Identifying Disadvantaged Communities in New York City
2020 | with Angel Yin | Tools: QGIS, InDesign
In July 2019, New York State passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), a legally binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to renewable sources of electricity. In addition to these ambitious targets, the CLCPA highlights the protection of historically disadvantaged communities, defined as those that bear the burdens of environmental pollution and socioeconomic conditions or those that have experienced discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity.
As part of the Grey-to-Green Energy Transition Spring 2020 Studio (full report), we developed a vulnerability index as a tool to identify disadvantaged communities in New York City. Building on literature reviews and case study analyses, we selected indicators based on (1) relevance to four components cited in the CLCPA policy document, (2) data representation, and (3) data source credibility and availability.
Case Study Analyses
Vulnerability Index Components and Subcomponents
The developed index comprises two main components: Population Characteristics and Pollution Burden.
The Population Characteristics component takes into account sensitive populations and socioeconomic factors while the Pollution Burden component considers indicators related to exposure to pollutants and adverse environmental conditions.
The range of values for each indicator were reclassified and scaled to score range of 1 to 10, representing the level of vulnerability at the census tract level. Lower scores mean lower vulnerability. The indicators were then used to create composite layers for each index subcomponent.
The developed index comprises two main components: Population Characteristics and Pollution Burden.
The Population Characteristics component takes into account sensitive populations and socioeconomic factors while the Pollution Burden component considers indicators related to exposure to pollutants and adverse environmental conditions.
The range of values for each indicator were reclassified and scaled to score range of 1 to 10, representing the level of vulnerability at the census tract level. Lower scores mean lower vulnerability. The indicators were then used to create composite layers for each index subcomponent.
For the purpose of the project, we specifically examined Port Morris and Sunset Park neighborhoods as they are home to some of the peaker power plants in New York City that would need to be decommissioned.
Neighborhoods with high sensitive populations are those with high asthma rates, cardiovascular disease, proportions of elderly, minorities, and low birth weight. Meanwhile, the socioeconomic factors layer represents vulnerability based on indicators such as income, rent burden, unemployment, educational attainment, and home ownership. While there are variations of vulnerability based on Population Characteristics, we observed more vulnerability in Port Morris.
In terms of Pollution Burden, both neighborhoods have high risk of exposure to pollution, as a comulative result of variables such as proximity to toxic facilities, traffic congestions, and black carbon concentrations.
Neighborhoods with high sensitive populations are those with high asthma rates, cardiovascular disease, proportions of elderly, minorities, and low birth weight. Meanwhile, the socioeconomic factors layer represents vulnerability based on indicators such as income, rent burden, unemployment, educational attainment, and home ownership. While there are variations of vulnerability based on Population Characteristics, we observed more vulnerability in Port Morris.
In terms of Pollution Burden, both neighborhoods have high risk of exposure to pollution, as a comulative result of variables such as proximity to toxic facilities, traffic congestions, and black carbon concentrations.
Vulnerability Index Subcomponent Layers
Vulnerability Index and Overall Analysis
The index equally weighted Population Characteristics component and Pollution Burden component considering the comparable importance of each component; each component was assigned a weight of one. The result yielded a score range of 50 to 185. The map below shows how Sunset Park and Port Morris neighborhoods score compared to neighborhoods with the lowest and highest scores, respectively.
The index equally weighted Population Characteristics component and Pollution Burden component considering the comparable importance of each component; each component was assigned a weight of one. The result yielded a score range of 50 to 185. The map below shows how Sunset Park and Port Morris neighborhoods score compared to neighborhoods with the lowest and highest scores, respectively.
