SYMP 7-1 - Historical redlining underpins urban ecosystem health and biodiversity throughout California

Environmental health in urban settings (e.g., intensity and distribution of pollutants) arises as a result of interactions between various human-made structures, social processes, and ecological mechanisms. These factors can have a myriad of direct and indirect consequences for biotic organisms inhabiting a particular city. As a result, urban ecosystem function is inextricably linked to environmental health. It is critical to further our understanding of these intricate connections, especially as climate change intensifies and create risks such as increased temparatures and flood risk. Urban legacy effects such as redlining has underpinned much of the social-ecological heterogeneity within cities, including the distribution of environmental pollutants and (dis)amenities. However, most of our understanding of how legacy effects have shaped urban pollution and its consequences is oriented around humans, with very little empirical work exploring the impact of redlining on wildlife. In this study, we explore (1) how redlining may underpin pollutants that are particularly relevant for wildlife and (2) how these variables may lead to decreased biodiversity in redlined areas. To understand how redlining shapes urban ecosystem health and wildlife diversity, we use home-owner loan corporation (HOLC) maps for eight cities in California to map pollutants and environmental amenities (e.g., amount of vegetation, heat) and explore whether HOLC grades may be disproportionately burdened with pollutants. We then leverage participatory science data to measure biodiversity within and across cities as a function of HOLC grade, pollutants, and amenities. Understanding how redlining shapes urban ecosystem health and function is crucial for bringing to light the linkages between social and environmental justice, and thus ultimately shaping our approach to urban conservation.