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