Faculty Mentor
Dr. Brian Buchanan and Dr. Stacy Warren
Presentation Type
Poster
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Anthropology
Abstract
Inspired by the author’s work with the mapping team for the Eastern Washington University Racial Covenants Project, this project uses additional GIS layers to reveal the enduring imprint of historic racial exclusion on today’s urban landscape. Spokane, Washington’s landscape, like many urban areas across the country, bears the imprint of racial exclusion through mechanisms such as restrictive covenants and redlining. This project examines how racial covenants and red lining layers relate to current brownfield and superfund sites to shape Spokane’s long-term environmental injustice. Using digitized property records, historic zoning maps, and GIS spatial analysis, this project demonstrates that historically red lined neighborhoods are more likely to be situated near brownfield and superfund sites. Spatial joins and pairwise comparisons show expected and unexpected relationships between the spatial layers. These communities frequently experience limited access to green infrastructure, elevated exposure to air pollutants, and persistent challenges in securing environmental cleanup and investment funds. The findings call for reparative planning and targeted remediation that centers historical accountability. This work contributes to cultural resource management and environmental anthropology by offering a model for integrating historical documentation with ecological data to inform policy and public engagement.
Recommended Citation
Baxter, Monique A., "Landscapes of Exclusion: Mapping Racial Boundaries and Environmental Burdens" (2026). 2026 Symposium. 25.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2026/works_2026/works_2026/25
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Landscapes of Exclusion: Mapping Racial Boundaries and Environmental Burdens
Inspired by the author’s work with the mapping team for the Eastern Washington University Racial Covenants Project, this project uses additional GIS layers to reveal the enduring imprint of historic racial exclusion on today’s urban landscape. Spokane, Washington’s landscape, like many urban areas across the country, bears the imprint of racial exclusion through mechanisms such as restrictive covenants and redlining. This project examines how racial covenants and red lining layers relate to current brownfield and superfund sites to shape Spokane’s long-term environmental injustice. Using digitized property records, historic zoning maps, and GIS spatial analysis, this project demonstrates that historically red lined neighborhoods are more likely to be situated near brownfield and superfund sites. Spatial joins and pairwise comparisons show expected and unexpected relationships between the spatial layers. These communities frequently experience limited access to green infrastructure, elevated exposure to air pollutants, and persistent challenges in securing environmental cleanup and investment funds. The findings call for reparative planning and targeted remediation that centers historical accountability. This work contributes to cultural resource management and environmental anthropology by offering a model for integrating historical documentation with ecological data to inform policy and public engagement.
