GIS-based measures of environmental equity: Exploring their sensitivity and significance

In order to determine whether principles of environmental justice have been violated, a large number of empirical studies have been carried out to asc ertain whether minority and low-income populations are disproportionately e xposed to industrial pollution. This study provides a comparative evaluatio n of two commonly employed proximity measures in GIS-based environmental eq uity assessment, examining their influence on the results of the analysis, and proposes a methodology for evaluating the significance of these results . 1990 census data on population characteristics and data from the 1995 EPA 's toxic release inventory (TRI) for the City of Minneapolis, MN are used. These results also allow a preliminary assessment of environmental equity/i nequity in potential exposure to airborne toxic chemicals for racial minori ties, poor people and children in Minneapolis. In the third part of the pap er we develop and employ a geographic randomization methodology for assessi ng the significance of these results.