Understanding climate gentrification and shifting landscapes of protection and vulnerability in green resilient Philadelphia

As resilience strategies become a prominent orthodoxy in city planning, green infrastructure is increasingly deployed to enhance protection from climate risks and impacts. Yet, little is known about the social and racial impacts of such interventions citywide. In response, our study uses a quantitative and spatial analytical approach to assess whether interventions we call “green resilient infrastructure” (GRI) protect social groups traditionally most at risk and/or least able to adapt to climate impacts – or conversely, if the aggregate effect is maladaptive and inequitable outcomes (i.e. shifting vulnerability or climate gentrification). First, we performed a pre-post test of GRI siting distribution relative to socio-ecological vulnerability in Philadelphia neighborhoods. Second, we examined gentrification trends in relation to GRI siting and whether these interventions contribute to increasing the socio-ecological vulnerability of historically marginalized populations. Our findings point to a strong negative association between GRI siting and increased minority population, and a strong positive association between GRI siting, gentrification, and reduced minority population. The paper contributes to a better understanding of siting inequities and urban climate injustice dynamics and offers a new conceptual frame for critical urban adaptation research and practice of the pathways that shape uneven and unjust outcomes. •Urban climate resilience strategies often overlook historic and ongoing patterns of uneven and inequitable development.•“Green resilient infrastructure” may lead to worsened social and environmental vulnerabilities for marginalized groups•We conduct a novel quantitative and spatial pre-post and longitudinal analysis to test this hypothesis.•Findings point to a new pathway toward climate gentrification and new social-environmental riskscapes.•We recommend approaches to a more just green climate protection.