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Environmental Equity

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Environmental equity is fair and just access to environmental resources, to protection from environmental hazards, and to environmental decisionmaking. RAND research has examined equity in disaster preparation, response, and recovery; how historic redlining continues to affect communities; urban stormwater management; heat wave vulnerability; and how low-income, marginalized communities of color face disproportionate effects of climate change.

Report
Assessing Social Equity in Disaster Preparation, Response, and Recovery
In this webinar, senior social scientist Melissa Finucane reviews the complex nature of social equity—including contextual, procedural, and distributional equity dimensions—and how a robust, evidence-based approach is needed to measure progress toward equity in disaster contexts.
Nov 16, 2021
Multimedia
What Does Environmental Justice Look Like?
Videos describe the impact of grassroots environmental justice campaigns in two redlined neighborhoods. This work features RAND research that shows how a shared community vision can help residents, organizers, and policymakers understand the root causes of injustices and identify actionable responses.
Apr 19, 2023

Explore Environmental Equity

Report
Community and Individual Disaster Resilience for Floods: Options for Improving Protective Action Guidance
This report describes options for Department of Homeland Security officials to improve protective action flood guidance and messaging in response to growing flood risks that continue to cause adverse effects and threaten lives and property.
May 8, 2023
Blog
Environmental Justice, Mental Health Care, Insomnia: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on environmental justice, access to mental health care, why America should stick with Europe. and more.
Apr 21, 2023
Multimedia
What Does Environmental Justice Look Like? Two Case Studies
The RAND Corporation has partnered with community organizations and activists in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and San Diego, California to show how community engagement can contribute to environmental justice for residents affected by neighborhood disinvestment.
Apr 19, 2023
Report
Independent Review of the Homeland Security Grant Program Terrorism Risk Formula and Data
Researchers evaluated the Federal Emergency Management Agency's terrorism risk formula, which considers threat, vulnerability, and consequences of terrorist attacks for allocating resources to the Homeland Security Grant Program.
Apr 19, 2023
Report
An Initial Methodology for Evaluating Social Equity Performance in Disaster Mitigation Grants: The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program
The authors explore how the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program addresses the greatest natural hazard risks for mitigation (predisaster actions to reduce damage and ease recovery) while also integrating social equity factors.
Mar 22, 2023
Report
The Cost of Cost-Effectiveness: Expanding Equity in Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grants
Researchers offer ways the Federal Emergency Management Agency could simplify or amend the required benefit–cost analysis process in applications for hazard mitigation assistance to be more inclusive of lower-resourced communities.
Feb 15, 2023
Journal Article
The Road to Justice40: Organizer and Policymaker Perspectives on the Historical Roots of and Solutions for Environmental Justice Inequities in U.S. Cities
This study characterizes the perceptions of organizers and policymakers regarding how communities experience the causes of environmental injustices in U.S. cities, the characteristics of policies intended to address these injustices, and lessons learned for equitably engaging communities.
Dec 28, 2022
Multimedia
Three Steps to Protect Communities from Climate Change
RAND engineer and information scientist Michelle Miro presents three steps to reduce the risks that climate change poses to communities around the United States.
Jul 7, 2022
Essay
Environmental Racism: How Historic Redlining Continues to Affect Communities
Starting in the 1930s, neighborhoods across America were redlined—marked on government maps as too hazardous, as in, too Black or too immigrant, for federal home loans. When zoning officials needed somewhere to put a new factory or freeway, those redlined neighborhoods were like a bullseye that they hit again and again.
Jun 27, 2022
Multimedia
Climate Change and Implications for Disasters in the United States
Climate change is contributing to more frequent and more severe disasters. In this video, three RAND researchers discuss climate change and risks for disasters in the United States, drawing on examples from the Arctic, the Caribbean, the Northeast, and the Gulf states.
Jun 10, 2022
Project
Environmental Racism: Mapping the Legacy of Historic Redlining on Urban Environments
Past housing policies have an enduring legacy on urban neighborhoods today and have contributed to which communities enjoy more trees, less traffic, and better air quality, and which face hazards such as pollution, toxic waste sites, and flooding risk.
Mar 31, 2022
Tool
Environmental Racism: A Tool for Exploring the Enduring Legacy of Redlining on Urban Environments
Researchers developed an online tool for visualizing the spatial relationships between the discriminatory practice of redlining and exposure to environmental hazards (e.g., pollution, waste sites).
Mar 31, 2022
Report
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Mitigation Grant Program
Natural disasters have become more frequent and destructive, with the damage from disasters affecting some communities—most notably, low-income and disadvantaged communities—more than others. Hazard risk mitigation could reduce disruption and damage, and equity issues are important in helping communities' mitigation efforts.
Mar 23, 2022
Multimedia
Disaster Mitigation and Recovery: Preparing Communities Through Planning
RAND senior social and behavioral scientist Melissa Finucane discusses disaster planning, the importance of addressing the impacts of multiple overlapping disasters, and what equity in disaster planning means.
Oct 22, 2021
Commentary
Hurricane Ida Is Part of a Cycle of Disasters—Mitigating Their Impact Means Building Back Better
Building back better means focusing on recovery that not only restores damage from a disaster but also reduces future risk. To meet that goal today, we need to look at the ways our disaster preparedness and response systems actually create risk themselves, by reinforcing things like wealth inequality, systemic discrimination, or access to crucial services.
Sep 13, 2021
Commentary
Achieving Decarbonization and Energy Equity Through Reconciliation
The past two years have witnessed increasingly vocal calls for rapid decarbonization of the global economy through a clean energy transition. How can Congress ensure that new costs associated with a clean energy transition do not fall disproportionately on lower-income ratepayers?
Sep 9, 2021
Q&A
Mapping Environmental Racism: Q&A with Jaime Madrigano and Benjamin Preston
Environmental policy experts Jaime Madrigano and Benjamin Preston are leading an effort to highlight how discriminatory policies have shaped environmental health disparities. Their goal: create an interactive map of the United States to motivate environmental policy that advances antiracism.
Sep 7, 2021
Multimedia
Climate Change: An Issue of Equity
RAND senior policy researcher Benjamin Preston describes areas where climate change and equity intersect.
Aug 26, 2021

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