Papers and DocumentsA wide variety of papers and documents, peer-reviewed and otherwise, have been published over the years which provide important demonstations of and insights to the use of geospatial technologies. Some of the papers relate directly to the use of such technologies within human rights activities, and some represent potential future applications and enhancements.
Using GIS to Assess the Environmental Justice Consequences of Transportation System Changes
Although environmental justice research has typically focused on locations of industrial toxic releases or waste sites, recent developments in GIS and environmental modeling provide a foundation for developing measures designed to evaluate the consequences of transportation system changes. In this paper, we develop and demonstrate a workable GIS-based approach that can be used to assess the impacts of a transportation system change on minorites and low-income residents. We focus specifically on two adverse affects: vehicle-generated air pollution and noise. The buffer analysis capabilities of GIS provide a preliminary assessment of environmental justice. We integrate existing environmental pollution models with GIS (more)…
Using very high spatial resolution multispectral satellite sensor imagery to monitor refugee camps
Detailed geographic information is a key factor in decision making processes during refugee relief operations. The forthcoming commercial very high spatial resolution (VHSR) satellite sensors will be capable of acquiring multispectral (MS) images at spatial resolutions of 1m (panchromatic) and 4m (multispectral) of refugee camps and their environment. This work demonstrates how refugee camp environment, area and population can be analysed using a VHSR MS satellite sensor image from the Russian KVR-1000 sensor. This image, with a spatial resolution of 3.3m, was used to (more)…
Violence and the Changing Ethnic Map: The Interdependence of Territory and Conflict in Bosnia
The relation between geographic settlement patterns of ethnic groups and conflict has usually been examined in a unidirectional way; many studies deal with the question of how certain settlement patterns promote conflict. However, the reverse causal direction has been neglected. My paper addresses the question of the interdependence of settlement patterns and conflict, that is, how settlement patterns affect conflict, and how conflict in turn changes the ethnic map. I study the dynamics of group geography and conflict in Bosnia using data on ethnic population shares at the municipality level, both from before and after the war. These data are (more)…
Waiting to Inhale: The Demographics of Toxic Air Release Facilities in 21st-Century California
We examine the spatial distribution of toxic air releases and residential demographics in California using 2000 Census data and coeval information from the Federal Toxic Release Inventory for evidence of disproportionate exposure. Methods.We use spatial analysis using GIS, and multivariate regression analysis, including ordered and multinomial logit regressions, in our study. Results.Analytical results suggest a pattern of disproportionate exposure based on race, with the disparity most severe for Latinos, which holds in a series of multivariate regressions, including attempts to test for varying levels of pollution risk and to control for spatial dependence. (more)…
Warviews: Visualizing and Animating Geographic Data on Civil War
In the recent years, the field of conflict research has produced new findings on the relation between conflict and geography. In doing so, new data sets have been created with the help of GIS software. These data sets include variables relevant for the study of conflict with a spatial component. However, the use of geographic data requires specialized software and substantial training and therefore involves high entry costs for researchers and practitioners. This paper introduces the WarViews project whose aim is to create an easy-to-use front end for the exploration of GIS data on conflict. It takes advantage of the (more)…
Welfare geography of a peripheralized national minority: The case of Israel?s Arab population
This paper examines three interrelated issues concerning several aspects of minority well-being and social justice: (1) the way in which Israel’s Arab citizens have been marginalized systematically from social, economic, and development programs within the state’s peripheral regions; (2) the scope of housing constraints on Arab households in five mixed Arab-Jewish cities in Israel; and (3) how Arabs and Jews in these ethnically mixed cities assess their living conditions and well-being. Drawing on concepts of minority control and bias in modem regional planning, and based on supporting empirical data obtained from a survey of 1,170 Arab and Jewish households, this (more)…
Which Came First? Toxic Facilities, Minority Move-In, and Environmental Justice
Previous research suggests that minority residential areas have a disproportionate likelihood of hosting various environmental hazards. Some critics have responded that the contemporary correlation of race and hazards may reflect post-siting minority move-in, perhaps because of a risk effect on housing costs, rather than discrimination in siting. This article examines the disproportionate siting and minority move-in hypotheses in Los Angeles County by reconciling tract geography and data over three decades with firm-level information on the initial siting dates for toxic storage and disposal facilities. Using simple t-tests, logit analysis, and a novel simultaneous model, we find that disproportionate siting matters (more)…
Whose risk in Philadelphia? Proximity to unequally hazardous industrial facilities
Few researchers have investigated who lives near the worst polluting facilities. In this study, we test for disparate impact from hazardous industrial and infrastructure facilities on racial/ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged, the working class, and manufacturing workers in the nine-county Philadelphia MSA. Methods. Hazard Scores for Philadelphia-area facilities in EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) database were calculated and facilities mapped onto Census block group maps. One-kilometer buffer zones around facilities were created and intersected with Census data on population inside and outside buffers. After correcting for spatial autocorrelation, we tested for relationships between Hazard Scores and characteristics of people near facilities (more)…
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