ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
This article is part of the Research TopicClimate Change, Risk Perception, and Healthy Environment ManagementView all articles
A VSD-Based Framework for Assessing Climate Justice in Urban Outdoor Cooling Spaces: A Case Study of Fuzhou, China
Provisionally accepted
- Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou, China
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Extreme heat events exacerbate health risks for vulnerable populations, raising broad concerns for climate justice. However, most existing assessments remain at the citywide scale and rarely examine inequities across different types of outdoor cooling spaces. This study integrates the "exposure– sensitivity–adaptive capacity" (VSD) framework with the dimensions of distributive, recognition, and procedural justice to develop a climate justice assessment framework. Based on this framework, urban outdoor cooling spaces are classified into two categories: linear and areal. Using Gulou District in Fuzhou as a case study, we combined remote sensing imagery, street-view data, points of interest, and demographic statistics to build an indicator system. The entropy weight method was applied to derive indicator weights, and K-means clustering was used to identify climate injustice space types and reveal structural disparities. Results show that 37.18% of linear spaces and 44.45% of areal spaces face significant climate injustice risks. These high-risk areas are primarily concentrated in dense built-up zones, aging neighborhoods, and peripheral districts with limited public services. Cluster analysis further identified three spatial types: "distributional justice deficit," "recognitional justice deficit," and "systemic justice deficit." These categories reflect overlapping risks and uneven adaptive capacities. To address these inequities, differentiated interventions are required. Key priorities include enhancing shading along traffic corridors, improving service accessibility in aging neighborhoods, and strengthening adaptive resources in systemic deficit areas. These measures provide an evidence base for equity-oriented governance and offer practical guidance for resilient urban planning and public health strategies under extreme heat.
Keywords: Climate justice, Heat vulnerability, urban outdoor cooling spaces, evaluation andoptimization, VSD framework
Received: 14 Oct 2025; Accepted: 21 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cao, Zhou, Luo, Shang, Ｙａｎｇ and Yａｎｇ. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jinsu Ｙａｎｇ, yangjs@fjut.edu.cn
Ｄｉ Yａｎｇ, di_yang@fjut.edu.cn
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