Environment and Income

The purpose of my research is to examine environmental equality in the United States. What this means is looking at the relationship between marginalized groups and the quantity and/or level of harmful environmental issues in their area. To accomplish this, I used ArcGIS programs to map environmental factors such as the location of harmful power plants (coal, natural gas, nuclear, etc.) and annual Air Quality Index values, and human factors such as median household income. By comparing the data shown on each map, we can see that not only is there a strong correlation in low air quality and location of power plants, but that there is also a startling lack of air quality data in low-income areas, contributing to the conclusion that there is an overall lack of concern for low-income families residing in environmentally threatened areas.