Environmental injustice and flood risk: A conceptual model and case comparison of metropolitan Miami and Houston, USA.

ABSTRACT: This article outlines a conceptual model and comparatively applies it to results from environmental justice (EJ) studies of flood risk in the Miami, Florida, and Houston, Texas, metropolitan areas. In contrast to most EJ studies of air pollution, which have found that socially-vulnerable groups experience disproportionate risk, distributive EJ studies of flooding reveal inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between social vulnerability and flood exposure. Counterintuitively (from a conventional EJ perspective), some pre-flood EJ studies have found that socially-advantaged people experience the highest residential exposure to flood risks. To integrate those anomalous findings within an EJ perspective, our conceptual model focuses on (1) the differential capacities of social group

SUBMITTER: Collins TW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5849275 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature