Low Income Residents Are Disproportionately Exposed to Diesel Pollution

Abstract:
<p>As consumers’ needs for goods continue to grow, so does the demand for warehouses and distribution centers.&nbsp; California historically included open spaces that provided economic, environmental, and human health benefits such as preventing flood damage, providing native species habitat, and offering wellness opportunities.&nbsp; However, open spaces in the Inland Empire of southern California also attract industries that develop these sites into distribution centers.&nbsp; Distribution centers can increase local and regional jobs to the area, but they also bring rise in impacts from multimodal transportation networks including increases in diesel trucks and diesel emissions.&nbsp; This can negatively affect air quality in neighborhoods near warehouses and distribution centers. In this poster, I present the results of an initial analysis of transportation networks, distribution center locations, population density, income levels, and racial and ethnic census data from the U.S. Census Bureau in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and supplemental indexes such as traffic proximity from the EPA’ Environmental Justice screening and mapping tool (EJScreen) to better understand the geography and impact of distribution centers in southern California. &nbsp;My findings reveal that these distribution centers are in low-income neighborhoods where they may have a large influence on the air quality, traffic, and open space availability.&nbsp; This research will be of interest to geographers interested in the spatial relationship between distribution centers, transportation networks, open space, and human health.</p>

Keywords: Diesel pollution, Land use, environmental health

Authors: