Maps show how access to green spaces in South African cities is still dictated by race in a 'Green Apartheid'
Getty Images / Hello Africa
- Satellite data has unveiled extreme disparities between access to urban green spaces in South African cities, according to recent research by spatial ecologist, Zander Venter.
- He was able to work out that South Africans earning around $60 a month will, on average, walk 2.6 kilometers to reach their nearest park. On $1,700, residents will, on average, live 770 meters from their closest park.
- Green spaces are increasingly recognized as beneficial to human wellbeing in cities, both mental and physical.
- Venter found that, in 49 out of the 52 district municipalities in South Africa, there were stark disparities between access to parks, tree cover, and general greenery along the lines of race and income.
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Satellite data has revealed many South African city-dwellers are still living in a form of urban "green apartheid," according to recent research.
The research was conducted by Zander Venter, a spatial ecologist at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and lead author of a paper titled Green Apartheid: Urban green infrastructure remains unequally distributed across income and race geographies in South Africa.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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