Abstract Urban green infrastructure provides ecosystem services that are essential to human wellbeing. A dearth of national-scale assessments in the Global South has precluded the ability to explore how political regimes, such as the forced racial segregation in South Africa during and after Apartheid, have influenced the extent of and access to green infrastructure over time. We investigate whether there are disparities in green infrastructure distributions across race and income geographies in urban South Africa. Using open-source satellite imagery and geographic information, along with national census statistics, we find that public and private green infrastructure is more abundant, accessible, greener and more treed in high-income relative to low-income areas, and in areas where previously advantaged racial groups (i.e. White citizens) reside. Areas with White residents report 6-fold higher income, have 11.7% greater tree cover, 8.9% higher vegetation greenness and live 700 m closer to a public park than areas with predominantly Black African, Indian, and Coloured residents. The inequity in neighborhood greenness levels has been maintained (for Indian and Coloured areas) and further entrenched (for Black African areas) since the end of Apartheid in 1994 across the country. We also find that these spatial inequities are mirrored in both private (gardens) and public (street verges, parks, green belts) spaces, hinting at the failure of governance structures to plan for and implement urban greening initiatives. By leveraging open-access satellite data and methods presented here, there is scope for civil society to monitor urban green infrastructure over time and thereby hold governments accountable to addressing environmental justice imperatives in the future. Interact with the data here: green-apartheid.zsv.co.za .

中文翻译：

---

绿色种族隔离：南非的城市绿色基础设施在不同收入和种族地区的分布仍然不均

摘要 城市绿色基础设施提供对人类福祉至关重要的生态系统服务。全球南方缺乏全国范围的评估，因此无法探索政治制度（例如种族隔离期间和之后南非的强制种族隔离）如何随着时间的推移影响绿色基础设施的范围和获取途径。我们调查了南非城市中不同种族和收入地区的绿色基础设施分布是否存在差异。使用开源卫星图像和地理信息，以及国家人口普查统计数据，我们发现，相对于低收入地区，高收入地区的公共和私人绿色基础设施更丰富、更容易接近、更绿，而且在以前优势种族群体（即白人公民）居住。与以非洲黑人、印度人和有色人种为主的地区相比，白人居民地区的收入高 6 倍，树木覆盖率高 11.7%，植被绿度高 8.9%，距离公园更近 700 m。自 1994 年种族隔离在全国结束以来，社区绿化水平的不平等一直保持（对于印度和有色人种地区）并进一步根深蒂固（对于黑人非洲地区）。我们还发现，这些空间不平等反映在私人（花园）和公共（街道边缘、公园、绿化带）空间中，暗示治理结构未能规划和实施城市绿化举措。通过利用这里介绍的开放访问卫星数据和方法，随着时间的推移，民间社会有机会监测城市绿色基础设施，从而让政府对解决未来的环境正义问题负责。与此处的数据交互：green-apartheid.zsv.co.za。