Spatial Relationship between Demographics and Brownfields in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

Abstract

The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the sixth largest city in the United States and resides within Philadelphia County. There is a large population within a small area, which can make environmental contamination more impactful to the population. Environmental contamination sites known as brownfields, are common throughout Philadelphia County, which many residents may not realize exist. This project focused on analyzing the spatial relationships between environmental contaminated sites and demographics at the county level. Bivariate and choropleth analysis were used as a way to understand the relationships. Three demographics were used including race, poverty percentage, and median household income. The African American or Black population is greatest in Philadelphia and is also the population with the highest percentage of poverty. In addition, median household income became important as the county has a below average income per household compared to the United States average. When looking at the distribution of brownfields throughout the county it appears that there are an abundance of locations, but when looking at the locations within each census tract, there are only a few tracts with more than 20 locations per area. Both bivariate maps that show the relationship of brownfields versus poverty status and median household income show similar results. African American population and brownfields showed a different relationship, but all three relationships showed at least one census tract where both variables were high. Understanding environmental injustice will help bring awareness and force policy members to address change in communities.