Inequalities in noise will affect urban wildlife

Abstract

Understanding how systemic biases in uence local ecological communities is essential for developing just and equitable environmental practices that center both human and wildlife wellbeing. With over 270 million United States residents inhabiting urban areas, understanding the socio-ecological consequences of racially-targeted zoning, such as redlining, will prove critical for urban planning. There is a growing body of literature documenting the relationships between redlining and the inequitable distribution of environmental harms and goods, green space cover and pollutant exposure. However, it remains unknown whether historical redlining impacts the distribution of urban noise or whether inequitable noise drives an ecological change in urban environments. We conducted 1) a spatial analysis of how urban noise corresponds with the distribution of redlining categories and 2) a systematic literature review to summarize the effects of noise on wildlife in urban landscapes. We found strong evidence that noise is inequitably distributed in redlined urban communities across the United States, and that inequitable noise may drive complex biological responses across diverse urban wildlife, reinforcing the interrelatedness of socio-ecological outcomes. These ndings lay a foundation for future research that advances relationships between acoustic and urban ecology through centering equity and challenging systems of oppression in wildlife studies.

Historical Redlining Is Associated with Disparities in Environmental Quality across California

“…Redlining persisted across the United States from 1933 to 1968 in over 230 cities. , Alongside restrictive deeds, racialized zoning, steering, and social violence, redlining led to land use and decision making that worsened the environmental quality for redlined neighborhoods. ,, In this study, we assessed 868 previously HOLC-graded neighborhoods across eight California cities and found that redlining is strongly associated with environmental quality. Our results enrich the redlining literature by demonstrating that formerly redlined neighborhoods exhibit significantly poorer environmental quality than other HOLC grades, including less investigated hazards such as noise pollution, lead, and contaminated water. − This holds implications for human health disparities, as redlined neighborhoods in California are composed of census tracts with higher proportions of Hispanic and Black populations, as well as a people living in poverty, than greenlined neighborhoods . Our results shed light on the enduring, far-reaching impact of redlining, a policy that was abolished almost 60 years ago, on contemporary environmental quality.…”

“…Our results enrich the redlining literature by demonstrating that formerly redlined neighborhoods exhibit significantly poorer environmental quality than other HOLC grades, including less investigated hazards such as noise pollution, lead, and contaminated water. 33 − 35 This holds implications for human health disparities, as redlined neighborhoods in California are composed of census tracts with higher proportions of Hispanic and Black populations, as well as a people living in poverty, than greenlined neighborhoods. 36 Our results shed light on the enduring, far-reaching impact of redlining, a policy that was abolished almost 60 years ago, on contemporary environmental quality.…”

Historical redlining is associated with disparities in wildlife biodiversity in four California cities

“…Rather, our results suggest that an individual is more likely to encounter a greater diversity of species with less search effort in California’s greenlined neighborhoods than in nongreenlined neighborhoods. This may potentially be explained by greenlined neighborhoods customarily having increased environmental quality [i.e., higher vegetation cover and reduced ecological disturbances ( 24 , 30 , 45 , 47 )], which in turn improves the likelihood of unique species occupying the given area. This holds broad implications for human well-being in urban spaces, as equity in nature access and quality, as well as promoting positive human-environment relationships (which are more likely with increased access to biodiverse spaces) are increasingly being considered as central issues of environmental justice ( 48 , 49 ).…”