A multi-level investigation of environmental justice on cultural ecosystem services at a national scale based on social media data: A case of accessibility to Five-A ecological attractions in China

Abstract This study represents an initial attempt to examine environmental justice on inequalities in access to ecological attractions that provide top cultural ecosystem services at a national scale. With big data from social media, billions of anonymized samples were analysed via an experimental procedure to capture the behavioral characteristics of visitors who accessed China’s Five-A ecological attractions. The results indicate that (1) social equity can be achieved in the context of ecosystem services in China, especially at the individual level; and (2) although China’s vulnerable groups do not appear to have been treated unfairly, market mechanisms may exacerbate the inequitable development of ecosystem services among different regions. To address the problem of inequality and uneven development on ecosystem services that may result from the capital, the government should take measures to reduce the accessibility threshold and consider providing appropriate green infrastructure for different social groups apart from Five-A ecological attractions.