Poster Information
1. Urban Agriculture and Flood Risk Equity in Detroit
Urban green space has many well-known benefits for human and environmental health and sustainability, yet inequities often exist in both location and types of green spaces in urban areas. This presentation will discuss urban green space and flood risk equity relationships in Detroit with an emphasis on urban agriculture, the tools used for urban agriculture and flood risk equity analysis, and how this data can help urban planners to prioritize equitable green space development.
Urban green spaces help to support human health and well-being, provide numerous environmental benefits, and help to support urban sustainability and resilience. Although the benefits of green spaces are well known, inequities often exist in both location and types of green spaces in urban areas. The City of Detroit has an abundance of natural urban green space due to its humid climate, yet the quality and type of green space may not provide equitable benefits to local residents. The focus of this study is on urban agriculture as a specific type of urban green space in Detroit. Urban agriculture has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by transportation of food products, provide fresh and nutritious food to communities, support urban biodiversity, reduce pollutants in air and water, provide cooling by evapotranspiration, and reduce stormwater runoff. Previous research suggests that urban agriculture is not evenly distributed among socioeconomic classes, and disadvantaged areas of cities often have less access to urban agriculture than higher income areas and are also disproportionately affected by urban flooding from stormwater runoff. High-resolution spatial imagery, socioeconomic data, and geographic information systems (GIS) will be used to identify and quantify urban agriculture as well as stormwater flood risk at a census tract scale, which will provide more detailed information to help prioritize equitable green space development. The learning objectives of this presentation are to share research results from a green space and flood risk equity study for the city of Detroit along with the importance of the research results for future equitable green space development.
Presenter: Jessica Alger, PhD Candidate, Michigan Technological University
2. How U.S. militarism harms local to global environmental justice communities.
To adequately remediate the harms and injustices inflicted on environmental justice communities both at home and abroad, all major causes of this harm must be identified and addressed. One major source of the injustices imparted on environmental justice communities that is commonly ignored is U.S.A.’s obsession with maintaining the world’s largest military. The negative impacts of U.S. militarism on local to global environmental justice communities can be grouped into three broad categories.
First, environmental toxins deployed by the military or produced by war industries create environmental damage in and around the nearly 800 bases the U.S. military maintains worldwide. Within the U.S.A. alone, the sum of military related pollution contaminates an area larger than the state of Florida. Not included in this total is the toxic legacy left abroad where there is little to no accountability.
Second, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) globally. Although DOD only contributes 1% to U.S.A.’s total GHG emissions, the war industry directly supporting DOD adds at least another 2% (for a total approximating the annual emissions of the Netherlands). Whereas, global warming cannot be eliminated by ceasing all military emissions, significant mitigation cannot be achieved by ignoring them. Why is this critical? An U.S. EPA report shows disproportionate impacts of climate change on socially vulnerable populations in the United States.
Finally, funds spent by the U.S.A. on its military, which currently exceeds expenditures by the next ten militarized countries combined, are not available for the social needs of environmental justice communities. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated in his April 4, 1967, address, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Presenter: James Rine, Ph.D., Veterans For Peace, Climate Crisis and Militarism Project
3. Detroit Home Repair Fund: Advancing Environmental Justice through Comprehensive Home Repairs
A 2022 study by the University of Michigan found that nearly 40,000 Detroiters live in a home with “ongoing and often hazardous” maintenance issues. Deteriorating home conditions endangering the health, well-being and safety of Detroiters are just one consequence of racially motivated practices such as redlining leading to decades of disinvestment in non-white neighborhoods. These housing conditions are a real and experienced environmental justice concern. Many programs and organizations in Detroit are tackling this history of disinvestment with repair dollars and workforce development; however, demand often exceeds capacity, and residents are commonly deferred when the scope of work needed is outside of program eligibility criteria. Investment from multiple sectors can help fill gaps in capacity and allow for more flexible spending.
Through a public-private partnership with The Gilbert Family Foundation, Rocket Community Fund, DTE Energy, and ProMedica National Social Determinants of Health Institute coupled with Green & Healthy Homes Initiative and Enterprise Community Partners as consulting agencies, the Detroit Home Repair Fund (DHRF) was launched in Summer 2022 to improve housing conditions of 1,000 Detroit households over the next 3 years. Eligible families receive assistance in repairing roofs, windows, stairs, foundations, drywall, HVAC systems, and more.
Presenter: Ashley Zuverink, Program Manager, Green & Healthy Homes Initiative
4. Linking environmental injustices in Detroit, MI to institutional racial segregation through historical federal redlining.
The aim of this study was to identify the most pervasive exposures associated with historical redlining in Detroit, MI. Historically redlined Detroit neighborhoods experience significantly higher environmental hazards than non-redlined neighborhoods from proximity to Risk Management Plan sites, hazardous road noise, diesel PM, and cancer risk from air pollution. Policies targeting transportation-related air and noise pollution in Detroit, particularly from sources of diesel exhaust, in redlined neighborhoods may ameliorate some of the disproportionate impacts of historical redlining, providing a proof-of-concept to apply to other redlined cities in Michigan.
Background and Aim: The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s drew maps of cities across the US that labeled neighborhoods by mortgage risk. This historical practice, commonly called “redlining”, labeled neighborhoods deemed “hazardous” with the color red. This policy denied mortgage loans to minority persons seeking homes in White/affluent neighborhoods, segregating these areas by race and ethnicity. This legacy of de jure segregation shaped neighborhoods today and influenced their environmental exposures, a form of environmental racism. The aim of this study was to identify the most pervasive exposures associated with redlining.
Methods: The Detroit shapefile defined by the HOLC and digitized by the Mapping Inequality project overlaid onto the Environmental Protection Agency’s EJScreen and the Department of Transportation National Transportation Noise Map was used to determine modern environmental exposures and transportation noise within historical boundaries. Differences in demographic and environmental hazards between redlined (red or D grade) and non-redlined neighborhoods (grades A, B, and C) were assessed using hypothesis testing and a boosted classification tree algorithm.
Results: Historically redlined Detroit neighborhoods experience significantly higher environmental hazards than non-redlined neighborhoods from diesel particulate matter (PM), traffic volumes, hazardous road noise, cancer risk from air pollution, and are closer to hazardous waste and Risk Management Plan (RMP) sites. With all factors taken together, boosted regression trees indicated the most pervasive environmental exposures among redlined neighborhoods in Detroit are the proximity to RMP sites, hazardous road noise, diesel PM, and cancer risk from air pollution. Conclusions: Institutional segregation via historical redlining is associated with environmental injustices in Detroit today. Policies targeting transportation-related air and noise pollution, particularly from sources of diesel exhaust, in redlined neighborhoods may ameliorate some of the disproportionate impacts of historical redlining, providing a proof-of-concept to apply to other redlined cities in Michigan.
Presenter: Abas Shkembi, University of Michigan
5. Addressing Barriers to Employment: Cross-Sector Collaboration to create a Tree Trim Academy
Programs with the largest impact are those which pair a business need with a community need. The Tree Trim Training programs at Parnall Correctional Facility and Randolph Career Technical Education Center have trained and equipped Detroiters, Metro-Detroiters, and returning citizens for high-paying and in-demand careers in line clearance tree trimming.
This poster highlights the innovative partnerships between DTE Energy, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 17, the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), City of Detroit Mayor’s Office, Focus: HOPE, and Detroit at Work in removing barriers to employment and equipping graduates with career-readiness and the skills needed for success.
It will also highlight an innovative Line Clearance Tree Trimming training program aimed at tackling systemic inequities by removing employment barriers for two populations – Returning Citizens and underserved communities in Detroit. The panel will highlight the program’s cross-sectoral collaboration, the challenges identified and navigated, and how addressing inequities creates a positive impact for adults with barriers to employment while also meeting vital business employment needs.
- Tree Trim Program at Parnall Correctional Facility Vocational Village, Jackson, MI: Launched in July 2019 by DTE Energy, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the State of Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), this program, delivered in a state correctional facility, produced 25 graduates with 100% job offers to enter a 2.5 year, 5000-hour apprenticeship program. The class of 2023 has 16 participating students and several others on a wait list. Elements of the program’s design support participant success. For example, the program’s curriculum is aligned to a student’s release date to ensure each is fully trained before transitioning to post-release employment and parole office check-in times were adjusted to after working hours.
- Tree Trim Academy at Randolph Career & Technical Education, Detroit, MI: Launched in April 2021, this Detroit-based program by DTE Energy, IBEW, City of Detroit’s Mayor’s Office, Detroit at Work, and Focus: HOPE inclusively recruits talent from Detroit and metro-Detroit’s diverse workforce to fill the area’s ever-growing demand for tree trimmers. The program integrates wrap-around services to promote student success, such as teaching Office 365, modules on responsiveness and money management. As an outgrowth of this program, DTE Energy partnered with the Michigan Secretary of State’s office to hold multiple license restoration clinics across the state. Over 100+ Detroiters and metro-Detroiters have graduated from the program.
