Improved equality of human exposure to greenspace in the 21st century urbanization

Abstract Greenspace plays a crucial role in urban ecosystems and has been recognized as a key factor in promoting sustainable and healthy city development. Recent studies have revealed a growing concern about urban greenspace exposure inequality; however, the extent to which urbanization affects human exposure to greenspace and associated inequalities over time remains unclear. Here, we incorporate a Landsat-based 30-meter time-series greenspace mapping and a population-weighted exposure framework to quantify the changes in human exposure to greenspace for 1028 global cities between 2000–2018. Results show a substantial increase in physical greenspace coverage and an improvement in human exposure to urban greenspace, leading to a reduction in greenspace exposure inequality over the past two decades. Nevertheless, we observe a contrasting difference in the rate of reduction in greenspace exposure inequality between cities in the Global South and North, with a faster rate of reduction in the Global South, nearly four times that of the Global North. These findings provide valuable insights into the impact of urbanization on urban nature and environmental inequality change and can inform future city greening efforts.