Habitat International has published our new study on urban amenity equity for people with disabilities in London, which employs multiscale GWR to uncover pronounced disparities—especially in access to high‑quality green spaces and commercial areas—and calls for data‑driven, disability‑inclusive urban planning.
Nature AI Lab
2025-05-05
We are glad to share our new paper:
Yang, Jiaxi., Chen, Mingze*. Assessing the impact of urban amenities on people with disabilities in London: A multiscale geographically weighted regression analysis. Health and Place 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103426.[download]
📢 Background :
Cities often overlook disabled residents’ access to everyday amenities. Spatial exclusion “impacts everything that many take for granted” – from local parks and public transport to jobs and housing. In practice, people with disabilities frequently receive less planning attention. Experts now argue that sustainable city design “must prioritize and include people with disabilities” in the planning process. Green space, essential services and accessible transit are all key to inclusive urban life, yet past research usually treats disability as a generic category and misses local inequities.
🔍 Research Objectives and Question :
Guided by the environmental justice hypothesis and prior studies, this research hypothesizes that individuals with disabilities face limited access to urban amenities, including green spaces, land use, basic services, and transportation infrastructure. This disparity is shaped by geographical, economic, and social factors, which collectively create barriers to equitable access. To explore this, the study has three primary objectives:
(1) What spatial patterns exist in the distribution of urban amenities, and how do they relate to disability populations?
(2) Which urban amenities are closely related to individuals with disabilities in London, and what can explain these associations?
(3) How do the impacts of urban amenities on populations with disabilities differ between global and local scales?
🔍 Key Highlights:
Planning implications: The study provides a data-driven framework for inclusive planning. It echoes calls to ensure disabled people’s rights to local spaces and services are “actualised,” recommending targeted neighborhood interventions (new parks, ramps, accessible routes, etc.) to boost equity.
Green space deficits: Inner-city neighborhoods with higher disability density were found to have much less public green space and lower vegetation quality than other areas.
Retail and commercial clustering: Shops and leisure venues are concentrated in zones where fewer disabled residents live, suggesting central commercial areas are less accessible.
Basic services vs. transport: Supermarkets, clinics and other essentials are fairly evenly distributed citywide, but transit stops often lack physical accessibility (ramps, low curbs, etc.), limiting real mobility.
