Over the last few decades, numerous scholars have documented the fact that in general, people of color and other socio-economically marginalized groups in the United States experience a disproportionate burden of environmental challenges such as exposure to air pollution, contaminated water, habitat loss, and disrupted livelihood due to natural hazards and climate change - this pattern is referred to as environmental justice (EJ). Satellite Earth observations can be used to monitor air quality, water quality, extreme weather and other quantities relevant to EJ.
We explore applications of satellite data for EJ through a case study of prison landscapes in the United States. In recent years, researchers and journalists have elevated a pattern of prison landscapes being exposed to environmental hazards such as air pollution, poor water quality, proximity to hazardous waste facilities, and inadequate mitigation in the face of extreme weather conditions—a pattern frequently referred to as “prison ecology.” Community organizers, lawyers and other environmental justice activists have needs for empirical evidence of the environmental injustices occurring in and around prison landscapes in order to advocate for the rights of incarcerated peoples to live in conditions that are free of life-threatening conditions.
Geospatial data combined with sociodemographic information about prison populations can elucidate spatial patterns of vulnerability to environmental hazards and support decision-making workflows to advance equity and environmental justice (EEJ) in these underserved landscapes of primarily low-income people of color. To this end, this project pursues an objective to co-design and prototype an operational geographic information system that responds to data needs in decision-making workflows for prison ecology activist organizations. This objective is part of an ongoing partnership with community activists organizing resistance at the intersection of incarceration and the environment.
The outcomes of this project will enhance the capability of prison environmental justice activists to apply satellite-based remote sensing data to support community level management to advance EEJ for underserved populations in prison landscapes. In the government domain, the research will consider how remote sensing could improve screening tools or legal processes to prevent or remedy prison ecology issues. In the public domain, the research will consider how remote sensing could inform strategy or media campaigns to support real-time grassroots organizing for just outcomes.
This work is supported by grants from both NASA's Applied Sciences Program and MIT's IDSS Initiative on Combatting Systemic Racism.