Geographical information systems (GIS) are often used to design environmental justice (EJ) policy interventions. Leveraging GIS and other graphics, overburdened EJ communities can learn from maps that geographically l...Geographical information systems (GIS) are often used to design environmental justice (EJ) policy interventions. Leveraging GIS and other graphics, overburdened EJ communities can learn from maps that geographically link environmental burden (EB) and social disparity (SD) data. Visually representing EB and SD data concretizes the unjust distributions of environmental and broader inequitable societal policies. These maps can be used to efficaciously assess EJ disparities created by such policies through exploring socioeconomic characteristics with local communities. Given the great variation in how GIS EJ applications measure and visualize EB and SD, we present a community-based participatory design (CBPD) lens to collaboratively work across overburdened communities and support making EJ data accessible to all stakeholders. Our location proximity approach is a powerful way to assess overburdened EJ communities because it relies on user-predefined boundaries, and it doesn’t use a single fixed unit of reference to prioritize areas of intervention. Moreover, most areal unit applications use ordinal measures, such as percentiles, and multidimensional indexes, which are intelligible to understand by many residents. Leveraging a community-based participatory design methodology, we present our novel Proximity to Hazards Dashboard (PHD) that includes data on asphalt plants and industrial corridors, hazards often missing from state-level dashboards but very relevant for city policymaking, as well as more traditionally used environmental hazard sources. The use of the tool by policymakers and community members suggests that EJ categorization should focus less on procedural benchmarks and more on systemic change for policy impacts in ways that sustain the participatory nature of our approach.展开更多
The intensity of extreme weather events has been increasing,posing a unique threat to society and highlighting the importance of our electrical power system,a key component in our infrastructure.In severe weather even...The intensity of extreme weather events has been increasing,posing a unique threat to society and highlighting the importance of our electrical power system,a key component in our infrastructure.In severe weather events,quickly identifying power outage impact zones and affected communities is crucial for informed disaster response.However,a lack of household-level power outage data impedes timely and precise assessments.To address these challenges,we introduced an analytical workflow using NASA’s Black Marble daily nighttime light(NTL)images to detect power outages from the 2021 Winter Storm Uri.This workflow includes adjustments to mitigate viewing angle and snow reflection effects.Power outage is detected by comparing storm-time and baseline(normal condition)NTL images using an empirical adjusted equation.The outcomes of the workflow are 500-meter resolution power outage maps,which have the optimal correlation with real outage tracking data when NTL intensity is reduced by 26%.With the resultant power outage maps,we analyzed the relations between power outages and disadvantaged populations in 126 Texas counties and 4182 census tracts to evaluate environmental justice in the storm.The results show that Latino/Hispanic communities tend to suffer more from power outages at both the county and census tract levels.展开更多
The research objective of this review is to discuss the rationale that led to the development of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and investigate this agricultural approach as a potential solution to mitigate ...The research objective of this review is to discuss the rationale that led to the development of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and investigate this agricultural approach as a potential solution to mitigate the increased pressures on food security. It describes the need for urban cultivation systems using controlled environments and how they can be harnessed to address pressures facing food security. The factors that have contributed to the growth of CEAs, education, environmental justice, and the advantages and disadvantages of growing crops in CEAs in urban areas will be discussed. The article reviews global urban cultivation systems using controlled environments, by identifying the technologies needed to establish them. The practice of CEA is being increasingly adopted worldwide and we describe urban agriculture and compare it with traditional growing systems. Indoor farming systems that integrate into existing urban infrastructure such as vertical farming and plant factories using CEAs are discussed. Indoor farming gives urban areas enhanced access to food sources, but the cost is high, however decreasing due to recent technological advances. The current review extends the literature by incorporating recent research on the topic of agriculture in urban areas and food security. This review seeks to provide additional information regarding the viability of CEA in urban areas.展开更多
