• Christopher Boone, School of Human Evolution & Social Change/School of Sustainability, Arizona State University

In Baltimore, white, working-class neighborhoods are more likely to be near toxic release sites than primarily black neighborhoods. This holds true using a variety of methods and units of analysis. Of the population characteristics analyzed, race is the most significant, followed by income and education. A long history of residential segregation and varying perceptions of risk over time may explain the proximity of toxic release sites, mostly industrial facilities, to working-class white neighborhoods.

Products PowerPoint presentation, "An Examination of Toxic Releases and Population Characteristics in Baltimore City: A Case Study in Environmental Equity Research." Baltimore Ecosystems Study Annual Meeting (October 2000). Includes maps showing the distribution of toxic sites relative to population characteristics by census tract for Baltimore City. Link: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~boone/bes/BES_presentation.ppt

Articles

Boone, Christopher G. "An Assessment and Explanation of Environmental Inequity in Baltimore." Urban Geography (2002) 23, 6: 581-595.

Boone, Christopher G. “Improving resolution of census data in metropolitan areas using a dasymetric approach: applications for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study.” Submitted to Cities and the Environment (March 2006).

Grants Awarded

“A Longitudinal Analysis of the Social Dynamics of Environmental Equity in Baltimore” (Boone p.i., Grove, J.M., Buckley, G.L., Lord, C., Troy, A.). Human and Social Dynamics Competition, National Science Foundation. $749,437 (2006-2009).

Presentations "Environmental Inequity as Process." Invited Colloquium, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Akron (April 2002).

Boone, Christopher G. "An Examination of Toxic Releases and Population Characteristics in Baltimore City: A Case Study in Environmental Equity Research." Baltimore Ecosystems Study Annual Meeting (October 2000).

Boone, Christopher G. "Baltimore and the Crisis of Environmental Equity Research." Invited Colloquium, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (September 2000).

Boone, Christopher G. "Environmental Equity Research: Historical and GIS Methodologies." Presentation at Association of American Geographers 96th Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (April 2000).

Data and Data Collection

Toxic Releases Inventory (TRI) data for Baltimore City, 1987-2005, parsed from EPA data. A constructed GIS database includes location of TRI sites in decimal degrees, name of manufacturer, and total releases in pounds from 1987 to 2005. More detailed data were collected for all TRI sites in Baltimore City but not included in the GIS for analysis. Historical data on land use and zoning, and documentary evidence on housing segregation also collected.