Measuring and Analyzing Accessibility to Green-Blue Areas and Public Transportation : A study of Stockholm’s progress in achieving the United Nations Agenda 2030’s SDG 11

Sammanfattning: The rapid urbanization of populations from rural areas to cities calls for more sustainable focused urban planning to combat the negative effects of urban sprawl. The United Nations’ Agenda 2030 includes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets that aim to unite both developed and developing countries in transforming humanity and the planet for a more sustainable future. One of these goals is SDG 11, making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. A large part in achieving the targets of SDG 11 is measuring the current access urban residents have to things such as public green-blue spaces as well as public transportation. This thesis will aim to study Stockholm’s achievement of SDG 11 sub-targets 11.2 and 11.7 of Agenda 2030. In order to meet this aim, the following objectives will be pursued. The first objective is to study the degree to which Stockholm County currently has universal access to green-blue areas and public transportation by conducting a GIS-based analysis. The second objective is to improve our understanding of the socio-economic status of residents who have and do not have accessibility to green-blue areas and public transportation by statistically analyzing correlations between environmental and socio-economic indicators. The methodology included qualitative methodologies such as a literature review, interviews and collaborative focus group meetings with Södertörnsanalysen as well as quantitative methodologies such as spatial analysis and statistical analysis. The results show that while Stockholm has impressively high accessibility for its residents, it has yet to meet Agenda 2030 SDG 11targets 11.2 and 11.7 because the accessibility was not universal. The results also found that people with lower income, people who own their flats/homes and people with children have higher accessibility to green areas. It was also shown that people with higher income, people who rent their flats/homes and have no children have higher access to public transportation.This result can be expected as the bulk of people with higher incomes are living in the innercity where they have high access to urban services and rail stops, but not necessarily green areas. It is important to state that at 300 m from residencies, both access to green areas and access to public transportation is almost 100%. At 500 m from residencies, access to blueareas is close to 35 %, which is not almost complete, but still a high percentage since access to blue areas is a bit of a luxury. This thesis ultimately demonstrates the importance of understanding environmental and socio-economic indicators in urban planning especially if the goals of Agenda 2030 are to be met. This thesis also took steps towards building a methodology for quantifying accessibility and it is recognized that further studies can be conducted to further contribute to sustainable urban planning and development.