Built Environment and Spatial Justice

From the Warren County landfill protests to the landmark 1987 Toxic Wastes and Race study to the now-infamous connection between zip code and life expectancy, environmental justice has always been spatial--where hazards and communities meet. This is especially so in the so-called “urban built environment” where planning and zoning dictate where health-promoting salutogens (e.g., parks hospitals, farmer’s markets, and other amenities) and harmful pollutogens (e.g., fossil-fuel-firing industry, landfills, chemical manufacturing) are sited as well as who will live near them.

Our Center conducts several research projects that examine the geospatial dynamics of the built environment and toxic overburdening in communities of color throughout the United States. Partnering with communities, government agencies, and other academic entities, we have developed three environmental justice mapping and screening tools for public use and exploration of EJ issues in Maryland. Click on the images below to read more about our projects in this area

Featured

Fighting Concrete Block and Traffic Emissions in Bladensburg, MD

Residents of Bladensburg, Maryland, who are predominantly African-American and/or Latino, are faced with environmental hazards because Bladensburg is an industrial corridor with a school bus depot, a trash company, Ernest Maier concrete block plant, other industrial facilities and a high volume of industrial traffic.

The Prince George's County Block Assessment Tool

We are refining a method for collecting data on social, natural, and built features of urban environments block-by-block.

EHCORE

Dr. Wilson was a Co-PI of an Environmental Health core at a NIMHD-funded health disparities P20 Center of Excellence at the University of South Carolina led by Dr. Saundra Glover to study and address environmental justice issues and environmental health disparities in the state of South Carolina.

EJ RADAR

The Environmental Justice (EJ) Radar is a Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) website designed for South Carolina residents to know and share environmental information about the burden of physical and social environmental hazards with linkage to health disparities.

Buzzard Point: Is DC Really United?

Buzzard Point in Washington, DC, is a neighborhood facing the brunt of urban environmental injustice. Through pollution from multiple sources and a lack of environmental amenities, residents have been exploited and drowned out to make way for further development.

CAFOs in Rural Mississippi

High density industrial hog farming operations present numerous environmental health hazards (including local air and water pollution). In 2001, Dr. Wilson and a team of researchers investigated environmental justice impacts of differential siting of hog concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) near African-American communities in Mississippi.

Impact of CAFOs on Maryland's Eastern Shore and in Delaware

Dr. Wilson and CEEJH team members worked with the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP), Protecting Our Indian River, and the communities of Sussex County, Delaware to protest the establishment of poultry processing plant in Millsboro, DE.

Mosquitoes Tell a Tale of Environmental Injustice in Baltimore, MD

More than just a seasonal annoyance, mosquitoes represent a disease transmission vector and critical public health threat. This is especially true in urban communities where disinvestment in housing and infrastructure has left an ecological legacy of infestation and other social and environmental hazards.

Stormwater

This National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research project compares the effectiveness of different interventions, both technical and social, at reducing unhealthy stormwater management processes and feedbacks between the environment and people.