Neglected Spaces: Racialized Flood and Sea Level Rise Riskscapes and the State Space of Environmental and Climate Justice in California

Abstract

California state government has shown promise and perils in pursuing environmental and climate justice. Its novel California Community Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen) identifies “cumulative impacts” facing “disadvantaged communities,” which receive carbon cap-and-trade revenues to improve their health and well-being through the California Climate Investments (CCI) Program. However, CalEnviroScreen excludes census tracts’ racial composition—an established demographic predictor of environmental inequality—and indicators of flood and sea level rise (SLR) exposure risk. What would state-led cumulative impact mapping in California look like if it considered racialized flood and SLR risk? To address that question, this paper draws on data from CalEnviroScreen 4.0, CCI’s related to flood and climate change mitigation or adaptation from 2015 to 2020, and characterizations of flood and SLR “riskscapes” that build on prior related research in Stockton, California. It presents two sets of findings that illuminate the multi-scalar “neglected spaces” within the broader “state space” of environmental and climate justice in California. First, CCI’s have neglected localized flood and SLR exposure risk in Stockton, but equity-oriented risk mitigation and adaptation measures found elsewhere in California could be applied to Stockton’s flood and SLR riskscapes. Second, the study finds that federal and local actions to repair local levees has shifted flood and SLR riskscapes in Stockton. However, enduring environmental and climate injustices remain: on average, 15 newly identified at-risk tracts nearly meet the threshold for “disadvantaged community” status, and they have elevated levels of cumulative pollution burden and historically excluded Asian American and Pacific Islanders.