Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode Island
Across the United States, development, gentrification, and water quality degradation have altered our access to the coasts, redistributing the benefits from those spaces. Building on prior coastal and green space access research, we examined different populations’ relative travel distances to all pu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.760684/full |
| _version_ | 1823968202181312512 |
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| author | Julia H. Twichell Julia H. Twichell Kate K. Mulvaney Nathaniel H. Merrill Justin J. Bousquin |
| author_facet | Julia H. Twichell Julia H. Twichell Kate K. Mulvaney Nathaniel H. Merrill Justin J. Bousquin |
| author_sort | Julia H. Twichell |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Across the United States, development, gentrification, and water quality degradation have altered our access to the coasts, redistributing the benefits from those spaces. Building on prior coastal and green space access research, we examined different populations’ relative travel distances to all public coastal access and to public marine swimming beaches across the state of Rhode Island, by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomics. Next, we assessed relative travel distances to high quality public coastal amenities, i.e., sites with no history of water quality impairment. We used three state-level policy attributes to identify sites with the best water quality: Clean Water Act Section 303(d) impaired waters, shellfishing restrictions, and bacterial beach closure histories. Our analysis revealed statewide disparities in access to Rhode Island’s public coastal amenities. With robust socioeconomic and geographic controls, race and ethnicity remained strongly correlated to travel distance. Higher proportions of Black and Latinx populations in census block groups were associated with longer travel distances to public access, in particular to public coastal sites with better water quality and to public swimming beaches. This translates to added costs on each trip for areas with higher Black and Latinx populations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T18:38:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f226f1504c454a869f4ac3e0d33f6f15 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-7745 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T18:38:25Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Marine Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-f226f1504c454a869f4ac3e0d33f6f152022-12-21T21:37:02ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Marine Science2296-77452022-01-01810.3389/fmars.2021.760684760684Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode IslandJulia H. Twichell0Julia H. Twichell1Kate K. Mulvaney2Nathaniel H. Merrill3Justin J. Bousquin4Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Narragansett, RI, United StatesOak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, TN, United StatesAtlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Narragansett, RI, United StatesAtlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Narragansett, RI, United StatesGulf Ecosystem Measurement and Modeling Division, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf Breeze, FL, United StatesAcross the United States, development, gentrification, and water quality degradation have altered our access to the coasts, redistributing the benefits from those spaces. Building on prior coastal and green space access research, we examined different populations’ relative travel distances to all public coastal access and to public marine swimming beaches across the state of Rhode Island, by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomics. Next, we assessed relative travel distances to high quality public coastal amenities, i.e., sites with no history of water quality impairment. We used three state-level policy attributes to identify sites with the best water quality: Clean Water Act Section 303(d) impaired waters, shellfishing restrictions, and bacterial beach closure histories. Our analysis revealed statewide disparities in access to Rhode Island’s public coastal amenities. With robust socioeconomic and geographic controls, race and ethnicity remained strongly correlated to travel distance. Higher proportions of Black and Latinx populations in census block groups were associated with longer travel distances to public access, in particular to public coastal sites with better water quality and to public swimming beaches. This translates to added costs on each trip for areas with higher Black and Latinx populations.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.760684/fullequitydistributional justicecoastal recreationwater qualityenvironmental justicepublic access |
| spellingShingle | Julia H. Twichell Julia H. Twichell Kate K. Mulvaney Nathaniel H. Merrill Justin J. Bousquin Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode Island Frontiers in Marine Science equity distributional justice coastal recreation water quality environmental justice public access |
| title | Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode Island |
| title_full | Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode Island |
| title_fullStr | Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode Island |
| title_full_unstemmed | Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode Island |
| title_short | Geographies of Dirty Water: Landscape-Scale Inequities in Coastal Access in Rhode Island |
| title_sort | geographies of dirty water landscape scale inequities in coastal access in rhode island |
| topic | equity distributional justice coastal recreation water quality environmental justice public access |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.760684/full |
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