IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/urbpla/v8y2023i1p334-345.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reframing Urban Nature-Based Solutions Through Perspectives of Environmental Justice and Privilege

Author

Listed:
  • Willi Bauer

    (Department of Geography, University of Erlangen‐Nuremberg, Germany)

Abstract

Since its introduction, the concept of “nature-based solutions” has gained much attention, drawing public funds and private investments. Nature-based solutions conceptualise the use of nature in planning as a cost-efficient and sustainable means to address societal, economic, and ecological challenges. However, this “triple win” premise tends to conceal potentially resulting injustices, such as displacement through green gentrification. While these injustices have attracted the attention of environmental justice scholars, as exemplified by the “just green enough” approach, links to the “nature-based solutions” concept are mostly implicit. Further, the concept of environmental privilege, questioning who benefits from created natural amenities, has rarely been taken up. This article, therefore, argues that environmental justice should be linked closely to nature-based solutions. Supported by a theoretical perspective, the article aims at exploring who benefits from, and who loses out on, urban nature-based solutions processes. It builds on a qualitative literature review of the scholarly landscape on environmental justice and urban greening while linking to nature-based solutions, adding perspectives of environmental privilege. In this, it attempts to offer three important contributions to the current academic discussion. First, the article provides an overview of the debate on urban greening, (in)justice, and environmental privilege. Second, it relates the concept of nature-based solutions to the debate on environmental justice, opening nature-based solutions up for critique and conceptual refinements. Third, it outlines a way forward for reframing nature-based solutions through the lens of environmental justice and privilege. Thus, this article provides a starting point for further discussions on the implementation of just nature-based solutions in cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Willi Bauer, 2023. "Reframing Urban Nature-Based Solutions Through Perspectives of Environmental Justice and Privilege," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 334-345.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v8:y:2023:i:1:p:334-345
    DOI: 10.17645/up.v8i1.6018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/6018
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/up.v8i1.6018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Juliana A. Maantay & Andrew R. Maroko, 2018. "Brownfields to Greenfields: Environmental Justice Versus Environmental Gentrification," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Louis Lategan & Brian Fisher-Holloway & Juanee Cilliers & Sarel Cilliers, 2025. "Moving on to Greener Pastures? A Review of South Africa’s Housing Megaproject Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-26, February.
    2. Roberta Cucca & Thomas Thaler, 2023. "Social Justice in the Green City," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 279-282.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Wei & Li, Yuqing & Zheng, Caigui, 2023. "The distribution characteristics and driving mechanism of vacant land in Chengdu, China: A perspective of urban shrinkage and expansion," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Alessandro Rigolon & Timothy Collins, 2023. "The green gentrification cycle," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(4), pages 770-785, March.
    3. Henrieta Pavolová & Tomáš Bakalár & Alexander Tokarčík & Ľubica Kozáková & Tomáš Pastyrčák, 2021. "An Economic Analysis of Brownfield and Greenfield Industrial Parks Investment Projects: A Case Study of Eastern Slovakia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Shih-Chieh Chien & Charles Knoble, 2024. "Uneven Burdens: The Intersection of Brownfields, Pollution, and Socioeconomic Disparities in New Jersey, USA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-23, November.
    5. Hua Zheng & Min Guo & Qian Wang & Qinghai Zhang & Noriko Akita, 2023. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Current Knowledge Structure and Research Progress Related to Urban Community Garden Systems," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-34, January.
    6. Feicui Gou & Wenya Zhai & Zilin Wang, 2023. "Visualizing the Landscape of Green Gentrification: A Bibliometric Analysis and Future Directions," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-23, July.
    7. Huaiyun Kou & Sichu Zhang & Yuelai Liu, 2019. "Community-Engaged Research for the Promotion of Healthy Urban Environments: A Case Study of Community Garden Initiative in Shanghai, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-24, October.
    8. Willi Bauer, 2023. "Reframing Urban Nature-Based Solutions Through Perspectives of Environmental Justice and Privilege," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 334-345.
    9. Zulfikar Adamu & Oliver Hardy & Asya Natapov, 2023. "The Impact of Greenspace, Walking, and Cycling on the Health of Urban Residents during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of London," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(14), pages 1-21, July.
    10. Hao Zheng & Hongshan Jia & Jiancheng Lu, 2023. "Study on Green Gentrification Mechanisms and Residents’ Satisfaction in Chinese New Urban Areas: A Case Study of the Area Surrounding Julong Lake Park," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-28, December.
    11. Bez, Charlotte S. & Ash, Michael & Boyce, James K., 2024. "Environmental inequality in industrial brownfields: Evidence from French municipalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v8:y:2023:i:1:p:334-345. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.