Presenters: Terrell Lockhart and Clinton Williams, DTE Energy
6. Evaluating Race and Ethnicity Data Quality Across Three Public Health Data Sources
While there have been national efforts to standardize race and ethnicity (RE) data collection, inconsistencies in the collection and coding of RE data persist. Data quality of RE and ancestry data across three data sources in Michigan was evaluated to develop a protocol that effectively supplements missing RE data to help detect race/ethnicity-tied health inequities in Michigan.
Background: While there have been national efforts to standardize race and ethnicity (RE) data collection, inconsistencies in the collection and coding of RE data persist. Data quality of RE and ancestry (RE/A) data across three data sources in Michigan was evaluated to develop a protocol that effectively supplements missing RE data to help detect race/ethnicity-tied health inequities in Michigan.
Methods: Data linkage was performed between blood lead (Pb) surveillance data from 2012-2019, Vital Records (VR) live birth data and Medicaid (CHAMPS) data via a unique identifier. Each dataset contributes multiple RE/A codes per child. All RE/A codes were assessed for completeness (the presence or absence of a code) and coherence (if the code matches an accepted value in that field) and were assigned to non-exclusive standardized value categories. Unique identifier-based RE/A value pairs were created using all available records (multiple sets of values per individual) and pair percent agreement was calculated within and between sources.
Results: For 868,233 linked records, 34.6% (Pb), 99.9% (CHAMPS), and 43.6% (VR) of RE/A data were non-missing. Of these, 95.5% (Pb), >99.9% (CHAMPS), and 94.8% (VR) were coherent. Race value pair agreement within each source (n=23,960,344) was 55.8% (Pb), 37.9% (CHAMPS), and 92.9% (VR). CHAMPS ethnicity had 100% agreement (n=640,303). Pair agreement between all three data sources was 51.7% for race (n=24,956,492) and 74.2% for ethnicity (n=173,128). Conclusions: Data quality and agreement for race and ethnicity vary widely between data sources. While CHAMPS data had the highest completeness and coherence, it had the lowest race value pair agreement. VR had the highest quality for race data and CHAMPS for ethnicity data. Complementing missing or non-coherent data in the Pb dataset by substituting CHAMPS/VR RE/A data is feasible and valuable for investigating health inequities.
Presenters: Luke Dalton, CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellow, and RoseAnn Miller, MDHHS
7. Leveraging Air Quality Technology Data for Environmental Justice
Air pollution is known to adversely affect human health, including causing and exacerbating asthma. Worldwide, air pollution kills 9 million people every year. Health impacts of pollution fall disproportionately on low-income populations and communities of color. Health impacts of pollution vary depending on the type of pollutant and duration of exposure, proximity to industrial and vehicular sources and socio-economic factors such as race, class, and access to health care. Some areas of the country, including Detroit suffer more from poor air quality and higher rates of asthma than others. The purpose of the session will be to show people how to take control of the air quality in their communities. The panel session will be composed of individuals that will speak on air pollutants, like PM2.5, Black Carbon, NO2, VOCs, CO, O2, H2S, CH4, SO2, NH3, and CHOH. The panel talk about the health risks like asthma that these air pollutants pose. Lastly, the panel will show people how to measure air quality with different types of air monitors, how to access air quality data, and ways they can use data to be able to live healthier lives.
Presenters: Keith Kiama, Program Manager, Green Door Initiative and Darren Riley, JustAir
8. An association between historical redlining and road, rail, and air transportation noise today among eleven cities in Michigan
Transportation-related noise exposure is higher among redlined than non-redlined neighborhoods across Michigan. Redlined neighborhoods experience more than twice the prevalence of hazardous transportation noise than non-redlined neighborhoods. These findings highlight that noise is an important exposure that should be considered in environmental justice research and interventions.
Maps of >200 US cities, including 11 in Michigan, were drawn by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s to classify neighborhoods by mortgage risk. The HOLC used descriptions, grades, and colors to define neighborhoods as “best-A-green”, “still desirable-B-blue", “definitely declining-C-yellow", and “hazardous-D-red”. This documented “redlining” is one metric we have to assess a form of systemic segregation perpetrated on minority populations seeking homes in predominately-white neighborhoods. These policies have a lasting impact on neighborhoods today. Few studies have assessed their relation with transportation noise. We aimed to assess how transportation noise (air, road, and rail) varies by HOLC grade within and across redlined cities in Michigan.
