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1. The ecological and evolutionary consequences of systemic racism in urban environments

   https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay4497  

   Schell, Christopher J.; Dyson, Karen; Fuentes, Tracy L.; Des Roches, Simone; Harris, Nyeema C.; Miller, Danica Sterud; Woelfle-Erskine, Cleo A.; Lambert, Max R. (August 2020, Science)

   Urban areas are dynamic ecological systems defined by interdependent biological, physical, and social components. The emergent structure and heterogeneity of urban landscapes drives biotic outcomes in these areas, and such spatial patterns are often attributed to the unequal stratification of wealth and power in human societies. Despite these patterns, few studies have effectively considered structural inequalities as drivers of ecological and evolutionary outcomes and have instead focused on indicator variables such as neighborhood wealth. In this analysis, we explicitly integrate ecology, evolution, and social processes to emphasize the relationships that bind social inequities—specifically racism—and biological change in urbanized landscapes. We draw on existing research to link racist practices, including residential segregation, to the heterogeneous patterns of flora and fauna observed by urban ecologists. In the future, urban ecology and evolution researchers must consider how systems of racial oppression affect the environmental factors that drive biological change in cities. Conceptual integration of the social and ecological sciences has amassed considerable scholarship in urban ecology over the past few decades, providing a solid foundation for incorporating environmental justice scholarship into urban ecological and evolutionary research. Such an undertaking is necessary to deconstruct urbanization’s biophysical patterns and processes, inform equitable and anti-racist initiatives promoting justice in urban conservation, and strengthen community resilience to global environmental change. 

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2. Human mobility networks reveal increased segregation in large cities

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06757-3  

   Nilforoshan, Hamed; Looi, Wenli; Pierson, Emma; Villanueva, Blanca; Fishman, Nic; Chen, Yiling; Sholar, John; Redbird, Beth; Grusky, David; Leskovec, Jure (December 2023, Nature)

   Abstract A long-standing expectation is that large, dense and cosmopolitan areas support socioeconomic mixing and exposure among diverse individuals^1–6. Assessing this hypothesis has been difficult because previous measures of socioeconomic mixing have relied on static residential housing data rather than real-life exposures among people at work, in places of leisure and in home neighbourhoods^7,8. Here we develop a measure of exposure segregation that captures the socioeconomic diversity of these everyday encounters. Using mobile phone mobility data to represent 1.6 billion real-world exposures among 9.6 million people in the United States, we measure exposure segregation across 382 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and 2,829 counties. We find that exposure segregation is 67% higher in the ten largest MSAs than in small MSAs with fewer than 100,000 residents. This means that, contrary to expectations, residents of large cosmopolitan areas have less exposure to a socioeconomically diverse range of individuals. Second, we find that the increased socioeconomic segregation in large cities arises because they offer a greater choice of differentiated spaces targeted to specific socioeconomic groups. Third, we find that this segregation-increasing effect is countered when a city’s hubs (such as shopping centres) are positioned to bridge diverse neighbourhoods and therefore attract people of all socioeconomic statuses. Our findings challenge a long-standing conjecture in human geography and highlight how urban design can both prevent and facilitate encounters among diverse individuals. 

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3. Sanitary sewer overflows, household sewage backups, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria: the new frontier of environmental health risks and disasters

   https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ad8d05  

   Hendricks, Marccus D; Rosenberg_Goldstein, Rachel E (November 2024, Environmental Research: Health)

