Brownfields to Greenfields - Linking Environment and Health: … · 2017-10-27 · Brownfields to Greenfields - Linking Environment and Health: Derelict Lands, Deprivation, and Health

Brownfields to Greenfields -Linking Environment and Health: Derelict Lands, Deprivation, and Health Inequality in Glasgow and NYC

Juliana Maantay, City University of New York/Lehman College

“54th International Making Cities Livable Conference on Public Places for Community, Democratic Dialogue, Health, and Equity,” Santa Fe, NM, October 2-6, 2017.

http://www.lehman.edu/

Priority Areas for Reuse of Derelict Land IndexIn Glasgow, Scotland (PARDLI)

The population of Glasgow, Scotland has very poor health, compared to Scotland as a whole and the rest of the U.K., and even compared to other post-industrial cities with similar levels of deprivation and unemployment. Glasgow also has an extremely high proportion of vacant and derelict land (VDL), much of which was formerly used for heavy industry and therefore likely contaminated. The association between the concentration of VDL and the prevalence of adverse health outcomes was analyzed, and it was found that VDL is an environmental stressor.

Glasgow, Scotland:~ Population: 600,000;

~ UK’s least healthy city;

~ Highest total acreage amount and proportion of vacant and derelict land (VDL) of any area in Scotland;

~ Much of VDL is contaminated by former industrial land uses;

~ VDL is often currently used as dumping grounds;

~ VDL is concentrated in high deprivation areas.

Premise of the Research Study:

This study examines the potential association between one aspect of the built environment, namely, the concentration of vacant and derelict land (VDL), and the prevalence of several adverse health outcomes (i.e., low male life expectancy, and high rates of respiratory hospitalizations, cancer hospitalizations, and low birth weight infants), and the resultant impact on achieving health equity and environmental justice.

Purpose of the Research Study:

The objective of the study was to provide to governmental agencies and other organizations clear guidelines and a way to prioritize resource allocation to areas within the city that are most at-risk and vulnerable. This was achieved by creating an index – the PARDLI (Priority Areas for Reuse of Derelict Land Index) – that would help to identify these areas most in need for further study and interventions.

Vacant and Derelict Land (VDL) in Glasgow”Characteristics of places may be as important as the characteristics of people for an understanding of particular patterns of health,” (Phillimore, P., 1993:176. How do places shape health?

Rethinking locality and lifestyle in North-east England, in Platt, S., ed., Locating Health: Sociological and Historical Implications).

High Deprivation69%

Medium Deprivation23%

Low Deprivation

8%

% Vacant and Derelict Land(VDL)

Descriptive Statistics and Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis of Health and Vacant Land in Glasgow

Multiple Deprivation Index (SIMD)Proximity to Vacant and Derelict Land (VDL)Respiratory Hospitalization Rates (RESP)Cancer Hospitalization Rates (CANCER)% Low Birth Weight Infants (LBW)Male Life Expectancy (MLE)

Source: Maantay, J.A., 2013. The Collapse of Place: Derelict Land, Deprivation, and Health Inequity in Glasgow, Scotland. Cities and the Environment, 6(1): Article 10 (57 pages).

Health Outcome Odds Ratio Relative Risk

Respiratory Hospitalization 5.5 5.1

Cancer Hospitalization 1.3 1.3

Low Birth Weight Infants 1.6 1.5

Populations in High Deprivation DZsare much more likely to be hospitalized for respiratory disease (5.5 times morelikely) or cancer (30% more likely), and much more likely to have low birthweight infants (60% more likely), than those not living in High Deprivation DZs.All results are at the 95% ConfidenceLevel, with p = < 0.0001.

The Moran’s I clusters reveals areas which have high rates of cancer hospitalization surrounded by other high rate areas, and conversely, areas with low rates surrounded by other areas of low rates - in other words, the conditions which might be expected based on the principle of spatial autocorrelation, where “Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related to each other than distant things,” (Tobler 1970: 236). These, then, would be the concentrated clusters of high or low rates, (high-high or low-low, respectively). The anomalous areas are the areas of high rates surrounded by areas of low rates (high-low), and areas of low rates surrounded by areas of high rates (low-high). These are the areas which would potentially be fruitful to investigate further to find out why they are different from their immediate neighbors.

