Developing Statistical Methodology and an Analytical Framework for Evaluating Environmental Justice via a Longitudinal Study of Metropolitan New York City

这项为期三年的研究将对适用于一般环境正义问题的纵向和半参数统计技术进行基本的方法研究。在此过程中，它将证明方法对来自纽约大都市的数据的适用性。总体目标是定义和传播研究环境正义问题的统计上合理的方法，包括：(1)利用数据的地理性质，(2)除了种族差异之外，还评估和解释人口的社会经济地位（SES），以及(3)纳入重要的时间信息。本研究中更大的问题是试图超越在简单横截面模型中常见的因果推理中对关联的依赖。过去，在环境正义或环境公平的旗帜下进行了大量这类分析。然而，这些研究未能回答我们感兴趣的真正问题：少数民族是否被设计不公平地强加于人？也就是说，社会在少数民族社区设置危险、污染或其他环境不友好的场所是因为它们是少数民族社区吗？这个问题的一个关键因素是谁先在那里的问题，网站还是少数民族社区？其次，如果少数民族社区先在那里，那么与该地区的其他社区相比，该社区当时是否受到了不公平的压迫？在声称环境不公正之前，必须首先充分回答这些问题。

This three-year study will conduct basic methodological research into longitudinal and semiparametric statistical techniques applicable to the general problem of environmental justice. In the process it will demonstrate methodological applicability on data from metropolitan New York City. The overall goal is to define and disseminate statistically sound methods for studying the issues of environmental justice, including methodology that: (1) utilizes the geographic nature of the data, (2) evaluates and accounts for the social-economic status (SES) of the population in addition to racial variation, and (3) incorporates important temporal information. The larger issue in this research is attempting to get beyond the reliance on association for causal inference commonly encountered in simple cross-sectional models. In the past, a significant amount of this type of analysis has been conducted under the banner of environmental justice or environmental equity. However, these studies fail to answer the true question of interest: Were minority populations unfairly imposed upon by design? That is, did society place hazardous, polluting, or otherwise environmentally unfriendly sites in minority neighborhoods because they were minority neighborhoods? A key element of the problem is the question of who was there first, the site or the minority community? Secondarily, if the minority community was there first, was that community unfairly imposed upon at that time in relation to the rest of the region? These questions must be adequately answered first before environmental injustice can be claimed.