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This project delves into the demographic landscape of King County, WA, with a specific focus on non-white minorities, often referred to as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), and low-income communities and their proximity to major pollution sources. This analysis aims to shed light on any disparities in exposure to pollution and subsequent health outcomes within King County. In doing so will inform policy recommendations that promote environmental justice and can offer information used for public outreach.
The final report is linked at the bottom of this page.
Proximity buffers of 4 km were placed around TRI and Superfund sites to represent areas of close proximity to pollution sources. To ensure we are only focusing on residential areas, waterbodies and parks were disregarded from the study area, leaving only the residential areas of the King County and the 4 km proximity buffers around the pollution sources.
The areas within the 4 km proximity ranges that overlap the census blocks do not contain any demographic information. This information is vital to the analysis so an areal weighted interpolation is performed.
The model for this analysis is simple in nature. A multitude of new variables were created for the areal weighted interpolation.
Once the weighted variables are caulcated, the demographic data for areas of census blocks that are within 4 km of pollution sites are obtained.
This information provides strong, supporting evidence on any disparties that may be occurent in King County against vulnerable communties like that ones in this analysis.
This analysis project sheds light on environmental injustice, socioeconomic disparities, and racial inequities within King County. Through implementing proximity buffers of 4 km from pollution sites in King County and preforming areal weighted interpolation, there is evidence of a high portion of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities with elevated concentrations of low-income populations residing within a 4 km proximity of pollution sources.
This pattern emphasizes how imperative it is to incorporate an intersectional lens into policy making and urban planning. Moving forward, collaborative efforts between government agencies and community organizations should be implemented to not only reduce pollution sources but also work towards dismantling systemic inequalities contributing towards unequal distribution of environmental hazards.
A more in depth exploration of this analysis can be found in the original report.
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