The study will investigate environmental justice relating to urban transport. Through comparative Californian case studies, it will look at road traffic emission loads for different population groups at their residential location. Building on US research experience, empirical and methodological gaps will be closed.

• Applicant: Philine Gaffron, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: City Planning, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: from 2011 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 203045341

In relation to urban transport, environmental justice (EJ) focuses on the question to what extent different population groups are differently affected by transport emissions. This question will be investigated looking at case studies in California as EJ research has been established in the US for much longer than in Germany and the work can build on extensive experience at the host institute. So far, there is hardly any knowledge about the transferability of findings and methods from US to German contexts, though. Also, existing approaches are to be significantly extended and differentiated: Until now, research primarily focused on the question which groups were more affected by transport emissions than others. The analyses generally either drew on secondary data about subjective evaluations or environmental parameters were quantified through measurements or modelling. The proposed project will link both approaches: environmental burdens will be quantified through both modelling and household surveys and the results will be compared. A wholly new aspect will be the question of the influence of human daily activity patterns. Since the effects of traffic noise in particular but of other transport emissions, too, are not just related to absolute traffic volumes but also to their distribution over the day, it is important to investigate who specifically spends more time at home when traffic loads are high and not just who generally lives along roads with heavier traffic. Finally, the role played by road traffic related burdens in household location choice shall also be investigated: To what extent do households consciously accept these, because they value other location factors more highly and are there any socioeconomic differences in this respect? Answers to these questions will also be required to enable a clearer diagnosis of environmental injustice in this area and to help avoid or reduce the significant associated health costs.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professorin Susan Handy