   Abstract Untreated sewage discharges leading to environmental contamination are increasingly common in communities across the globe. The cause of these discharges ranges from sewer lines in disrepair, blockages, and in the era of more extreme wet weather events, the infiltration of stormwater into the system during heavy downpours. Regardless of the driver of these events, the aftermath results in raw sewage spilling into local waterways, city streets, and commercial and residential structures. Historical research in public health has thoroughly documented the connection between exposure to untreated sewage and waterborne disease. Recent research has detected antibiotic-resistant bacteria at wastewater treatment facilities at a time when deaths by antibiotic-resistant infections are on the rise. However, no research has explored the exposure pathways of antibiotic-resistant bacteria during sanitary sewer overflows and household-level sewage backups. In this commentary, we aim to introduce this new frontier of environmental health risks and disasters. To do this, we describe the history of modern sanitation and sewer infrastructure with a particular focus on wastewater infrastructure in the U.S. We also explore emerging risks and current methods for identifying antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment. We end with future directions for interdisciplinary scholarship at the nexus of urban planning, engineering, and public health by introducing the Water Emergency Team (WET) Project. WET is a community-based multi-method effort to identify environmental risks in the aftermath of household backups through (1) residential surveys, (2) indoor visual inspections, (3) environmental sampling, and (4) laboratory processing and reporting. Our hope is that by introducing this comprehensive approach to environmental risks analysis, other scholars will join us in this effort and ultimately towards addressing this grand challenge of our time. 

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4. Density zoning, neighborhood type, and exclusion by income and race

   Durst, Noah J; Breshears, Elise; Sullivan, Esther; Gutierrez_Lanza, Danna (June 2025, Journal of housing economics)

   In recent years, states and municipalities have taken steps to reform land use and zoning regulations. While prior research documents that density zoning contributes to residential segregation on the basis of income and race, the mechanisms remain largely unexplored. In this paper, we examine the relationship between density zoning, neighborhood type, and residential segregation. To do so, we use a national dataset of building footprints and machine learning to develop a neighborhood typology based on building characteristics. We then use land cover data to examine changes in building development in these neighborhoods between 2001 and 2019. Finally, we pair these data with demographics at the municipality level to examine changes in income and race between 2000 and 2020. In cross-sectional analyses, we find that density zoning is strongly associated with building characteristics and the presence of different neighborhood types. Although we find that density zoning is also associated with income and race, the effects are attenuated when accounting for neighborhood types. Our results provide new evidence into the ``chain of exclusion" between density zoning and residential segregation, as we find that density zoning is primarily associated with reductions in the supply of single-family housing along the urban fringe. Lastly, we find that maximum density restrictions and changes in maximum density cannot explain the changes in demographics that we observe during this time period. We do, however, find some evidence of a relationship between changes in building development and changes in demographics. These results demonstrate the potential effects of upzoning policies. 

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5. Meeting at the crossroads: An environmental justice framework for large carnivore reintroductions and recoveries

   https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2020.00172  

   Alex McInturff, Clare E. (January 2021, Elementa)

   As global environmental changes continue to accelerate, research and practice in the field of conservation biology may be essential to help forestall precipitous declines in the earth’s ability to sustain a diversity of life. However, many conservation programs have faced scrutiny for the social injustices they create, especially within the paradigm of demarcating protected lands. Currently, a new conservation paradigm emphasizing landscapes shared by people and wildlife is emerging, and with it, an opportunity to ensure that justice for both human and beyond-human groups is given consideration. Here, we examine a practice emblematic of this new conservation paradigm, the reintroduction and recovery of large carnivore species, and draw from theories in environmental justice to detail the many forms of justice at stake in these efforts. Our analysis shows that a pluralistic application of justice is required to ensure that new conservation practices do not produce and reproduce injustices for people. In addition, we show that the success of these emerging programs in meeting their conservation goals in fact depends on meaningfully addressing a range of justice concerns. By developing this framework, we also identify domains in which environmental justice scholarship can expand its scope. To this end, we introduce the novel concept of affective environmental justice, which describes the complex role of emotions as environmental harms, as disruptors of understanding other forms of justice, and as links between logics of oppression. Our framework offers a comprehensive resource to work through in planning and implementing large carnivore reintroduction and recovery programs, and we conclude by describing the challenges and opportunities for further aligning conservation and environmental justice in research and practice. 

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