The ecological legacy effects of redlining on urban landscapes and bird communities in Durham, North Carolina

Residential segregation's legacy effect persists today in many US
cities that used to employ redlining policies by the Home Owner Loan
Cooperation (HOLC) in the 1930s. Understanding how historical redlining
affects modern-day environmental conditions and wildlife communities is of
great importance for urban wildlife conservation and environmental
justice. We examined how redlining affects modern-day tree canopy
cover, impervious surfaces, and urban heat island effects at the HOLC zone
level in Durham, NC, USA. We also randomly generated sampling points for
avian point counts to examine the redlining effect on the bird communities
in urban parks located in HOLC zones with three repeat visits to each
point roughly a week apart during one breeding season and one non-breeding
season.