The difference between the observed values and the predicted is called the Residual, and after the residual is standardized and mapped, it can tell us some important information about the data. The results as shown on the map can be interpreted as follows: the darker red colors represent areas where the observed data - in other words, the actual conditions, the cancer rates – are higher than what the model would predict/estimate. The blue areas are those where the observed was lower than the predicted, and the white-grey areas are what we would expect, given the regression relationship between deprivation and cancer. The deeper the color, the more divergent from the model’s prediction are those areas. The GWR model produces a fairly good fit, performing less well in greenbelt areas, where there are likely to be low populations.

Rather than one global regression for all of Glasgow City creating a linear relationship between the variables, a GWR runs many local regressions, accounting for local variation. Based on the relationships between the variables, the model makes predictions (estimates) about the values of the dependent variable (cancer rates) and then compares them to the actual values for cancer rates for each datazone.

SIMD

MLE

CANCER

LBW

VDL

Rank each variable into 3 Classes by Std. Dev.

1= Best3=Worst

Rank into 3 Classes by Jenks Optimization

1= Best3=Worst

Rank into 2 Binary Classes0 = No VDL within 100 m

3 = VDL within 100 m

RESPAdd

Scores for PARDLI Index

Rank PARDLI into 3

Classes

Creation of Priority Areas for Reuse of Derelict Land Index (PARDLI) Scores, by Data Zones

AcronymsSIMD = Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation;MLE = Male Life Expectancy;RESP = Respiratory Hospitalization Rate per 100,000;CANCER = Cancer Hospitalization Rate per 100,000;LBW = Low Birth Weight Babies as a Percentage of Live Births;VDL = Proximity to Vacant or Derelict Land.

Vacant and Derelict Land showing 100-meter Exposure Areas with PARDLI Scores.

Priority Areas for Reuse of Derelict Land Index (PARDLI). Areas outlined within red boundaries, from west to east in Glasgow: Drumchapel South; Govan-Linthouse; Possil Park; Calton-Gallowgate-Bridgeton; and Old Shettleston-North Parkhead.

In addition to the variables that were incorporated into the PARDLI index, a few other variables were taken into consideration in determining the first of the priority areas. One of these was the presence of or proximity to concentrations of social (public) housing.

Upper: Glasgow’s Open Space. There are 33 separate categories of public open space designated, including parks, gardens, sports areas, amenity spaces within developments, green corridors, protected natural areas, nature reserves, historic landscapes, and ancient woodlands (the 33 categories have been collapsed and combined for cartographic clarity). Glasgow is well-endowed with open space, including an extensive greenbelt. However, the open space quantity is not necessarily an indication of quality.Lower: Percentage Greenspace in Ward. Data Sources: UK Ordnance Survey (basemap layers); Developing Summary Measures of Health-Related Multiple Physical Environmental Deprivation for Epidemiological Research, Richardson, et al, 2010 (CRESH model data).

Regional Planning Initiatives: VDL in private and public ownership, Transformational Regeneration Areas (TRAs), Stalled Spaces Initiatives, Community Growth Areas, and Flagship Areas.

The proposed GovanPriority Area – An example of looking at the health data at the local level.Brown areas are the VDL. The darker the blue, the lower the male life expectancy (MLE). Most of Govan is in the worst or second worst MLE class, out of the original five classes mapped. The other health outcomes follow that same trend.

Uses of PARDLI: The Index is used to select and prioritize communities for resource allocation and planning efforts. Potential strategies for re-using the derelict land for the communities’ public health benefit and neighborhood regeneration include:

▪ Urban agriculture/community gardens, ▪ Urban forestation, ▪ Green infrastructure (e.g., bioswales, constructed

wetlands, etc.),▪ Active and passive recreation areas,▪ Linkage to existing open space networks

and natural areas.

New York City, at approx. 300 sq. miles (land area), is roughly 5 times larger in geographic extent than Glasgow City’s 68 sq. miles. But its population is nearly 15 times greater than Glasgow’s , indicating the much higher population density of NYC.

Glasgow has 1,300 hectares of vacant and derelict land, or 4% of its total land area. NYC has 3,600 hectares of vacant land, or about 5% of its total land area.

Quantitative Comparison of Vacant and Derelict Land in New York City and Glasgow

Brownfields in New York City – An Example of the Extent of the Problem

Suggestions for Possible Policy and Implementation Strategies

Create a database of publicly-owned vacant sites that are accessible from a street.

Develop a signage program for each of these sites advising community members who to call to discuss community-led use of the site.

