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This project worked with the nonprofit organization Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision to examine how green infrastructure installations contribute to gentrification in the city. Photo credit: Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision.
Project Dates: Summer 2023–Summer 2024
Client: Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision
SEAS Faculty Advisor: Joshua Newell, Professor of Environment & Sustainability
SEAS Students: Jason Hawes, Ph.D. Candidate, Resource Policy & Behavior
About the Client
Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision (SDEV) is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the environment and strengthen the economy of southwest Detroit through partnership with residents, community organizations, government agencies, schools, businesses and industry to combat environmental issues. Focus areas for the organization include air quality, blight and land use.
Like many cities, Detroit has experienced an increase in expanded greenways and green spaces. Though generally beneficial from an ecological standpoint, social concerns about gentrification have grown in Detroit neighborhoods in recent years and SDEV has identified this as an issue of increasing importance. Through collaboration with SDEV, this Clinic project sought to create a policy brief that identified specific areas (e.g. census block scale) of concern and suggested pathways to reduce gentrification in Detroit.
About the Project
This project’s goal was to assess the degree to which gentrification caused by the expansion of green infrastructure affects and could affect southwest Detroit in the future. The team used geospatial datasets to determine existing and potential areas of gentrification pressure based on where green space expansion had occurred. The team included a hotspot map in the policy brief that showed specific areas in southwest Detroit that were either more prone or less susceptible to increased gentrification and green infrastructure change.
The team also designed strategies to combat gentrification based on the unique needs of Detroit communities and lessons learned in other large cities tackling similar issues. The outcomes of this project were achieved both through geospatial data analysis and community-level collaboration and communication.