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RESEARCH ARTICLE: Racial and Socioeconomic Assessments of Neighborhoods Adjacent to Small-Scale Brownfield Sites in the Detroit Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2011

Sangyun Lee  and
Paul Mohai
Sangyun Lee*
Affiliation:
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Paul Mohai
Affiliation:
Professor, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
*
Sangyun Lee, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109; (phone) 734-763-9574; (e-mail) sangyunl@umich.edu
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Abstract

Although many environmental justice studies have examined disproportionate environmental burdens imposed on impoverished and minority neighborhoods, locational disparities of brownfields in terms of racial and socioeconomic factors have been underexplored. This study is assessed current racial and socioeconomic disparities at brownfield locations in the Detroit region, and we discuss why racial and socioeconomic disparities of brownfield locations exist. This study combines the locations of brownfields provided by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality with 2000 United States census data and the census block group as the unit of analysis. Results indicate that brownfields are disproportionately located in impoverished and minority neighborhoods. In addition, race is independently associated with brownfield locations. Connections among deindustrialization, concentration of poverty, and residential segregation can offer an explanation of why locational disparities of brownfields exist. Future studies should examine why racial and socioeconomic disparities exist at brownfield locations.

Environmental Practice 13:340–353 (2011)

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Environmental Practice , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 340 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2011

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