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May the Forest Be With You: A Study of Urban Green Space Composition in Richmond, VA
Fuhrig, Sydney
Fuhrig, Sydney
Abstract
The quality of urban environments, especially their green space (UGS), is exceptionally important as urbanization continues, and with it increases in temperatures, worsening pollution, and a myriad of worsening health problems. This study focuses on Richmond, Virginia and explores how median income in the city affects the availability of green infrastructure for its residents by using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to study the pervious area within Richmond UGS as a proxy for UGS quality. UGS with greater amounts of vegetation are of a higher quality than less vegetated UGS and provide greater environmental services. GIS was used to calculate NDVI, pervious, and impervious surface information from orthoimagery of Richmond, and the resulting data was plotted against economic data from the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) and analyzed to determine correlation between per capita income and greenness. The most significant finding from this study is that there is a positive relationship between per capita income and mean and maximum NDVI in Richmond’s UGS, which supports the hypothesis that parks in higher income areas are of a higher quality than parks in lower income areas.
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2021-05-01
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Environmental Science and Policy