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A PARTICIPATORY GIS APPROACH IN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE STUDIES: THE CASE
OF DALLAS
PRESENTED BY: SIMA NAMINSCHOOL OF URBAN AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON
45th Annual Meeting of the Urban Affairs Association
Introduction
Introducing Environmental Justice
A Review of Environmental Justice Research in the USA
Qualitative GIS Research and Environmental Justice
Research Methodology
Case Study
Primary GIS results in West Dallas
Conclusion on Primary Results and Case Studies
Contents
Environmental justice means the “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all
people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the
development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and
policies” (EPA, 2013).
Environmental Justice
Underlying assumptions:
According to the United Nation’s Rio Declaration in 1992, every individual and local
community has the right to enjoy a healthy environment
Critiques of Environmental Justice
First critique is centered on the political disputes that characterize EJ as anti-industrial capitalism for criticizing the institutional power relations as a factor that increases the environmental inequalities (e.g. Krieg, 1998 ; Foreman, 1998).
The second critique of the EJ movement points to the limitations of the movement for being an exclusively anthropocentric discourse (e.g. Dryzek, 1997).
The third group of critiques is centered on the argument that EJ has a weak theoretical base (e.g. Krieg, 1998; Bowen & Wells, 2002).
The fourth critiques is that the American school of environmental justice is place-bound and focused on fixed locations, which is the result of the dominance of distributive justice in this field (e.g. Schlosberg, 2004; Stanley, 2009).
Perception Statistical
Techniques
Mainly grounded on proximity to environmental health hazards
GIS-Based Research
Landscape-Based Approaches
Main Themes:(a)hazard surveillance,(b)exposure
surveillance.(c) outcome
surveillance. (Maantay & McLafferty, 2011).
Consider ecological conditionsAnd landscape dynamics
Environmental Justice Research
Balance of
NatureBackground assumption in ecology for centuries
Supraorganismic Concept
Modern Derivative
s
Remained prominent in modern ecological thought until 60s and 70s
Equilibrium
Non-equilibrium
Multiple equilibria
Equilibrium Theories
Log
ical
Next
Ste
p
Hierarchical Patch
Dynamics
Lack of recognition of spatial
patchiness and the
effects of hierarchical
linkages across scales in space and
time
Concept of patch and patchiness
Patch dynamic perspective
Hierarchy theory
Paradigm Shift in Ecological Theories
Qualitative GIS Research and Environmental Justice
The methodology of my dissertation falls under the category of GIS with qualitative methods. This category refers to the application of qualitative methods along with GIS analysis, which leads to the application of mixed methods in order to integrate different sources of data (e.g. Elwood, 2006). It should be mentioned that there are some general critiques on the practices of PGIS.
1) limited time and inadequate training and financial resources (e.g. Elwood, 2006)2) Deficiencies in incorporating local knowledge (e.g. Harris & Weiner, 1998)3) PGIS methodology does not provide the conceptual or theoretical framework for such
analysis (Alagan, 2007).
Research Questions
The main research question of this study is: how the states of
environmental (in)justice can be explained through an interdisciplinary model
assessing both biophysical and anthropic systems.
What kind of discourse development exposes environmental injustices?
What are the varying aspects of environmental justice discourse?
How have local residents been portrayed and/or marginalized in the EJ discourses of different groups?
How are the ecological understandings of the concept of environmental justice different from what is
understood by local people? How can a participatory approach enrich the ecological studies in urban areas
specifically those centered on environmental injustice?
What implications might the findings of the research have for efforts to promote environmental justice in
public policy?
Research question Corresponding Task Data data collection method
How the states of environmental (in)justice
can be explained through an
interdisciplinary model assessing both
biophysical and anthropic systems
1) Identify entries for PGIS dataset 2) Collect all
data (quantitative & qualitative) in PGIS
GIS data (on environmental
factors and human factors)
and all qualitative data.
Interview- focus group-
participant observation-
participatory mapping- City’s
GIS data services-literature
What kind of discourse development
exposes environmental injustices
1) Explain changes in environmental discourses
2) Relate changes in discourse to current
socioeconomic factors & environmental policies 4)
Identify important actors in those changes
Coded interviews- census
data- official docs- Agents of
change- access to resources
Interview with residents and
informants- Literature review-
What are the varying aspects of
environmental justice discourse?
1) Identify historic and current environmental
discourses 2) Explain the influential factors in
shaping these discourses
Online survey-Coded
interviews- Focus group-
participant observation-
Web designed survey-Interview-
Focus group and participant
observation.
