Polarized development of urban vegetation under climate change intensifies environmental injustice across socioeconomic status and ethnic groups in cities: Evidence from Los Angeles

Keywords: Drought, Urban vegetation, Climate change, Environmental injustice, Los Angeles
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 17

Abstract

Climate warming has increased heatwave risks in many cities. The cooling effect of urban vegetation is useful in alleviating local heatwaves. However, drought may abruptly damage urban plants’ health and restrain their cooling effect. Continued climate warming and frequent droughts may strengthen the heterogeneity of vegetation distribution and development across social-economic groups in cities and lead to disproportionate exposure to heatwaves. In this study, we investigated the urban vegetation’s spatiotemporal response to drought in Los Angeles, using satellite-based vegetation index data and drought time series on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform. We applied four statistical models to analyze the influence of social-economic and environmental factors on the sensitivity of urban vegetation to drought at the census tract level. We also compared the cooling effect of different urban vegetation types between the drought and non-drought years. Results suggest that the disadvantaged population groups have strikingly more vulnerable vegetation in drought and higher exposure to heatwaves. Moreover, this pattern has been intensified over the past two decades, which is likely linked to the unbalanced vegetation care and management across different neighborhoods. This study suggests that the polarized vegetation development among different social-economic groups may exacerbate the environmental injustice under climate change.