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Lee argues that EJ practice has long stagnated over an inability to properly define the concept of disproportionate (environmental and public health) impacts, but that national conversations on system racism and the development of EJ mapping tools have improved his outlook on the potential for better application of the concept of disproportionate impact. Lee identifies mapping tools (e.g. CalEnviroScreen) as a pathway for empirically based and analytically rigorous articulation and analysis of disproportionate impacts that are linked to systemic racism. In describing the scope and nature of application of mapping tools, Baker highlights the concept of cumulative impacts (the concentration of multiple environmental, public health, and social stressors), the importance of public participation (e.g. Hoffman’s community science model), the role of redlining in creating disproportionate vulnerabilities, and the importance of integrating research into decision making processes. Baker ultimately argues that mapping tools offer a promising opportunity for integrating research into policy decision making as part of a second generation of EJ practice. Key areas that Lee identifies as important to the continued development of more effective EJ practice include: identifying good models for quantitative studies and analysis, assembling a spectrum of different integrative approaches (to fit different contexts), connecting EJ research to policy implications, and being attentive to historical contexts and processes that produce/reproduce structural inequities.

Air pollution monitoring in El Vado

We used two particulate matter (PM) monitoring networks, while sharing with neighbors the chemical components of PM and its impacts on health.

 

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Citizen science to El Vado community

In connection with other research groups at the university, we got in touch with neighbors of El Vado in order to discuss what they thought of the urban intervention and in an attempt to include ci

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Tactic urbanism intervention on El Vado

This past September 2019, Llactalab—an urban studies research group at University of Cuenca—proposed a tactical urbanism intervention with the aim of reducing pedestrians’ mobility risks in the str

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El Vado air pollution stories

According to Juan, a metal worker air quality has only decreased over the years causing lung cancer among some of his colleagues and close kin.

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air pollution social protest in El Vado

In 2010, artists and craftsmen-women who rent small local businesses, started an initiative against noise and air pollution resulting from excessive bus/car traffic.

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Car traffic in El Vado

The elevated number of cars that pass through the narrow uphill street of La Condamine—located in the heart of this neighborhood—sees over 7000 vehicles per day and has generated a conflictive area

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