Equity in the Urban Built Environment

This book explores inequities in the urban built environment across a diverse range of places and considers practical solutions and strategies aimed at building more just, inclusive, and sustainable cities.

Achieving more equitable and prosperous urban places requires a critical examination of the design and layout of our cities. The 16 chapters of this book illuminate the ways in which the built environment, including buildings, roads, public spaces, and other infrastructure, shapes our health and prosperity through a complex set of physical and social interactions. It brings together experts from a variety of fields to identify, and suggest workable solutions for, inequities in the spatial distribution of amenities and disamenities and the processes and policies that give rise to these unjust patterns. Blending scholarly knowledge and practical experience, many of these strategies and solutions are presented through the lens of real-world case studies. One key take-away is that the planning of our cities should be a communal effort that properly reflects the needs of all residents. Equity in the built environment can only be realized when people of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, and abilities feel welcome to both shape and enjoy the shared public realm.

This book is intended for a wide audience that primarily includes scholars, students, graduate, upper level graduates and professionals in the fields of urban geography, urban planning, landscape architecture, and urban studies. Professionals in urban planning and policy with a desire to advance equity goals will likely appreciate the strategies, recommendations, and best practices discussed within.

Bradley Bereitschaft is Professor of Geography at the University of Nebraska Omaha. His research focuses on the role of urban design and transportation in achieving equitable, healthy, and productive urban places.