Collision of Environmental Injustice and Sea Level Rise: Assessment of Risk Inequality in Flood-induced Pollutant Dispersion from Toxic Sites in Texas

TL;DR

This study assesses how future sea level rise and flooding in Texas will disproportionately expose vulnerable communities to pollution from toxic sites, highlighting increasing environmental injustice and risk inequality.

Contribution

It provides a novel analysis of flood-induced pollutant dispersion disparities among Texas communities under current and future sea level rise scenarios.

Findings

Vulnerable communities are disproportionately exposed to flood-induced pollution.

Future sea level rise will increase the number of affected residents by about 10%.

Environmental injustice related to toxic sites and flooding will worsen with climate change.

Abstract

Global sea-level rise causes increasing threats of coastal flood and subsequent pollutant dispersion. However, there are still few studies on the disparity arising from such threats and the extent to which different communities could be exposed to flood-induced pollution dispersion from toxic sites under future sea level rise. To address this gap, this study selects Texas (a U.S. state with a large number of toxic sites and significant flood hazards) as the study area and investigates impacts of flood-induced pollutant dispersion on different communities under current (2018) and future (2050) flood hazard scenarios.The results show, currently, north coastline in Texas bears higher threats and vulnerable communities (i.e., low income, minorities and unemployed) are disproportionally exposed to these threats. In addition, the future sea-level rise and the exacerbated flood hazards will put additional threats on more (about 10%) Texas residents, among which vulnerable communities will still be disproportionately exposed to the increased threats. Our study reveals the facts that potential coastal pollutant dispersion will further aggravate the environmental injustice issues at the intersection of toxic sites and flood hazards for vulnerable populations and exacerbate risk inequalities. Given the dire impacts of flood-induced pollution dispersion on public health, the findings have important implications for specific actions from the policy makers to mitigate the inequitable risks.