SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2022

Green space not only serves the purpose of urban biodiversity protection but also brings many benefits to urban residents’ physical and mental health. The literature has shown positive impacts of the green space in and around the hospital on patients and medical staff. However, few studies have examined the existence of an uneven distribution of green space between public and private hospitals and between hospitals and clinics. This paper investigates this potential environmental inequity among the hospitals in Shanghai. Using Landsat 8 satellite images, this study measured and compared the normalized difference vegetation index of 562 hospitals and clinics in the city. The results showed no significant green space inequity between the public and private hospitals. However, green space was unevenly distributed between the hospitals (lower) and clinics (higher), as well as between the hospitals in high-income (lower) and low-income districts (higher), potentially due to the high land prices in the business districts. These findings have implications for urban planners in reducing the uneven distribution of urban green space among healthcare infrastructures in Shanghai.