Data Decisions & Disproportionality: The Implications of Analyst Choice on Quantitative Environmental Justice Analyses

Abstract

The legacy of structural racism in the U.S. has created a landscape where racially marginalized and low-income communities disproportionately bear the adverse effects of natural gas infrastructure. After being denied numerous permits, including a case based on environmental justice (EJ) grounds, the Southgate Extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline was revised from its original route. This project examines whether rerouting was a lateral move for equitable pipeline distribution, or if it created meaningful changes in disproportionality. Using the Social Vulnerability Index, we found that rerouting decreased the overrepresentation of racial minorities, but did not similarly decrease other categories of vulnerability. Further, we found disproportionality to be sensitive to subjective decisions for environmental justice analyses regarding population weighting, spatial data unit, and distance from the pipeline. In light of the lack of consistent directives about methods for EJ analyses, we offer recommendations for future geospatial and statistical EJ studies.