The US DOT National Transportation Noise Map and the 1930s HOLC-maps of 11 Michigan cities, digitized by the Mapping Inequality Project, were used to access how various metrics (average, 90th percentile, and maximum noise by transportation source and cumulatively) varied by HOLC grade. To understand if redlined neighborhoods experience more hazardous noise, we estimated the proportion of hazardous transportation-related noise (24-hr Leq ≥70 dBA) for each neighborhood. T-tests between redlined and non-redlined neighborhoods and mixed effects linear regression with city as a random intercept were performed to assess the relationship across all redlined Michigan cities for each noise metric.
Redlined neighborhoods in Michigan experience more high noise exposure than A-grade neighborhoods. Average difference in maximum noise levels between redlined and non-redlined neighborhoods ranged from 6.5 to 12.4 dBA depending on the transportation source. Redlined neighborhoods have more than twice the prevalence of hazardous transportation noise (24-hr Leq ≥70 dBA) when considering all sources. Noise exposure should be considered in environmental justice research and interventions aimed at addressing the excess burden of noise will likely have positive impacts on the excess burden of traffic-related air pollution. Recognize the role of a historical metric of environmental racism, redlining, on disparate neighborhood noise exposures today. Recognize transportation-related noise as an EJ issue. Consider noise abatement and remediation when developing interventions or actions related to traffic flow, location, volume, etc.
Presenter: Lauren Smith, Research Area Specialist, University of Michigan School of Public Health
9. Farm Fab Collabs: Bridging Gaps in Food Advocacy Work
New City Neighbors (NCN) is a community development organization focused on empowering youth to reach their full potential. For almost a decade, NCN has been working hard in the Northeast side of Grand Rapids to positively impact its community. The farm’s main objective is to provide job and life skills to high school youth in its neighborhood. Its student experience the hard work of organic vegetable growing and participate in curriculum related to job skills, food justice, anti-racism, and food & faith.
The GVSU Sustainable Agriculture Project (SAP) is a four-acre, student operated farm on the Allendale campus. The mission of the SAP is to seed sustainable agriculture best practices, cultivate leadership and learning, nurture a sense of place, and help grow community. The SAP prioritizes opportunities for students to experience high-impact learning in all disciplines, through the lens of sustainable agriculture. This partnership was originally imagined to connect high school students to a pathway to postsecondary education, but has become mutually beneficial in ways not originally anticipated. From sharing physical and educational resources to raising a hoophouse together, the benefits of this collaboration are scalable to other partnerships. Together, we hope to open career pathways for urban youth participating in NCN’s programs to enter the field of sustainability. Fostering opportunities for BIPOC youth to enter this field, and agriculture, helps to address inequities in the food system. Through NCN’s education programs, youth learn the value of sustainable growing, local food economies, and why urban farms help to bridge the gaps found where food inequities exist. At the SAP, this work extends to the GVSU community. Fostering shared learning opportunities creates spaces to share food accessibility challenges, connects students to NCN’s growing program at the SAP, and the SAP’s program develops leaders in the sustainability and food movement in West Michigan and beyond. We look forward to sharing some of our successes and challenges in connecting small, educational farms to address bigger issues.
Presenter: Yumiko Jakobcic, Director of Sustainability, Grand Valley State University
10. Michigan Cancer and Research on the Environment Study (MI-CARES) cohort
The Michigan Cancer and Research on the Environment Study (MI-CARES) is establishing a cohort of over 100,000 Michiganders to examine associations between environmental exposures and cancer risk. Michigan is uniquely positioned for this research due to past and ongoing adverse environmental exposures. Any Michigan resident aged 25-44 can enroll, allowing us to capture exposures during important windows of susceptibility prior to most cancers’ onset. As minority populations are underrepresented in environment and cancer research despite having worse cancer outcomes and being at greater risk of being exposed to environmental hazards, we will enroll equal numbers of Black, Latinx, MENA and White participants.
To democratize participation, remote and paper options for enrollment are available in Arabic, English and Spanish. In addition to a baseline questionnaire, consent for data linkage, and annual follow-up surveys, participants are also asked to provide saliva and blood spot samples via mail. These will be analyzed for environmental exposures such as heavy metals and for intermediate cancer markers. Participant data will be linked to exposure databases through their residential address history and to local and national cancer and vital statistics registries.
MI-CARES has employed a multifaceted community engagement and recruitment strategy, working with community organizations to recruit participants. A stakeholder advisory board with representatives from Metro Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Bay City-Saginaw-Midland, and northern Michigan is being established to ensure that the communities’ needs are considered and met. Some 2,000 individuals have already enrolled. The challenges and strategies of establishing this contemporary and diverse prospective cohort study will be discussed. MI-CARES is part of the Cohorts for Environmental Exposures and Cancer Risk (CEECR) consortium.
Presenter: Lilah Khoja, MI-CARES, University of Michigan