The US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is comprised of 143 islands, atolls, cays, and islets. Of the 143 localities, only 3 islands are inhabited: The mainland (often referenced as Puerto Rico), Culebra, and Vieques. To p...The US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is comprised of 143 islands, atolls, cays, and islets. Of the 143 localities, only 3 islands are inhabited: The mainland (often referenced as Puerto Rico), Culebra, and Vieques. To properly analyze the water supply quality, the mainland will be the focal point for examining environmental and social injustices. Puerto Rico is a racially diverse but ethnically homogenous territory, with most of the commonwealth living below the poverty level. Access to clean water sources is always tenuous in Puerto Rico. Over 70 percent of the island is served by water, violating US health standards. However, the recent hurricanes made the situation even more detrimental. According to data reported between January 2015 and March 2018 by the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), 97 percent of the population of Puerto Rico utilizes a common drinking water system with one or more recent violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act for its testing requirements for lead and copper levels. The amounts found were far higher than any US state, meaning that virtually everyone on the island gets water from systems that violated testing or reporting requirements. In this study, we have collected and analyzed the levels of trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), copper, lead, and total organic compounds (TOCs) in drinking water providing systems in Puerto Rico and compared them with the recommended levels of contaminants provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines. Many of these reported contaminants can have serious and detrimental health effects after prolonged exposure to higher concentrations of the contaminants found in the drinking water sources of Puerto Rico.展开更多
Radioactive contaminants, such as radium, radon, and uranium isotopes are naturally present in drinking water, and gas and oil extraction like hydraulic fracturing can exasperate radionuclide leakage into groundwater....Radioactive contaminants, such as radium, radon, and uranium isotopes are naturally present in drinking water, and gas and oil extraction like hydraulic fracturing can exasperate radionuclide leakage into groundwater. The concentration of radionuclide in drinking water is dependent upon the water source and the underlying lithology within the aquifers. In United States, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates the level of radioactivity in drinking water via the gross alpha test, which is conducted to measure the emitted alpha particles as a result of the radioactive elements’ natural decay. Radionuclides, such as radium and uranium, are known to cause bone cancer and other forms of cancer. Communities with crippling water purification infrastructure may be at a higher risk of being exposed to radionuclides, and this is a significant environmental justice concern. The radionuclide concentrations for the metropolitan or most populated city in each state in the United States and its territories (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and Guam) were analyzed and correlated to the annual household income, to determine any disparities that maybe present. Lower income communities had elevated levels of radionuclides when compared to higher income communities which had lower frequency in elevated radionuclide contaminants.展开更多
Trihalomethanes, such as chloroform, bromoform, dibromo(chloro)methane, and bromo(dichloro)methane, are present in the major watersheds across the United States. These chemicals play an important role in the developme...Trihalomethanes, such as chloroform, bromoform, dibromo(chloro)methane, and bromo(dichloro)methane, are present in the major watersheds across the United States. These chemicals play an important role in the development of cancer, have adverse reproductive outcomes, and were found to be present above the threshold established by the Environmental Protection Agency. To understand the impact of socioeconomic background on the quality of water and possible disparities, we have analyzed the levels of total trihalomethanes in the metropolitan areas in the major watersheds across the United States, in 2018, as they correlated to average household incomes. Our study found that Arkansas, Nevada, and Rhode Island demonstrated higher than federally mandated levels of total trihalomethanes in their watersheds. The median annual household and per capita incomes of the three states (Arkansas, Nevada, and Rhode Island) were lower than the national average. In addition, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin, which had higher median income levels, demonstrated the lowest total trihalomethane levels across the United States.展开更多
Four participatory video research projects were undertaken over eight years with two Indigenous communities displaced by a flood. The films focus on how floodwaters were diverted away from non-Indigenous regions to In...Four participatory video research projects were undertaken over eight years with two Indigenous communities displaced by a flood. The films focus on how floodwaters were diverted away from non-Indigenous regions to Indigenous communities at Lake St. Martin by Canada’s colonial government. This displacement repeats the colonial pattern of forcibly relocating Indigenous people away from their land, resources, and good life. This participatory video research of flood stories underwent a content, process, and outcome analysis. The environmental, social, cultural, health and economic impacts are documented in the films, including poverty, environmental injustice, gang predation, separation of families, food