Visualizing green space accessibility for more than 4,000 cities across the globe

Abstract

Green space accessibility has benefits for promoting physical and mental health of urban residents. Many studies have investigated this measure but used limited cities. To fill this gap, this study visualizes green space accessibility for 4353 cities across the globe. Three global open datasets and two different scales (city- and national-scales) were involved for the analysis. We found that most countries and cities have a relative high value in terms of the green space accessibility, and those with a relatively low value are mostly located in South American, African, and Asian countries and cities. The results may be useful not only for local governments to implement precise planning for reducing potential inequality in access to green space, but also for researchers to further investigate the relationship between green space accessibility and various issues related to urban built-up environment.