Income, educational attainment, and green infrastructure in Houston, Texas, USA

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that when the residents of an area have lower educational attainment or income levels, residents are less likely to be exposed to the concepts of alternative stormwater management such as green infrastructures or have financial resources to install them. Therefore, fewer green infrastructures will be located in areas with higher poverty levels and lower educational attainment levels. However, previous studies failed to address that some socioeconomically disadvantaged areas are highly prone to hydrological disasters, such as hurricanes and flooding. Geographical specificity may illustrate very different research results than what scholars have previously studied. This study fills the gap in the literature by focusing on areas that desperately need these structures because of its low elevation and adjacent location to hurricane prone coastal areas by investigating educational attainment, poverty, and ethnicity data taken from the United States Census Bureau and combining it with Google Earth Street View data in order to identify green infrastructures. Within Houston, Texas the socioeconomically disadvantaged have more green infrastructures than those of higher educational and income levels do. We argue that the pattern of green infrastructure development in Houston is not so much due to the residents’ interest and concern for the environment, but it is more likely the result of past flood events. Results from this research indicate that ethnicity may correlate more closely to the location of green infrastructures within the Houston area than previously indicated. We will discuss our study results with the historical perspective as well as the federal and local government’s effort and potential policy implications.