Narrative Text & Results Summary
Data source: CalEnviroScreen (CES) 4.0
Background: The CES 4.0 dataset, developed by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), provides a comprehensive environmental assessment of California. CES uses environmental, health, and socioeconomic information to produce scores for every census tract in the state. An area with a high score is one that experiences a much higher pollution burden than areas with low scores.
Research Question:
1) How do socioeconomic vulnerabilities correlate with environmental
health outcomes?
2) What disparities can we observe in access to education between
communities with the highest and lowest environmental burdens?
Importance of the Analysis: This dashboard aims to highlight environmental injustice, a concept within environmental justice that addresses how marginalized communities often bear more environmental burdens. Vulnerable groups, including low-income families and under-educated populations, frequently face higher risks of pollution exposure and worse health outcomes due to systemic inequities. Understanding these disparities is crucial for policymakers, public health practitioners, and community advocates to advocate for equitable policies, prioritize interventions in overburdened communities, and build awareness of the health and social impacts of environmental injustice.
Planned Visualizations:
1) Poverty Percentile vs. Asthma Percentile (Scatterplot)
2) Distribution of Education Measurements in Counties with Highest
vs. Lowest CES 4.0 Scores (Box Plot)
Take-home message:
The data demonstrate clear associations between socioeconomic
disadvantages and environmental burdens:
1. Higher poverty levels are associated with increased asthma
prevalence.
2. Counties with greater environmental burdens, as indicated by CES 4.0
scores, also exhibit lower education levels.
These findings highlight the critical importance of addressing
environmental injustice, implementing policies, and planning targeted
interventions to mitigate health disparities in vulnerable
communities.
Visualizations
Column 1
GRAPH 1: Poverty Percentile vs. Asthma Percentile
Results:
- A general positive association is evident, where counties with higher
poverty percentiles also tend to have higher asthma percentiles.
- Larger population counties are more concentrated toward the middle
poverty and asthma percentiles, suggesting a mix of socioeconomic and
environmental challenges.
- A few high-poverty counties (such as Merced, Imperial, Del Norte)
exhibit elevated asthma burdens, emphasizing the environmental injustice
that vulnerable communities face.
Column 2
GRAPH 2: Percent of Population over 25 with Less Than a High School Education in Counties with Highest vs. Lowest CES 4.0 Score
Results: Counties with the highest CES 4.0 scores (Fresno, Imperial, Madera, Merced, Tulare) generally have higher percentages of individuals with less than a high school education, while counties with the lowest CES 4.0 scores (Alpine, El Dorado, Marin, Nevada, Placer) have uniformly lower percentages of individuals with less than a high school education. This indicates a correlation between environmental burdens and lower education levels.
