Browsing by Author "Melendez-Ackerman, Elvia J."

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Socioeconomic Drivers of Yard Sustainable Practices in a Tropical City
(2014) Melendez-Ackerman, Elvia J.; Santiago-Bartolomei, Raul; Vila-Ruiz, Cristina P.; Santiago, Luis E.; García-Montiel, Diana; Verdejo-Ortiz, Julio C.; Manrique-Hernández, Harold; Hernández-Calo, Eduardo
"A growing body of work has emphasized the importance of residential areas to the overall green infrastructure of cities and recognizes that outcomes related to these areas are best studied using a social-ecological approach. We conducted vegetation surveys to evaluate yard practices that relate to the state of the yard vegetation, including species diversity and abundance, vegetation structure, and the percent of green area of yards versus paved areas, at the Río Piedras watershed within the San Juan metropolitan area. We used concomitant social household surveys to evaluate the association of social-economic and demographic factors at the household scale with these vegetation characteristics, as well as with landscape-level characteristics related to urban morphology and elevation. Our results for this tropical site were consistent with studies elsewhere in that a greater number of social factors at the household scale were more important in explaining the traits related to how green the yards were. On the other hand, we failed to detect the so-called luxury effect on urban vegetation encountered at many sites. Instead, we found consistent vegetation associations with the age of the residents, housing ownership, and, most importantly, with yard size. We have discussed the potential reasons for these discrepancies and the potential consequences of the human–natural links at the household scale to the future dynamics of this portion of the green infrastructure within this urban watershed."
Uneven Access and Underuse of Ecological Amenities in Urban Parks of the Río Piedras Watershed
(2014) Santiago, Luis E.; Verdejo Ortiz, Julio C.; Santiago-Bartolomei, Raul; Melendez-Ackerman, Elvia J.; Garcia-Montiel, Diana C.
"The association between consumption of ecological amenities in a park setting and improved physical and mental health substantiates the need for improved accessibility to green areas in lower-income neighborhoods. We measured green area accessibility, considering income variation, and park use in a densely populated tropical urban watershed. Park use was explored with 442 in-person interviews, and U.S. Census and Puerto Rico Commonwealth data were used to measure accessibility. Nearly 20% of residents earning ? $15,000 lived within park service areas with the highest crime incidence in the region, whereas 90% of those earning > $75,000 lived within park service areas with lower crime rates. Innovative nonexclusionary activities such as growing vegetable gardens are needed to attract lower-income residents and increase their sense of safety in urban parks."