Environmental justice: geospatial impacts of hazardous materials spills

2014-05-14This study encompasses Hazardous Materials Spills (HAZMATS) occurred in the United States between 1998 and 2009, also concentrating on California as a case study. This work expands the base of empirical knowledge and observations of previous studies dealing with the geographical location of Hazardous Materials Handling and Storage Facilities (HMHSF). ❧ Integrated into the HAZMATS spills distribution analysis, a frontline approach is proposed to address the more common methodological issues and constraints faced by the environmental justice discipline, as reported by previous authors. This new methodology is purposely designed to comply with the current legal requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Environmental Justice Determinations (EJD), so can be expanded from theoretical to the applied realm. Two major methodological problems were identified during the literature review: a) The precise determination of the best geographical extent (scale) to define the area of study and the appropriate unit of analysis to capture the environmental problem at hand, and b) the introduction of artificial boundaries caused by the use of population census data aggregated at the tract, block, or ZIP code level. The author proposes, creates, and tests an innovative Geospatial Tool, based in the study of "Hotspots"—or outliers—and the use of a variable radius in order to address the "Modifiable Area Unit" problem and the introduction of artificial boundaries by the census data offering a solution for the two more common methodological issues that have been encountered by previous authors. ❧ This thesis also explores distribution patterns and spatial relationships between the more significant HAZMATS spills locations ("Hotspots") and highlights communities with high levels of poverty and social vulnerability where questions concerning environmental justice need to be urgently addressed. Future work is proposed to assess the presence of "Hotspots" as predictors of future severe spills and catastrophic events