Berkeley Geography
Fall 2021 Colloquium
(Wednesday) December 1 | 3:30pm | 575 McCone
Green Infrastructure, Environmental Justice and Black America
Maya Carrasquillo
Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
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Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) has been adopted and implemented as city-wide strategies to address stormwater across several U.S. cities. This presentation seeks to answer the following question- How equitable is GSI distribution in select U.S. cities with Black populations that exceed parity? Focusing on 2 major cities, Atlanta, GA, and Washington, D.C., a GIS analysis was applied to compare the geographic distribution of GSI with social indicators of environmental justice (race, income, and educational attainment). Results within and across each of the cities were used to glean insights and learn lessons that can be applied to other cities transitioning towards GSI city-wide implementation.
Dr. Maya Carrasquillo (pronouns: she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of California, Berkeley and the PI of the JEDI (L)ab. She was previously a Management Consultant at Arcadis U.S. in Atlanta, GA. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of South Florida in 2020 and her B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2015. Her research interests include sustainable and equitable urban water infrastructure, food-energy-water systems (FEWs), community-engagement and citizen science in decision-making, and environmental/social justice. She is a certified Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP). She is also a College of Engineering Huelskamp Faculty Fellow.