Environmental justice and surface temperature: Income, ethnic, gender, and age inequalities. (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mashhoodi, Bardia
• Is Part Of: Sustainable cities and society. Volume 68(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: Land surface temperature -- Income inequality -- Ethnic inequality -- Gender inequality -- Environmental justice -- Urban heat islands; Sustainable urban development -- Periodicals; Sustainable buildings -- Periodicals; Urban ecology (Sociology) -- Periodicals; 307.76
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2021.102810
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2210-6707

Abstract

Highlights: Inequalities are in force at the national and local scale. At the national-scale, high-income residents are overexposed to LST. At the national-scale, residents of high-value properties are underexposed to LST. At the local-scale, immigrants are often the most overexposed to LST. At the local-scale, females are often the second most overexposed to LST. At the local-scale, residents aged 15–25 may be the second most overexposed. Abstract: Severe land surface temperature (LST) significantly impacts residents' thermal discomfort and can be life-threatening during warm seasons. Therefore, it is essential to identify the inequalities in LST exposure, i.e. the socioeconomic groups who are over- or underexposed to LST. There is a knowledge gap in the literature: there is no previous study which differentiates between national-scale inequalities -i.e. inequalities apparent in all location of a country, and the local-scale inequalities -i.e. inequalities existing in some areas of a country. Employing a semi-parametric geographically weighted regression model to study LST in Dutch residential zones in the summer of 2014, the results of this study show that two national-scale inequalities are significant: overexposure of high-income groups and underexposure of the owners of high-value properties. Additionally, eight local-scale inequalities are identified. Among the latter, ethnic inequalities, overexposure of Non-western and Western immigrants, found to be the most severe and frequent at the local scale. Additionally, females are often the second most overexposed to LST at the local-scale. To a lesser degree Rental dwellings and Population age 15−24 are the second most overexposed of a zone's population. In the end, the results and policy implications are discussed.