Addressing Environmental Injustice in Tucson with Green Infrastructure

Abstract

The Tucson Metropolitan Area (TMA) has an unequal distribution of wealth. This wealth is centered around the Catalina foothills and the neighborhoods located around the University of Arizona; however, these inequities widen even more when it comes to environmental vulnerabilities. In Tucson, not only are lower-income communities increasingly vulnerable to extreme heat events, but they are also more negatively affected by flooding from large rain or precipitation events than their more affluent neighbors. These extreme exposures are called “environmental injustices”, and they are detrimental to the community’s built environment and road infrastructure, not to mention they also negatively affect the public health standards of the local residents. Thankfully, Green Infrastructure (GI) and Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) is known to mitigate the severity of the urban heat island effect and seasonal flooding in the Southwest. By using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to do a vegetation analysis of communities of varying incomes in Tucson, there is evidence that communities with lower median incomes have less vegetation cover than other communities. This disparity in access to GI or GSI resources is important to consider when accounting for all residents of a large metropolitan area, especially residents in lower-income communities. Given the evidence that lower-income communities in Tucson have less vegetation cover and access to GI or GSI resources, it is important to advocate for equity of access to green resources to encourage equitable public health outcomes across the entirety of the TMA. This research has culminated into a small scale GSI plan and proposal for a site located in South Tucson, a community that has a significantly lower vegetation cover percentage than its wealthier neighbors. As we move forward and strive for sustainability in a large desert city, it is essential to advocate for GI or GSI equity in Tucson’s lower-income communities in order to bolster public health standards and promote sustainable and green landscape design in the region.