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• The visibility of street trees, and dense tree and shrub canopies in an area of 5 and 10 m around home-school routes is scarce. • The median coverage of greenery in the visibility area of 5 m around home-school routes is equal to 15%. • Poor visibility of greenery may indicate limited aesthetic appreciation for children. • Environmental injustice can be understood as welfare-related inequalities in the visibility of greenery along home-school routes among children. • Promoting an active home-school commute needs urban planning actions towards greening the walking routes. The multiple positive effects of an active school commute have convinced many cities to promote home-school walks among children and increase the awareness of designing healthy, child-friendly routes. One of the ways to ensure a child-friendly and healthy daily walk to school is to increase the greenery that children encounter on their way. This paper aims to evaluate welfare-related disparities among children in the visibility of greenery along their home-school routes and link them with distributive (in)justice regarding aesthetic appreciation. We hypothesise that children who belong to poor welfare-related status group have lower visibility of greenery along their routes to school than other children. Furthermore, we hypothesise that aesthetic appreciation provided by the greenery surrounding home-school routes is not equitably distributed to all children. For this purpose, we conducted a visibility analysis for primary school pupils in Lodz (Poland). In particular, we quantified the amount of greenery in the visibility areas of 5, 10, 30 and 50 m along the home-school routes of children. Our results show that the median visibility of greenery along the home-school routes is lower for shorter visibility distances (5 and 10 m) and street trees, dense tree and shrub canopies what could be further related to limited aesthetic experiences. We found that children who belong to poor welfare-related status group have less greenery along their home-school routes than others. This could indicate a distributive environmental injustice may occur not only in terms of the availability of green spaces for inhabitant's homes but also reveal disparities in the visibility of greenery during daily commutes. Our findings contribute to the ongoing discussion on making cities greener. In particular, they may be used by urban planners to identify priority streets for implementing urban green initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• People experiencing homelessness are diverse in terms of perception of UGS. • UGS hold distinct meanings for their users. • Participants of the study are subject to procedural and interactional injustice. • Topic of homelessness should be included in the just planning and management of UGS. The accessibility and attractiveness of urban green spaces (UGS) for individuals experiencing homelessness might be considered an example of the provision of environmental amenities for the most disadvantaged communities in the environmental justice discourse. We studied whether these people feel that they are condemned to spend time within UGS and what their personal narratives and perceptions of UGS were. The analysis was based on the triangulation of methods used in our case study city, Lodz, in Poland. First, we compiled a map of where people who live on the streets were recorded, based on data from the City Office of Lodz. Second, we conducted semi-structured and detailed interviews with streetworkers in order to obtain information regarding the use of public spaces (UGS in particular) by people who are homeless. Finally, we carried out interviews with (homeless) individuals whose activities took place within green surroundings. Our study showed that UGS are important to people experiencing homelessness, not only from the point of view of necessity or a lack of any other choice but – more importantly – from the perspective of individual preference and the fulfilment of personal needs. In this sense, our findings broaden the understanding of the accessibility and attractiveness of UGS to one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental goods are sometimes considered a luxury that only the rich can afford. This is no less true in the case of green spaces. However, a typical microeconomic lens is not relevant to study the potential luxury of non-tradable goods. Typically, the distributional interpretation of the income elasticity of the willingness to pay (WTP) for such goods would involve stated preferences valuation methods. The possibility to describe the luxury of green space proximity based on revealed preferences methods has not been evaluated yet. Through this study, we would like to fill this gap. We proposed a three-step analysis of the apartment market in Lodz (Poland), based on the hedonic pricing method, to check how the marginal WTP (MWTP) for proximity to parks/forests differs among apartment price sub-segments. We discuss whether and to what extent the variability of the MWTP could be linked with the presumed luxury of green space proximity. We found that proximity does not result in increased apartment prices for all parks and forests. The estimated MWTP for the proximity to selected parks rises in consecutive apartment price sub-segments. This could be interpreted as a sign of the luxury of living close to these parks by apartment buyers. • Apartment prices are positively affected by proximity to selected parks and forests only. • The estimated MWTP for proximity to selected parks increases with apartment prices. • The desirability of living close to parks rises in apartment price sub-segments. • Proximity to selected parks has signs of luxury for apartment buyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioeconomic disparities in urban green space (UGS) availability and environmental injustice may occur not only at the scale of whole cities, selected districts/neighbourhoods, but also at lower spatial scales, such as urban blocks or even individual buildings. The latter – microscale UGS disparities – reflect differences in UGS availability among inhabitants who belong to different socioeconomic status groups and inhabit different buildings or parts of buildings. This article evaluates whether disparities in UGS availability and environmental injustice may occur in microscale in cities characterized by low socioeconomic segregation in general, such as those located in Central and Eastern Europe. For this purpose, we identified microscale socioeconomic disparities in UGS availability in the central zone of Lodz (Poland) using the localized modelling technique. Then, using a spatial microsimulation experiment, we demonstrated that an increase of segregation in Lodz's central zone would increase disparities in UGS availability and the occurrence of environmental injustice there. We demonstrated that the way the patterns of segregation interplay with microscale disparities can be further linked with temporal evolution of housing stock and local housing policy. Our findings may be useful for urban planners to stimulate the spatio-social diversity of inhabitants by focusing on microscale UGS disparities. • Socioeconomic disparities in green space availability may occur in small spatial scale – microscale. • Microscale disparities may appear even if socioeconomic segregation is low. • Green space disparities often reflect historical evolution of housing stock. • Need for stimulating socio-spatial diversity by urban planners to promote green space equity. • Understanding that segregation and environmental justice are linked is important for urban planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hotspots of residential density are used as a signal of urban sprawl. • Hotspots increase in number with increasing distance to the city centre. • The occurrence of urban sprawl in Lodz corresponds with green space availability. Acknowledging urban sprawl as one of the major threats to the functioning of urban environments, the article focuses on its possible association with urban green spaces (UGS). UGS can act as an attracting factor influencing housing demand in cities. However, the spatial distribution of UGS may affect sprawling dynamics. Therefore, the analysis focuses on finding linkages between urban sprawl and green space availability within three concentric zones of the city of Lodz. Hotspot analysis has been used as a method to describe sprawling dynamics in relation to UGS availability. UGS availability was defined as a percentage of the area of parks and forests in a 1000 m buffer. The results showed that the highest UGS availability in the peripheral zone of the city was linked to an increase in the number of residents between 2000 and 2015. The peripheral zone was also characterized by stronger clustering of hotspots of residential density. Starting from the peripheral zone, UGS availability was 6.01%, 3.45% and 2.86% of the area of each respective zone. ANOVA analysis confirmed that the average availability of UGS for newly registered residential buildings differs statistically between the rings at the 0.05 level. While most urban residents still live within the central (yet continuously depopulating) zone, it is characterized by the smallest UGS availability (2.86% covered by UGS), which might raise concerns regarding the occurrence of possible environmental injustice in terms of uneven access to benefits provided by UGS. Hotspot analysis can provide valuable input into the discussion regarding the application of specific spatially targeted measures, for the sake of sustainable urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]