Urban Green Space Atlas

There is growing evidence that urban green spaces act as reducers of inequality. Health benefits associated with access have a greater effect among socioeconomically vulnerable populations.

In Argentina, improving access and evaluating the effects of public green spaces is challenging, particularly on a federal scale, due to a lack of official and comprehensive information regarding the quality, location, and extent of urban green areas.

The Environmental Conservation Fund aims to incentivize research and management projects that seek environmental conservation and sustainable development in the country. In 2019, I received the award in the Urban Environments category for my project Urban Green Space Atlas for Argentine Cities

I propposed to address the lack of access to green spaces in urban environments by developing three publicly accessible resources:

• An Urban Green Space Atlas for Argentine Cities generated from a georeferenced database containing the position, extent, name, and other attributes of each of the public green spaces present in the 155 localities that make up the country’s major urban agglomerations.

• Nation-wide green space accessibility indices, georeferenced on a high-resolution spatial map (at the census tract level) covering the 155 localities of the country’s main urban centers. These indices are developed following the methodology developed by the European Union for its sustainability indicators (European Common Indicators) and the guidelines defined by the 10-minute walk initiative, which promotes proximity to green spaces for the entire urban population.

• A study on the potential effects of access to green spaces by estimating the relationship between accessibility, socioeconomic level, and various dimensions of public health in Argentina.

The project was completed in 2020 as part of the research projects coordinated by the Bunge and Born Foundation, and thanks to the institution’s support, it has continued to be updated since then.

Selected media Coverage: (in Spanish)

• “The parameters to define how much green space a city needs”

• “Green deficit in the Buenos Aires Metro Area: some households have more than an hour’s walk to the nearest park”

• “350,000 balconies and not a single flower”

• “30% of Buenos Aires residents live far from a park”

• “Banco Galicia supports urban research project”

• “Banco Galicia promotes sustainable projects”

• “Banco Galicia celebrated 10 editions of the Environmental Conservation Fund”