICs. An explanatory framework is offered, explaining the interaction between UGS access inequity and local mitigating measures.