Spatial and Environmental Injustice in an American Metropolis: A ...

justice issues to deepen our understanding of the nexus between exposure to environmental pollution and sociospatial deprivation in this globalizing city-region. Coming to terms with the spatial distribution of environmental injustices and illuminating the geographies of inequality are as significant as extolling the many competitive virtues of Tampa Bay if the region is to gain widespread public support and policy legitimacy as one of the most dynamic and livable super-regions in the United States. Further, in an age of the impending threats of catastrophic climate change and “public health insecurity” (World Health Organization, 2007), the demand for environmental justice from the world's poor and marginalized is a major political and policy challenge for city-regions. It is towards these political and policy goals that this book seeks to contribute.

Defining Spatial and Environmental Justice

There is no single or simple definition of environmental justice. For the purposes of this book, the concept refers to the broad array of environmental risks and pollution burdens, primarily related to various sources and types of toxicity, which disproportionately affect the health and welfare of vulnerable and excluded groups, such as children, the elderly, the economically disadvantaged, and members of racial, ethnic, and immigrant minorities. Originally, these risks and burdens were limited to natural hazards, including raging floods, massive storms, and cataclysmic earthquakes. Later, the concept of environmental risks was expanded to include differential lack of access to public space, recreational opportunities, and healthy communities. More recently, the concept was expanded once more to include a wide range of byproducts and processes of industrial, as well as postindustrial, pollution and contamination. Moreover,