insecurity, illness, culture loss, addictions, and racism. The films captured the lived experience of Elders, youth and, families during their eight years of displacement to temporary, unsuitable accommodations and upon relocation. In terms of process, community members engaged in filming, scriptwriting, and narrating to tell their stories. The process was transformative, decolonizing, and built community research capacity. The participatory video research was helpful for lawyers advocating for compensation. The popularity of the videos online exceeded that of academic papers and helped fuel a movement to wake people to the ongoing colonial injustices faced by Indigenous people across Canada. This paper not only analyzes the films but traces the roots of Indigenous displacement by man-made flooding to the Indian Act and colonization, calling for abolishing the Indian Act and decolonization.展开更多
Water is one of the most essential resources required to sustain life. However, it could be detrimental to the health of those without access to water that is properly treated. Although the Safe Drinking Water Act of ...Water is one of the most essential resources required to sustain life. However, it could be detrimental to the health of those without access to water that is properly treated. Although the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 set regulations to protect citizens from naturally occurring and man-made contaminants, some people are still without clean and safe water, which is speculated to be because of their race. This research examines the disproportionality of available clean water provided by government sources in Michigan and its correlation with race and household income. In the study, it has been found that one of the leading causes of water contamination is industrial activity, with the automobile industry being responsible for approximately 300 million tons of lead contamination in water, and that the manufacturing company’s locations mostly centered in minority and low-income areas. Lower income cities, such as Hamtramck and Benton Harbor, have an average of 14.8 drinking water standard violations with the highest being 99 total violations, while higher income cities, like Novi and Bloomfield hills, have an average of 4 violations. Cities, like Flint and Detroit, which have a higher minority population, are 10 times more likely to have a water standard violation, and the minority population is proportionally related to the possibility of industrial manufacturing being located in those areas. These communities also face a higher risk of birth defects, developmental issues in children, and organ failure in adults, due to continuous exposure to water contaminants. Race as a direct causation could not be proven, but there are links to direct correlation through historical redlining and housing trends.展开更多
With the worsening of our environmental problems, eco-criticism has become an important topic in academic circles.As an important source of information regarding the history of Chinese painting, the Xin'an School ...With the worsening of our environmental problems, eco-criticism has become an important topic in academic circles.As an important source of information regarding the history of Chinese painting, the Xin'an School of Painting has created rich ecological ideas including love for nature, yearnings for rural life, and calls for environmental justice.Influenced by Taoism, many painters followed the slogan "effortless action." They indulged in the beauty of nature and minimized the troubles of real life.Analyzing the ideas reflected in these works can help us understand the creative connotations of the artists and provide helpful suggestions for solving real problems.展开更多
文摘Geographical information systems (GIS) are often used to design environmental justice (EJ) policy interventions. Leveraging GIS and other graphics, overburdened EJ communities can learn from maps that geographically link environmental burden (EB) and social disparity (SD) data. Visually representing EB and SD data concretizes the unjust distributions of environmental and broader inequitable societal policies. These maps can be used to efficaciously assess EJ disparities created by such policies through exploring socioeconomic characteristics with local communities. Given the great variation in how GIS EJ applications measure and visualize EB and SD, we present a community-based participatory design (CBPD) lens to collaboratively work across overburdened communities and support making EJ data accessible to all stakeholders. Our location proximity approach is a powerful way to assess overburdened EJ communities because it relies on user-predefined boundaries, and it doesn’t use a single fixed unit of reference to prioritize areas of intervention. Moreover, most areal unit applications use ordinal measures, such as percentiles, and multidimensional indexes, which are intelligible to understand by many residents. Leveraging a community-based participatory design methodology, we present our novel Proximity to Hazards Dashboard (PHD) that includes data on asphalt plants and industrial corridors, hazards often missing from state-level dashboards but very relevant for city policymaking, as well as more traditionally used environmental hazard sources. The use of the tool by policymakers and community members suggests that EJ categorization should focus less on procedural benchmarks and more on systemic change for policy impacts in ways that sustain the participatory nature of our approach.
