Contributions to a global understanding of socioenvironmental justice related to urban forest: trends from Brazilian cities in the southeastern Paraná State

Global studies on urban forests (UFs) have extensively covered both environmental and social aspects, including concerns about public health and green solutions provided by trees and forests in cities. However, this trend has not been widely observed in South America, particularly in cities located outside and distant from capital cities and wealthier regions. So, this study examines disparities in socioenvironmental justice of cities in the poorest region of Paraná State, Brazil, comparing to Curitiba (CWB), the capital and one of the greenest cities of Brazil, and proposes a methodology to surpass the scarcity of adequate dataset. A four-dimensional analysis covers the configuration of UF landscapes, the provision of ecosystem services, accessibility to UF, and their interrelation with socioeconomic indicators. We used high-resolution multispectral images from PlanetScope Dove and employed a machine learning algorithm to accurately map UF. We quantified landscape patterns of UFs using a variety of landscape metrics (LM), including mean patch area (AREA_MN), percentage of the landscape class (PLAND), largest patch index (LPI), mean shape index (SHAPE_MN), and the percentage of similar adjacencies (PLADJ). Additionally, we estimated ecosystem services such as total biomass (TB), carbon stock (TCS), carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq), urban heat island (UHI), and available public green areas (PGA). We created accessibility maps to PGA at distances of 300 and 800 meters. A Mann-Kendall correlation analysis was employed to explore the relationships between these variables and various socioeconomic indicators, including the percentage of people in households without adequate water supply and sewage (TAEE), the percentage of the population living in urban households without garbage collection service (TPSL), the illiteracy rate of the population aged 15 years or older (TANAL), the proportion of people with per capita household income equal to or less than half minimum wage at year of 2010 (TVULNER), the number of schools (SCHOOLS), and the number of permanent residents (MPERM). The Sen's slope test was performed to determine the magnitude of these correlations. Our four-dimensional analysis revealed significant disparities in the distribution and accessibility of ecosystem services within the cities of southeastern Paraná State when compared to CWB. Correlation analyses revealed significant discrepancies between different socioeconomic conditions and the availability of ecosystem services. Financial vulnerability is positively correlated with ecosystem services, while the lack of sanitation negatively impacts their availability. The results highlight the urgent need for equitable distribution of UF ecosystem services.