Authors

Matt Kohn, Deven Barth

Research Question

The project aims to study how QueensLink could support healthier local air and water, as well as safer roads, lower noise pollution, and assess how better transit could help areas with high flood risks.

Background

Urban mass transit networks have the ability to take large numbers of cars off the road. Areas of southern Queens have faced the brunt of climate change related environmental damage. By evaluating the benefits that a new north-south rail link would bring (QueensLink), the project aims to show how an investment in expanding mass transit and park space would have on the borough of Queens and city of New York.

This project will primarily focus on a comprehensive analysis of existing environmental burdens within the neighborhoods directly and indirectly affected by the proposed QueensLink project. It will then assess the potential environmental impacts of the rail line, with a specific emphasis on environmental justice (EJ) communities and improvements to public transit accessibility for Queens residents to key locations like beaches and JFK Airport.

Methodology

This project is proceeding through the following steps:

• Gathering of publicly available environmental data relevant to Queens from sources such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) (the local equivalent of a DEP), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and local environmental organizations (e.g., citizen science groups, academic institutions). This will include data on air pollution levels (e.g., PM2.5, ozone), noise pollution (e.g., decibel levels near transportation corridors), brownfield sites (e.g., EPA's Brownfields database, NYSDEC's Brownfield Cleanup Program), and flood risk zones (e.g., FEMA flood maps, local flood history data).

• Collecting relevant demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau (e.g., American Community Survey data on race, ethnicity, income levels, poverty rates) for the affected neighborhoods at a granular level (e.g., census tracts, block groups).

• Acquiring spatial data (shapefiles, geodatabases) for the proposed QueensLink routes and station areas from publicly available sources or by direct request to the QueensLink organization if feasible.

• Gathering data on existing public transit options and ridership in the affected areas from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and relevant transportation planning agencies, as well as use ridership projections from this past year's capstone project.

• Utilizing GIS software (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS) to create detailed maps of the study area.

• Overlaying the environmental burden data layers with the proposed QueensLink routes and station locations.

• Overlaying demographic data layers to visualize the spatial distribution of environmental burdens in relation to race, income, and other socioeconomic indicators to identify potential EJ communities.

• Employing statistical methods to analyze the correlation between existing environmental burdens and demographic variables to quantitatively identify communities that meet established EJ criteria (e.g., EPA's EJSCREEN thresholds, state-specific EJ definitions if available).

• Calculating summary statistics and visualizations to highlight disparities in environmental exposure across different demographic groups.

Deliverables

• Report on the analysis of existing environmental burdens and potential impacts, with a focus on environmental justice and accessibility to key destinations
• Detailed GIS maps visualizing environmental burdens, demographic data, and the proposed QueensLink project
• Quantitative analysis identifying potential environmental justice communities
• Assessment of the potential positive and negative environmental impacts of the QueensLink project
• Identification of potential green infrastructure opportunities and their preliminary benefits assessment
• Preliminary screening of climate change vulnerabilities and high-level adaptation ideas

Data Sources

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)

• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC)

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

• Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)

• U.S. Census Bureau