Prepared by Thomas Boston, PhD and Linje Boston, MS
EuQuant (Formerly Boston Research Group, Inc.)
Since 1994, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has been charged with the responsibility of identifying, monitoring and mitigating adverse health and environmental impacts of regional transportation plans and investments on minority and low-income communities. Presidential Executive Order 12898 requires Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to incorporate Environmental Justice (EJ) as part of their mission.
In developing EJ methodology, ARC and other MPOs follow the regulatory framework set forth by the Federal Highway and Federal Transit Administrations. This framework defines EJ areas based on race and poverty thresholds within the region. For example, EJ areas in the Atlanta region are defined as Census Block Groups that meet any of the following regional race and poverty thresholds: Black population average more than 30.4 percent, Hispanic population exceeding average of 7 percent, Asian-American population average more than 3.6 percent, or poverty level in excess of 9.1 percent.
EuQuant, formerly Boston Research Group, was retained by ARC to evaluate whether race and poverty are the most efficient criteria for identifying EJ areas. To answer this question, researchers at EuQuant, led by Thomas D. Boston, who is a professor of Economics at Georgia Tech, developed the Community Attribute Index (CAI). The CAI is a multidimensional index whose value ranges from 0 to 1. The index can be used to score the attributes of communities where values closer to 1 indicate communities with better overall characteristics. It is modeled after the United Nations’ Human Development Index and is constructed by assembling data at the census tract level on 165 variables. Then, using principle component analysis, these variables are reduced to 13 variables grouped into 5 dimensions: Economic Opportunity, Poverty Status, Educational Attainment, Housing and Population Mix, and Family Stability. Each dimension has several variables as indicated in Figure 1.
Figure 1 - The Five Dimensions of the CAI
Figure 2 - How the CAI is Calculated
Table 1 (below) records the CAI dimension index values and the overall CAI score for each superdistrict in the Atlanta Region. In general, areas achieving the highest CAI are located outside of the I-285 Perimeter. Of those cities, Snellville, Lilburn and Roswell rank in the top quartile with a CAI score of over 0.53. Superdistricts of Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Norcross, and Cumberland also rank higher than the Atlanta average CAI score of 0.46. The areas to the west and south of the Central Business District of Atlanta fared lowest in the region, averaging just over 0.30 in CAI score. The bottom four superdistricts are characterized by lowest index score in all five dimensions measured.
Figure 2 (above) describes how the CAI score is derived and the following table ranks Superdistricts by CAI scores. CAI scores were derived for each census tract and each Superdistrict of the ARC Region. Figures 3 and 4 below compare EJ areas to Superdistricts classified by CAI quartiles. The study reveals that of the 50 census tracts with the most favorable attributes, as ranked by their CAI scores, 23 are currently designated as EJ areas. The main factor that causes these areas to be classified as EJ is the 3.6% Asian threshold requirement. If this requirement were eliminated, only four of the top 50 tracts would be designated as EJ areas. The study recommends using the CAI in conjunction with race and poverty criteria to define EJ areas to determine more accurately the communities needing increased government spending on infrastructure development projects.
Table 1 - Ranking of all Superdistricts by CAI Score
By applying the index to the Atlanta region, the results validated ARC’s suspicion and revealed that the use of race and poverty criteria alone has caused ARC to monitor many areas for EJ that are among the most well endowed in the ARC region. This means that resources are being used inefficiently. Some of the most important findings are as follows:
The study found that Asians are particularly likely to reside in communities that have the greatest endowment of positive attributes. Therefore, identifying EJ communities on the basis of racial criteria alone causes the ARC to monitor communities that are among the best endowed in the region. EJ criteria should be modified by using a combination of traditional race and poverty criteria, modified by the use of the CAI.
Figure 3: EJ Areas of the ARC Region
Figure 4: Classification of ARC Census Tracts by their Community Attribute Index (CAI) Score
NOTE: Potential Future Research Directions
Beyond Race and Poverty, is an important step in the Atlanta Regional Commission’s effort to continually improve its approach to environmental justice and effects of planning initiatives in minority and underserved communities. This study documented the need to consider methodological changes. The new methodological approach would combine traditional race and poverty criteria, modified by use of the CAI. Specific recommendations include the following:
The Atlanta Regional Commission will be reviewing these recommendations over the next year
Thomas Boston is CEO of EuQuant and Professor of Economics at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Boston is the author or editor of six books and numerous scholarly articles on entrepreneurship and related topics. He advised the U.S. Department of Commerce on the benchmarking methodology currently used in the SDB Program. Linje. R. Boston is COO and Chief Statistical Analyst of EuQuant.