Environmental Inequality in China’s Urban Expansion: A Case Study of Guangzhou, China

Environmental inequality is a prevalent issue in developing countries undergoing urban expansion. Urban expansion induces the formation and evolution of environmental inequality by creating environmental and structural conditions that lead to the spatial relocation of environmental hazards and the socio-spatial segregation of different groups in developing countries. This study investigated the spatial patterns and temporal trends of environmental inequality under urban expansion in Guangzhou, a megacity in China. It considered how environmental disparities and socio-demographic attributes interact in terms of industrial pollution exposure using additive semiparametric quantile regression, combined with spatial visualisation, on the basis of the economic and population census data from 1990 to 2020. This study revealed that urban expansion sparked the spatial displacement of environmental risks and the social-spatial differentiation, exposing the peripheral regions and disadvantaged groups to higher environmental risks. A reciprocal transformation occurred between central and peripheral regions, as well as a process of redistributing environmental risks across social space. In the context of urban expansion in developing countries, the causes of environmental inequality shifted from individual socio-economic differences to structural factors, such as industrial layout and social division of labour in cities, leading to the spatial displacement and concealment of environmental inequality. This study provides insights and guidance for policymakers to address the issue of environmental inequality in the context of urban expansion.