Image from the “596 Acres” organization’s website, a Brooklyn-based non-profit focusing on the 596 acres of vacant, publicly-owned land in Brooklyn. The sign reads “This lot is public land, owned by NYC Housing Authority. It’s very likely that they would let you and your neighbors do something nice here — maybe a farm or an outdoor movie theater.”


Establish a standard protocol for leasing the land to a community group, and have a small support team within government to help with logistics of community-led use of the vacant land.

Community uses could be urban agriculture, passive or active recreation spaces, market spaces for weekly “flea” markets or farmers’ markets, and cleaned up natural areas that might connect with other open space networks.



Community Gardens in the Bronx

Source: Ottmann, M., Maantay, J.A., Grady, K., Cardoso, N., Fonte, N., 2010. Community Gardens: An Exploration of Urban Agriculture in the Bronx, New York City. Cities and the Environment, 3(1): article 20

Consider small grants of money for community-led groups to create containerized gardening on sites that may be contaminated, and that can be moved to another vacant site if the gardening site is eventually required for housing development.


Image from The New York Times, 2012, “Turning Unused Acres Green,” by John Leland.

Use the land temporarily for urban forestation projects. These urban forestry plantings could help clean up contamination through phyto-remediation or phyto-stabilization, help restore endangered tree species, and create economic benefit, while leaving land available for future housing development or other community use.


Images from Eadha Enterprises,Proposal for Aspen Arboretum at Toryglen Park, Glasgow South, Scotland

As in Glasgow, much of NYC’s vacant land is located in the poorer neighborhoods. A major issue in NYC with re-use of vacant and derelict land for development is the displacement of poor people through gentrification. Ironically, this has often occurred in areas where community gardens have improved property values sufficiently to interest developers in investing in the neighborhood, whereby the community rightfully feels as though their hard work has sown the seeds of their own destruction. Policies must be in place for community-led improvements in vacant and derelict land to benefit the community and not punish them.


Photo from the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MORUS)

http://www.commongroundnyc.org/garvey.htm

Do greener cities become more unjust?Urban planning and budgetary decisions by government and their

private development partners should be driven by the health and safety concerns of the community, and not be based solely upon the attraction of profit-seeking investments to decaying neighborhoods.

Many times community improvements in vacant and derelict land have the unfortunate side-effects of raising property values, thus creating interest amongst property developers, and stimulating the gentrification process and the consequent displacement of the original residents, which are undesirable outcomes and counter-productive to the goal of improving life for the community residents.

It might be in the best interests of the community to make use of VDL as informal greenspaces that would still benefit the current community but not necessarily attract gentrification. In this way, the VDL stays provisional and transitional, retaining some of its marginal qualities and not appearing totally “domesticated,” whilst still being at least partially under the control of the neighborhood residents. This strategy has been termed “just green enough” interventions.

Questions for Urban Sustainability Professionals and Urban Designers:

(Image from: “Citizen Participation in Urban Green Spaces: Rethinking Green Urban Commons,” Eco Union, Barcelona, Spain, 2017.)

Human-centered design and human-centered policy. Working at the intersection of Top-Down and Bottom-Up.


Critical exploration of theories and approaches;

Practice-oriented;

Strong global-local vision;

Place-making focus;

Solutions focus


Urban Design Professionals Engage in Citizen Participation for Green Space Design

"There is a need to improve the neighborhood's environmental quality, to ‘green’ it, but not at any price," says Isabelle Anguelovski,* while she highlights that these projects need to be accompanied by policies which control property speculation, promote social housing projects, limit the number of short-term rental licenses and foster the creation of support networks between residents and local trade. From Science Daily, July 20, 2016, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160720094604.htm

* Director, Barcelona Laboratory for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB)

A community-operated project on the former site of a convent in Barcelona. Acquired by the city in 2006 but remaining undeveloped until 2011, a citizens‘ working group created an initiative supporting the need for locally-managed public and green space in the neighborhood. The site hosts celebrations, workshops, public art activities, protests, and other events, and the space is non-commercial and open to all.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160720094604.htm

Actively promoting the re-use of vacant and derelict land in high deprivation areas with vulnerable populations will have long-term beneficial use to the residents, and is an important step in combating health inequities and environmental injustice in these communities.


New York City Research:

Glasgow Research:

Brownfields to Greenfields - Linking Environment and Health: … · 2017-10-27 · Brownfields to Greenfields - Linking Environment and Health: Derelict Lands, Deprivation, and Health

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