Urban greening in Arnhem city. A matter of environmental justice

Abstract

Urban greening has been a major strategy in the Netherlands to deal with climate change issues. Local Dutch authorities are focusing their planning on greening strategies to improve the green infrastructure. Despite these efforts, urban greening still encounters environmental justice issues detected from different perspectives. This paper aims to understand to what level the green infrastructure contributes to the environmental justice in Arnhem city. This research used environmental justice theory to understand the justice issues in urban greening in Arnhem city based on five different concepts: distributional, procedural, recognition, rights, and responsibilities. The analysis of these concepts was conducted based on the interviews, maps assessment, and the analysis of the documents. This methodological aspect enabled us to understand the disparities in the distribution of the green infrastructure and its procedures and decision-making processes in both study cases. The outcomes of the previously mentioned concepts and the socioeconomic analysis contributed to revealing the recognition issues in each neighbourhood. Moreover, urban greening was distinguished as a duty matter rather than a legal issue for rights and responsibilities concepts. The conclusions of the five concepts showed that urban greening in Arnhem city encounters justice issues. Finally, understanding these justice issues was helpful to formulate some recommendations to reduce the disparities in urban greening across Arnhem city mainly. In general, it can be used for future research to understand the justice issues that might exist in other cases.