Equity of access to public parks in Birmingham (UK)
Provision of public parks has long been advocated as an equalizing measure between different elements of society. However, in practice, parks have usually been sited with little regard for the geography of where different social groups live. This study assesses equity of park provision for different income-status and ethnic populations in the urban area of Birmingham in western England. The analysis was undertaken using different geographical units, and with different (but correlated) deprivation measures, to test the sensitivity of the results to methodological choices. Parks were categorized as being all of one type, or one of two types: pleasant green areas suited for more solitary and passive activities (amenity) or open spaces designed more for informal sports or other physical and group activities (recreational). Distance-weighted access scores were calculated and compared for five groups sorted by relative social deprivation, and for five ethnic groups: Bangladeshis, blacks, Indians, Pakistanis and whites. Visual analysis suggested that both poor, mostly non-white inner city areas and relatively affluent and white outer suburbs would tend to be disadvantaged (compared to the city average) with regard to parks. Statistical analysis found the greatest disparities between deprivation groups, with the most deprived 25% and 10% of the population consistently having the worst access to all park categories, but especially the recreational park category. There was weaker evidence of disparities on the basis of ethnicity and with regard to the amenity parks category. We found evidence to suggest that even within the most deprived areas, whites have better access to park areas than non-whites.
In: Income Distribution: Inequities, Impacts, and Incentives, Nova Publishers, New York, pp 1-36