Dr. Sandy Wong, Department of Geography,
Rank at time of award: Assistant Professor
and
Dr. Huyen Le, Department of Geography,
Rank at time of award: Assistant Professor
and
Dr. Harvey Miller, Department of Geography,
Rank at time of award: Professor
Abstract
Around the world, climate change has brought about heat waves, floods, and a myriad of extreme weather events that have put people at risk of heat stroke, premature death, mental illness, and many other adverse health outcomes. This has led to major public health disparities, with the most vulnerable populations being racialized minorities, older adults, children, people with low incomes, and disabled people. People with disabilities are acknowledged as a group vulnerable to climate change, yet there is relatively little research investigating the climate change experiences of disabled individuals compared to people from other social axes of difference. People with disabilities comprise the world’s largest minority group at 10% of the population, thus it is important to bring more attention to the climate change vulnerabilities of this growing population.
This project seeks to address this critical research gap by applying spatial analytic techniques to investigate the vulnerability of disabled people to extreme heat, air pollution, and lack of green space in Columbus, Ohio, a major metropolitan area in the U.S. There are three main guiding questions: (1) For residents with disabilities, what are their exposures to environmental hazards (defined in this project as extreme heat, high air pollution, and low green space) relative to non-disabled residents? (2) Where are there spatiotemporal clusters of significantly high disability and environmental hazards? (3) What are the racial and socioeconomic characteristics of the neighborhoods with a higher proportion of disabled residents and greater levels of environmental hazards? By answering these questions, this project will examine vulnerabilities across disability, race, and class to better understand inequities at the intersection of multiple marginalized experiences and health conditions. In summary, this research will expand work in geography and environmental health by advancing our understandings of the geographic and social factors linked to climate change vulnerability among disabled people, an important, yet understudied population.