基金supported by a research grant ftom the National Science Foundation under the Meth-odology,Measurement&Statistics(MMS)Program(Award No.2102019).
文摘The intensity of extreme weather events has been increasing,posing a unique threat to society and highlighting the importance of our electrical power system,a key component in our infrastructure.In severe weather events,quickly identifying power outage impact zones and affected communities is crucial for informed disaster response.However,a lack of household-level power outage data impedes timely and precise assessments.To address these challenges,we introduced an analytical workflow using NASA’s Black Marble daily nighttime light(NTL)images to detect power outages from the 2021 Winter Storm Uri.This workflow includes adjustments to mitigate viewing angle and snow reflection effects.Power outage is detected by comparing storm-time and baseline(normal condition)NTL images using an empirical adjusted equation.The outcomes of the workflow are 500-meter resolution power outage maps,which have the optimal correlation with real outage tracking data when NTL intensity is reduced by 26%.With the resultant power outage maps,we analyzed the relations between power outages and disadvantaged populations in 126 Texas counties and 4182 census tracts to evaluate environmental justice in the storm.The results show that Latino/Hispanic communities tend to suffer more from power outages at both the county and census tract levels.
文摘The research objective of this review is to discuss the rationale that led to the development of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and investigate this agricultural approach as a potential solution to mitigate the increased pressures on food security. It describes the need for urban cultivation systems using controlled environments and how they can be harnessed to address pressures facing food security. The factors that have contributed to the growth of CEAs, education, environmental justice, and the advantages and disadvantages of growing crops in CEAs in urban areas will be discussed. The article reviews global urban cultivation systems using controlled environments, by identifying the technologies needed to establish them. The practice of CEA is being increasingly adopted worldwide and we describe urban agriculture and compare it with traditional growing systems. Indoor farming systems that integrate into existing urban infrastructure such as vertical farming and plant factories using CEAs are discussed. Indoor farming gives urban areas enhanced access to food sources, but the cost is high, however decreasing due to recent technological advances. The current review extends the literature by incorporating recent research on the topic of agriculture in urban areas and food security. This review seeks to provide additional information regarding the viability of CEA in urban areas.
文摘The US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is comprised of 143 islands, atolls, cays, and islets. Of the 143 localities, only 3 islands are inhabited: The mainland (often referenced as Puerto Rico), Culebra, and Vieques. To properly analyze the water supply quality, the mainland will be the focal point for examining environmental and social injustices. Puerto Rico is a racially diverse but ethnically homogenous territory, with most of the commonwealth living below the poverty level. Access to clean water sources is always tenuous in Puerto Rico. Over 70 percent of the island is served by water, violating US health standards. However, the recent hurricanes made the situation even more detrimental. According to data reported between January 2015 and March 2018 by the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), 97 percent of the population of Puerto Rico utilizes a common drinking water system with one or more recent violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act for its testing requirements for lead and copper levels. The amounts found were far higher than any US state, meaning that virtually everyone on the island gets water from systems that violated testing or reporting requirements. In this study, we have collected and analyzed the levels of trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), copper, lead, and total organic compounds (TOCs) in drinking water providing systems in Puerto Rico and compared them with the recommended levels of contaminants provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines. Many of these reported contaminants can have serious and detrimental health effects after prolonged exposure to higher concentrations of the contaminants found in the drinking water sources of Puerto Rico.
文摘Radioactive contaminants, such as radium, radon, and uranium isotopes are naturally present in drinking water, and gas and oil extraction like hydraulic fracturing can exasperate radionuclide leakage into groundwater. The concentration of radionuclide in drinking water is dependent upon the water source and the underlying lithology within the aquifers. In United States, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates the level of radioactivity in drinking water via the gross alpha test, which is conducted to measure the emitted alpha particles as a result of the radioactive elements’ natural decay. Radionuclides, such as radium and uranium, are known to cause bone cancer and other forms of cancer. Communities with crippling water purification infrastructure may be at a higher risk of being exposed to radionuclides, and this is a significant environmental justice concern. The radionuclide concentrations for the metropolitan or most populated city in each state in the United States and its territories (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and Guam) were analyzed and correlated to the annual household income, to determine any disparities that maybe present. Lower income communities had elevated levels of radionuclides when compared to higher income communities which had lower frequency in elevated radionuclide contaminants.
