Environmental injustices on green and blue infrastructure: Urban nexus in a macrometropolitan territory

Green-blue infrastructure in urban regions guarantees the provision of resources such as water, energy, and food, which are interdependent and fundamental in ensuring human development. In this study, we analyzed the environmental injustice issue relationships of the supply and production of water, energy, and food in the Sao Paulo Macrometropolis, Brazil. Its 180 municipalities were compared and categorized into 'losers' and 'winners' based on the urban nexus approach, the proportion of green infrastructure, and human development. We applied a neural network self-organizing map to official publicly available data to obtain clusters of municipalities featuring combinations of 19 indicators. The results showed four clusters with three containing characteristics of receivers (Capital, Hinterland, and Developed Receivers) and one of providers, the latter aggregating municipalities with a strong role in providing water, food, and subsidies for energy generation. However, the providers also included the municipalities that had the greatest inequities in terms of human development and social inclusion. The importance of evaluating the co-benefits of green-blue infrastructure in urban spaces can serve as an adaptation strategy to both improve natural resource management and offer support to different processes and ecosystem functions. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of complex urban systems by considering environmental justice and nexus synergies. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study examined the environmental justice relationships of water, energy, and food supply and production in the Sao Paulo Macrometropolis, Brazil. It found that municipalities providing water, food, and energy subsidies also had the greatest inequities in terms of human development and social inclusion. The importance of evaluating the co-benefits of green-blue infrastructure in urban spaces as an adaptation strategy to improve resource management and ecosystem functions was emphasized.