Social media analysis reveals environmental injustices in Philadelphia urban parks

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Matthew Walter, University of Delaware; Benjamin E Bagozzi, University of Delaware; Idowu Ajibade, Emory University; Pinki Mondal, University of Delaware
• Language: English
• Date: 2023-08-03
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2023
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39579-4
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Scientific Reports
• Volume: 13
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by the NASA Delaware Space Grant College and Fellowship Program (80NSSC20M0045).
• Keywords: Urban ecology; Socioeconomic scenarios; Environmental impact; Sustainability
• Research Categories: Environmental Sciences; Geography; International Law and Relations; Agriculture, Soil Science; Political Science, General

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 11.7 calls for access to safe and inclusive green spaces for all communities. Yet, historical residential segregation in the USA has resulted in poor quality urban parks near neighborhoods with primarily disadvantaged socioeconomic status groups, and an extensive park system that addresses the needs of primarily White middle-class residents. Here we center the voices of historically marginalized urban residents by using Natural Language Processing and Geographic Information Science to analyze a large dataset (n = 143,913) of Google Map reviews from 2011 to 2022 across 285 parks in the City of Philadelphia, USA. We find that parks in neighborhoods with a high number of residents from historically disadvantaged demographic groups are likely to receive lower scores on Google Maps. Physical characteristics of these parks based on aerial and satellite images and ancillary data corroborate the public perception of park quality. Topic modeling of park reviews reveal that the diverse environmental justice needs of historically marginalized communities must be met to reduce the uneven park quality—a goal in line with achieving SDG 11 by 2030.