| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 14, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 14, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1735295 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Scott Freundschuh
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | July 15, 2017 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $10,607.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $10,607.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
506 S WRIGHT ST URBANA IL US 61801-3620 (217)333-2187 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1901 S. First Street, Suite A Champaign IL US 61820-7473 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Geography and Spatial Sciences |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how racial and ethnic segregation impacts the unequal exposure to air pollution by considering the full range of spaces individuals experience daily (e.g., home, workplace, and leisure activity locations). The doctoral student will develop an individual-level segregation measure that incorporates this more comprehensive conceptualization of segregation and combine it with a method for assessing personal exposure to air pollution at a high spatiotemporal resolution. This new fine-grained approach will enable investigators to more reliably examine the association between segregation and the disparity in exposure to air pollution because it can improve on several methodological problems in previous studies that were solely residence-based. Moving beyond simplistic understandings based solely on residential segregation, the research findings will yield new insights into how the disparities in environmental exposures are shaped through complex socio-spatial processes and how non-residential segregation contributes to those disparities. The investigators will collaborate with relevant organizations and agencies to disseminate the project findings. Findings will provide more nuanced knowledge for future policy recommendations by emphasizing the need for policies that consider human daily mobility. The findings will also help promote general awareness and understanding of the unfair burdens of air pollution and the urgent need to address such disparities. This new knowledge will contribute to a more inclusive and comprehensive participation in policy-making and engagement in a constructive dialogue about environmental justice and a wider range of social disparity issues stemming from segregation.
This project addresses three specific research questions: 1) Do individuals experience different levels of segregation over the course of a day, and if so, do racial minorities experience higher levels of segregation both during the daytime (i.e., in non-residential areas) and at night (i.e., in residential areas) than the majority? 2) Are the average exposure levels of different racial groups different, and if so, which group faces the highest level of exposure to air pollution? 3) How does the observed segregation at different times of day affect the disparity in total daily exposure to air pollution? The first question will be addressed by developing a new segregation measure that considers spatiotemporal proximity among individuals in combination with an activity-travel diary dataset that includes personal characteristics and detailed daily travel information (e.g., geocoded locations and time durations of trips). The differences between time periods will be examined using a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). To answer the second question the doctoral student will use a geographic information system (GIS) to integrate exposure level data with diary data, as well as hourly air pollution data produced from air dispersion modeling. An ANOVA will then be conducted to compare the racial differences. The third question will be answered by geo-visualizing the spatial relationship between segregation at different times and differential exposures to air pollution using GIS and by conducting regression analyses on the association. This project will be based in the greater Atlanta, Georgia, region, but will be generating information that will be applicable to many other metropolitan locations in the United States.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This research project contributes to advancing knowledge and methodology in geography, environmental justice, environmental health, racial/ethnic segregation, and health disparity research by developing spatiotemporal methods that take human mobility into account and revealing the effect of segregation on racial disparities in exposure to air pollution. It argues that a residential neighborhood does not fully represent the true geographic context in which people experience segregation and unequal environmental exposure because people move through multiple microenvironments (e.g., homes, workplaces, and social/recreational places) to undertake daily activities. Using a new fine-scale spatiotemporal method alongside individual-level activity-travel diary data, this project investigates whether there is spatial and temporal variation in segregation due to dynamic population distribution over the course of a day and if so, how such dynamic segregation affects racial disparities in exposure to air pollution. To define dynamic segregation that occurs in multiple daily life contexts, this project suggests a new comprehensive term called "multi-contextual segregation".
The mobility-based, individual-level method used in this project addresses several fundamental methodological problems of residence-based, temporally static, aggregate-level methods that may have undermined the reliability of the findings of previous studies. The results reveal that segregation patterns vary over time in the Atlanta metropolitan area. People are more integrated for work in high-traffic downtown areas and thus all racial/ethnic groups tend to experience similarly high levels of air pollution during the daytime. However, at night, the greater the segregation--which white people experience at higher levels at their residential location--the less air pollution to which they are exposed. This beneficial effect is not observed in other racial groups.
The findings suggest that residential segregation (nighttime segregation) contributes the most to environmental injustice. More importantly, however, the regional transit system that was developed the way to prevent people of color from living in suburbs and exurbs and working in major job clusters in suburbs exacerbates the racial disparities in environmental exposure by forming not only residential segregation but also workplace segregation. This project reveals that along with racial discrimination in housing, the limited daily mobility of African Americans, particularly those that do not own a private vehicle, entraps them in inner-cities or inner-ring suburbs with high traffic emissions both during the daytime and at night. This finding highlights the importance of incorporating human mobility patterns into an analytical framework.
This project provides critical insights into the development of more effective policies for eliminating environmental health disparities. It suggests that policies for residential mixes should be implemented together with policies for improving the regional transit system in order to reduce traffic-generated air pollution and equally distribute environmental health risk/benefit factors to all racial groups. Project outcomes and findings were disseminated via multiple outlets including peer-reviewed journal articles, presentations at national conferences, invited talks, social media channels, and the investigators' personal websites. A project flyer describing significant findings was created to distribute to community organizations and local residents to promote their awareness and understanding of air quality in their communities, disproportionately distributed burden of air pollution, and racial disparities in health risks. Although this project focuses on ambient air pollution and the Atlanta metropolitan area in Georgia, the methods and concepts developed in this project are applicable to other environmental factors, such as carcinogens, and other metropolitan areas in the U.S. or other countries.
Last Modified: 12/15/2019
Modified by: Yoo Min Park
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