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City-size bias in knowledge on the effects of urban nature on people and biodiversity
Citation
Kendal, D and Egerer, M and Byrne, JA and Jones, PJ and Marsh, P and Threlfal, CG and Allegretto, G and Kaplan, H and Nguyen, HKD and Pearson, S and Wright, A and Flies, EJ, City-size bias in knowledge on the effects of urban nature on people and biodiversity, Environmental Research Letters, 15 Article 124035. ISSN 1748-9326 (2020) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
DOI: doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abc5e4
Abstract
The evidence base for the benefits of urban nature for people and biodiversity is strong. However, cities are diverse and the social and environmental contexts of cities are likely to influence the observed effects of urban nature, and the application of evidence to differing contexts. To explore biases in the evidence base for the effects of urban nature, we text-matched city names in the abstracts and affiliations of 14 786 journal articles, from separate searches for articles on urban biodiversity, the health and wellbeing impacts of urban nature, and on urban ecosystem services. City names were found in 51% of article abstracts and 92% of affiliations. Most large cities were studied many times over, while only a small proportion of small cities were studied once or twice. Almost half the cities studied also had an author with an affiliation from that city. Most studies were from large developed cities, with relatively few studies from Africa and South America in particular. These biases mean the evidence base for the effects of urban nature on people and on biodiversity does not adequately represent the lived experience of the 41% of the world’s urban population who live in small cities, nor the residents of the many rapidly urbanising areas of the developing world. Care should be taken when extrapolating research findings from large global cities to smaller cities and cities in the developing world. Future research should encourage research design focussed on answering research questions rather than city selection by convenience, disentangle the role of city size from measures of urban intensity (such as population density or impervious surface cover), avoid gross urban-rural dualisms, and better contextualise existing research across social and environmental contexts.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | urban nature, health and wellbeing, biodiversity, ecosystem services, urban ecology, small cities, city size |
| Research Division: | Human Society |
| Research Group: | Human geography |
| Research Field: | Rural and regional geography |
| Objective Division: | Health |
| Objective Group: | Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health) |
| Objective Field: | Rural and remote area health |
| UTAS Author: | Kendal, D (Dr Dave Kendal) |
| UTAS Author: | Byrne, JA (Professor Jason Byrne) |
| UTAS Author: | Jones, PJ (Dr Penelope Jones) |
| UTAS Author: | Marsh, P (Dr Pauline Marsh) |
| UTAS Author: | Allegretto, G (Miss Gabriella Allegretto) |
| UTAS Author: | Kaplan, H (Ms Haylee Kaplan) |
| UTAS Author: | Nguyen, HKD (Ms Hanh Nguyen) |
| UTAS Author: | Pearson, S (Dr Sue Pearson) |
| UTAS Author: | Wright, A (Miss Abigail Wright) |
| UTAS Author: | Flies, EJ (Dr Emily Flies) |
| ID Code: | 141989 |
| Year Published: | 2020 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 22 |
| Deposited By: | UTAS Centre for Rural Health |
| Deposited On: | 2020-12-07 |
| Last Modified: | 2021-03-19 |
| Downloads: | 24 View Download Statistics |
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