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Publication Date

12-16-2025

Population expansion and accelerated land development frequently overlook the inclusion of green infrastructure, leading to disparities in Urban Green Space (UGS) distribution. In rapidly urbanizing cities of the Global South, ensuring socio-ecological connectivity is vital for promoting sustainable, climate-resilient, multifunctional landscapes. This study uses Nagpur, a rapidly expanding Indian city, as a case study to investigate spatial inequities in UGS access through the lens of green justice. We employed the Demand Supply Gap assessment (World Health Organization and Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation, Government of India guidelines), the 3-30-300 green space rule as a guiding principle to evaluate UGS availability and accessibility across ten zones of the city. Additionally, a participatory assessment involving 1500 residents was conducted to capture residents’ perceptions of ecosystem benefits. Our findings indicate that the West zone has the highest per capita green space availability, followed by the Central and North-East Zone, yet a considerable demand-supply gap persists across the city. Further, only one zone from western Nagpur met all three criteria of the 3-30-300 rule and was also one of the most accessible UGS zones. Conversely, high-density zones lacked sufficient canopy cover and equitable UGS access, falling short of both national and international standards. The participatory assessment further revealed that 29.6% of respondents agreed, and 5.4% strongly agreed, that existing UGS adequately contribute to air pollution mitigation and reducing the heat island effect. This pattern reflects a broader challenge faced by expanding cities globally. We argue that a site-sensitive, socio-ecological planning approach, as demonstrated in this study, is critical to decentralizing the integration of green infrastructure into urban development strategies, especially in fast-sprawling Global South.

DOI

10.15365/1932-7048.1388

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