Environmental justice is at the heart of what a City of Nature would look like. Generally environmental justice is defined as: “The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, colour, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.“
Together with opportunities to be involved at a strategic level Birmingham City Council (BCC) also want to make sure every citizen has access to green spaces that are maintained to a fair standard wherever they live and that there is fair access to volunteering, training and green jobs and that our workforce reflects our diverse communities.
Measuring Environmental Justice in Birmingham
BCC looked at how other cities around the UK and wider world have responded to the issue of unequal access to green space; and became the first UK local authority to develop a measurement tool for Environmental Justice; based on the existing Indices of Multiple Deprivation, access to green space and considering possible negative environmental impacts that will become worse through effects of climate change.
The Environmental Justice score measures:
• Access to a green space (2 hectares or larger) within 1,000m
• Flood Risk
• Urban Heat Island
• Health Inequalities (through Excess Years of Life Lost) effect
• Indices of Multiple Deprivation
The Map
During the Future Parks Accelerator project BCC worked with partners developed a new map of Birmingham that shows where in the city all these compound issues are being most acutely felt. This then provides a very useful baseline from which to develop an evidence-based approach to levelling-up.
You can download a pdf of the environmental justice map by clicking the download button below:
On the map document there is a list of all of Birmingham’s 69 wards showing their environmental justice (EJ) combined score. The map shows the city with wards colour coded relative to their EJ score. The higher the EJ score the less “just” the ward is. The most just wards with a score under 0.22 are dark green and the least just wards with a score above .38 are red.
In between are light green 0.24 – 0.28 yellow 0.29 – 0.33 and orange 0.34 – 0.38 wards
Whole City
We want to make the changes that will help to turn the whole city’s environmental justice map green. The plan to do this is the City of Nature 25 Year Plan. You can read more here: https://naturallybirmingham.org/birmingham-city-of-nature-delivery-framework/
Priority Areas
We have prioritised action in the red wards where there is least environmental justice for citizens living there. Access to green space is lowest, the areas are urban heat islands, at risk of flooding, have high levels of deprivation and people have worse health and wellbeing. We are starting to achieve environmental justice for the city by applying a process called the Future Park Standard. Knowing what we consider to be a fair standard for every green space makes sure that at the micro each site is in a good-enough condition to provide simple benefits and provide opportunities for capacity building to increase the benefits it provides to the community and wildlife (biodiversity) in the ward.
Birmingham Future Parks Standard
By assessing each park against a standard under 5 themes as city wide we ask if the park is:
- Fair – is it welcoming, accessible, clean and safe?
- Green – are there different trees and plants, are there habitats for wildlife, is it managed sustainably?
- Healthy – are there walking routes, quiet areas, activities, is the park used for social
prescriptions; and play value? - Involved – can you find out what’s happening in your park, can you influence what is happening?
- Valued – do we know the worth of what the park provides, is that shared, are there ways to raise extra funds?
If a park doesn’t meet the Birmingham Future Parks Standard when it is assessed an action plan is created to show what can be done to raise the park to this standard.
Naturally Birmingham Future Parks Project 