文摘Trihalomethanes, such as chloroform, bromoform, dibromo(chloro)methane, and bromo(dichloro)methane, are present in the major watersheds across the United States. These chemicals play an important role in the development of cancer, have adverse reproductive outcomes, and were found to be present above the threshold established by the Environmental Protection Agency. To understand the impact of socioeconomic background on the quality of water and possible disparities, we have analyzed the levels of total trihalomethanes in the metropolitan areas in the major watersheds across the United States, in 2018, as they correlated to average household incomes. Our study found that Arkansas, Nevada, and Rhode Island demonstrated higher than federally mandated levels of total trihalomethanes in their watersheds. The median annual household and per capita incomes of the three states (Arkansas, Nevada, and Rhode Island) were lower than the national average. In addition, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin, which had higher median income levels, demonstrated the lowest total trihalomethane levels across the United States.
文摘Four participatory video research projects were undertaken over eight years with two Indigenous communities displaced by a flood. The films focus on how floodwaters were diverted away from non-Indigenous regions to Indigenous communities at Lake St. Martin by Canada’s colonial government. This displacement repeats the colonial pattern of forcibly relocating Indigenous people away from their land, resources, and good life. This participatory video research of flood stories underwent a content, process, and outcome analysis. The environmental, social, cultural, health and economic impacts are documented in the films, including poverty, environmental injustice, gang predation, separation of families, food insecurity, illness, culture loss, addictions, and racism. The films captured the lived experience of Elders, youth and, families during their eight years of displacement to temporary, unsuitable accommodations and upon relocation. In terms of process, community members engaged in filming, scriptwriting, and narrating to tell their stories. The process was transformative, decolonizing, and built community research capacity. The participatory video research was helpful for lawyers advocating for compensation. The popularity of the videos online exceeded that of academic papers and helped fuel a movement to wake people to the ongoing colonial injustices faced by Indigenous people across Canada. This paper not only analyzes the films but traces the roots of Indigenous displacement by man-made flooding to the Indian Act and colonization, calling for abolishing the Indian Act and decolonization.
文摘Water is one of the most essential resources required to sustain life. However, it could be detrimental to the health of those without access to water that is properly treated. Although the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 set regulations to protect citizens from naturally occurring and man-made contaminants, some people are still without clean and safe water, which is speculated to be because of their race. This research examines the disproportionality of available clean water provided by government sources in Michigan and its correlation with race and household income. In the study, it has been found that one of the leading causes of water contamination is industrial activity, with the automobile industry being responsible for approximately 300 million tons of lead contamination in water, and that the manufacturing company’s locations mostly centered in minority and low-income areas. Lower income cities, such as Hamtramck and Benton Harbor, have an average of 14.8 drinking water standard violations with the highest being 99 total violations, while higher income cities, like Novi and Bloomfield hills, have an average of 4 violations. Cities, like Flint and Detroit, which have a higher minority population, are 10 times more likely to have a water standard violation, and the minority population is proportionally related to the possibility of industrial manufacturing being located in those areas. These communities also face a higher risk of birth defects, developmental issues in children, and organ failure in adults, due to continuous exposure to water contaminants. Race as a direct causation could not be proven, but there are links to direct correlation through historical redlining and housing trends.
基金a phased research result of“Anhui Province Excellent Young Talents Support Program”(gxyq2019180)。
文摘With the worsening of our environmental problems, eco-criticism has become an important topic in academic circles.As an important source of information regarding the history of Chinese painting, the Xin'an School of Painting has created rich ecological ideas including love for nature, yearnings for rural life, and calls for environmental justice.Influenced by Taoism, many painters followed the slogan "effortless action." They indulged in the beauty of nature and minimized the troubles of real life.Analyzing the ideas reflected in these works can help us understand the creative connotations of the artists and provide helpful suggestions for solving real problems.
