Environmental Justice and Private Urban Gardens: A Critical Analysis of Practices in Salford, Greater Manchester

Scaletta, Katherine

Abstract

While it is well accepted that the quality of a greenspace determines its ability to provide health and
wellbeing benefits, research and policy overlook the spaces which residents have their most direct
and frequent contact with nature – urban household gardens. In the UK, 85 per cent of households
have access to a garden; but, there is a disparity in the amount of vegetation and biodiversity found
in these spaces. This imbalance needs addressing. Missing in the literature is a detailed account of
household gardens, exposing the unequal opportunities different socio-economic groups have
within their gardens.
The novel use of Google Earth to collect household garden data overcame well-documented issues
of accessing gardens. Data were collected on size and landcover using five categories: plants, shrubs,
trees, lawn, and paved areas (resolution ≤1m) for 6881 gardens across Salford, Greater Manchester.
An economic analysis was undertaken to compare the value of gardens to public greenspace and
perform a cost-benefit analysis for residents.
Mean garden size in the City of Salford was 139 m², smaller than previously reported, with a
configuration of approximately 80 per cent paved and lawn combined and 20 per cent vegetation.
Mean feature diversity in gardens was found to vary significantly between socio-economic groups
suggesting some receive far greater health and wellbeing benefits from their higher quality gardens.
This work, along with the valuation of gardens, contributed to the Urban Pioneer – a national DEFRA
initiative – directly advocating the value of gardens to key stakeholders and the need for equal
access to quality greenspaces. The overall aim was to undertake a critical exploration and analysis of
the value of private gardens, with a key focus on the City of Salford, evaluating the size and content
of urban household gardens to determine factors which contribute to the heterogeneity of the
resource and their associated benefits. Resulting in four research objectives and three research
questions which are outlined below.

Citation

Scaletta, K. (2024). Environmental Justice and Private Urban Gardens: A Critical Analysis of Practices in Salford, Greater Manchester. (Thesis). The University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 21, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 27, 2024
• Award Date: Sep 26, 2024