MEASURING DISTRIBUTION AND DERIVED INEQUALITIES IN ACCESSING URBAN GREEN SPACES WITHIN IAȘI CITY (ROMANIA)

Abstract

The present study aims to identify inequalities concerning accessibility to urban green spaces within Iași city. In order to reach this purpose, the used methodology included walking time distance-based indicators, as well as demographic-load based indicators. The accessibility was assessed by means of Closest Facility and Service Area tools in ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1, while the demographic load was calculated by different specific indicators, based on the total area, pedestrian area and the number of benches for each urban green space. The results highlighted a great deficit in parks for the Iași city, as 25 % of the population is located at more than 12 minutes walking time distance from an urban green space and, at the same time, according to the calculated optimal demographic load, only 5% of the city population can be hosted by the existent parks. These mean values also contain important disparities, as the central and northern part of the city is by far more advantaged than the peripheral neighborhoods.

Keywords

• intra-city green spaces
• accessibility
• demographic load
• urban inequalities
• GIS