How can a participatory approach to
integrate expert and local knowledge
enrich EJ studies
1) Participatory mapping : environmental pollution
and vulnerabilities, natural resources
Community mapping results-
coded interviews and focus
group
Focus group- Interview with
residents and informants-
mapping
How the results may promote
environmental justice in public policy
1) Analyses the participatory process and chain of
power
PGIS results- Interview Interview : residents &
informants-PGIS-Lit
West Dallas is an infamous case of environmental injustice. Since the 1980s many grassroots movements have attempted to improve the environmental quality of this region. There are many environmental organizations that pursue remedies in this region (e.g. West Dallas Coalition for Environmental Justice). For decades, lead contamination has been a serious health concern for the residents.
Case Studies
Case Studies
1990
2000
1995
2005
2010
Case Studies
ShI D N Patch Size Patch Origins
Average SD Int Dis Rem En
1990 0.660 0.117 195 2746909 7754021 29 32 9 14
1995 0.679 0.165 258 2076152 6898294 29 29 12 14
2000 0.729 0.115 1265 423436 2685373 23 25 8 13
2005 0.676 0.168 3984 105810 482901 26 29 14 20
2010 0.668 0.234 4231 101895 534018 39 15 12 5
Dallas West Dallas
2000-2010 2000-2010
Introduced patch 0.72 2.62
Spot disturbance patch -1.01 -3.94
Remnant patch -6.09 0.39
Environmental resource patch 3.81 -2.66
Rate of change 2000-2010
Landscape metrics application to Dallas
External Internal
Map production -The area contains potential participating communities and
represent racial diversity
-the presence of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups
Map utilization -A communities that is not dominated or
highly influenced by an organization
- Agency/NGO representatives played a
limited role
-Can lend itself to generalization
-community campaign/movement has been deployed
-Likelihood that a site has released or have the potential to release
a hazardous substances into the environment
Case Studies
Case Studies
36 percent of the residents in South Dallas have NOT graduated from high school (Methodist Dallas Medical Center, 2013).
South Dallas has the largest percentage of residents 65 years of age and older.
South Dallas has the lowest economic indicators of all Dallas County communities:
o Per capita income of $13,400o Unemployment of 13.1%o 25% below FPL (Methodist Dallas Medical Center, 2013, p. 10). Dallas County, Texas, presents one of the largest food deserts
in the U.S. (USDA, 2009) and most of these food deserts can be found in south Dallas (Regan & Rice, 2012).
South Dallas, the community with low SES and high levels of uninsured residents, had the largest number of ED visits including both primary care treatable and preventable/avoidable.
(Regan & Rice, 2012)
South Dallas has the highest Cancer Mortality Rate (Texas Department of State Health Services , 2009). (e.g. disparities related to breast cancer diagnosis and mortality)
References
Alagan, R. (2007). Participatory GIS Approaches to Environmental Impact Assessment: A Case study of the Appalachian Corridor H Transportation Project. (Doctoral dissertation, West Virginia University, 2007).
Dryzek, J. (1997). The politics of the earth: environmental discourses. New York: Oxford University Press. Bowens, W., Wells, M. (2002). The politics and reality of environmental justice: a history and considerations for public administrators
and policymakers. Journal of Public Administration Review. 62 (6). 688-699 Elwood, S. (2006). Critical Issues in Participatory GIS: Deconstructions, Reconstructions, and New Research Directions. Transactions in
GIS, 10(5), 693–708. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2013). Environmental Justice. Retrieved September 20, 2013, from
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/ Harris, T., & Weiner, D. (1998). Empowerment, marginalization, and "community-integrate" GIS." Cartography and Geographic
Information Systems, 25(2), 67-76. Kreig, E. (1998). Review of The promise and peril of environmental justice. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://
www.asanet.org/images/members/docs/pdf/special/cs/CS_29_1_Review_26_Foreman.pdf Maantay, J., McLafferty, S. (2011). Geospatial Analysis of Environmental Health. New York: springer. Methodist Dallas Medical Center. (2013). Community Health Needs Assessment. Retrieved on December 10, 2014, from https://
www.methodisthealthsystem.org/workfiles/CHNA/Dallas-Community-Health-Needs-Assessment.pdf Regan, A., Rice, M. (2012). An exploration of alternative food desert definitions in south Dallas. Papers of the Applied Geography
Conferences. 35. 183 – 191. Schlosberg, D. (2004). Reconceiving Environmental Justice: Global Movements and Political Theories. Environmental Politics. 13 (3). 517
– 540. Stanley, A. (2009). Just space or spatial justice? Difference, discourse, and environmental justice. Local Environment, 14(10), 999 –1014.
Retrieved on December 10, 2014, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13549830903277417#.VJHTFSvF9z8
The paper will be posted on Simanamin.com
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