Different journeys, same struggle: Practitioner experiences in environmental justice policy, assessment, and decision-making

Abstract

Abstract Over the past two decades, environmental justice (EJ) has been seen as an important concept for ensuring transportation infrastructure planning does not perpetuate a legacy of disproportionately impacting low income and/or minority communities in the United States. However, state-centered EJ research often focuses on quantitative methods for carrying out EJ analysis, focusing less on qualitative assessments of agency practitioners responsible for performing EJ work. We present a qualitative case study grounded in semi-structured interviews with nineteen EJ and community impact assessment practitioners at state departments of transportation (DOTs) across the United States. Four major themes arose surrounding practitioner role specialization, agency context, tool and data availability, and assessment of disproportionate impacts. Challenges and opportunities identified in the study provide practitioners and state DOTs with operational lenses to evaluate how to further justice and equity in the transportation project delivery process.