Abstract
Brownfield redevelopment in Charlotte, North Carolina has been a success in terms of leveraging private investment, increasing tax bases, and creating job opportunities. Little is known, however, about the potential health impacts of these brownfield sites in the city. This research intends to fill this gap by examining the effect of brownfield sites on neighborhood Low Birth Weight (LBW) rate. The health impact is measured as a function of proximity to brownfield sites, inactive hazardous site density, population’s economic status, and the community’s socio-economic attributes. The analyses show that being close to brownfield sites is not significantly related to having a higher rate of Low Birth Weight, but the density of brownfields in the census block group is related to a higher LBW rate. The Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model reveals that there is a considerable spatial variation in the strength of the health impacts. The local health department has indicated lack of capacity to examine the variation in community health status. The findings of this study can serve as the starting point for local health professionals to identify communities that are impacted by brownfields the most, and therefore more actively participate in brownfield redevelopment.
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Wang, J. (2011). The Health Impacts of Brownfields in Charlotte, NC: A Spatial Approach. In: Maantay, J., McLafferty, S. (eds) Geospatial Analysis of Environmental Health. Geotechnologies and the Environment, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0329-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0329-2_8
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