Equity

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Infrastructure decisions shape patterns of access to services and opportunities in cities. They also shape who and what locations will bear the brunt of negative environmental or pollution related consequences stemming from infrastructure. For example, transportation and mobility infrastructure directly affects access to jobs and services, has the capacity to bolster or undermine social networks, and can either isolate populations from or integrate populations into the larger urban fabric.

The network’s research activities around infrastructure and equity are focused on developing a better understanding of how infrastructure systems exert equitable and inequitable effects. Moreover, the network’s modeling activities are focused on understanding what “equity first” scenarios, in which equity is prioritized, would mean for cities and their populations in terms of environment, health, and wellbeing outcomes.

Distribution and localization of infrastructure may correct for existing inequalities (e.g. food access in areas of the city that might otherwise be food deserts, renewable energy generation that can reduce the electricity costs of low-income populations, etc.). However, they could also exacerbate existing inequalities. If infrastructure systems are arranged in silos-from neighborhood to neighborhood or house to house-will that lead to more or less equitable outcomes for poor or otherwise underserved populations?