Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Connect
    • Feedback
    • Help
  • Alerts
  • ASLA Research Grant
  • Other Publications
    • UWP

User menu

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Landscape Journal
  • Other Publications
    • UWP
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
Landscape Journal

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Connect
    • Feedback
    • Help
  • Alerts
  • ASLA Research Grant
  • Follow uwp on Twitter
  • Visit uwp on Facebook
Research ArticlePeer-Reviewed Articles

Proximity of Urban Farms to Contaminated Sites in Baltimore, Maryland

Isabel Shargo, Jonathan Hall, Ashley Deng, Niya Khanjar, Camryn Edwards, Isabelle Berman, Joseph Galarraga and Sacoby Wilson
Landscape Journal, January 2021, 40 (1) 17-33; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/wplj.40.1.17
Isabel Shargo
Isabel Shargo is an environmental health professional with experience working in a wide range of public health topics, including health communication, community health assessments, environmental justice, and population health. She is passionate about using and mobilizing data to improve public health. She has conducted analyses using GIS, Tableau, and SAS to characterize and investigate environmental and health issues of concern. She has also worked in the public and private sectors to implement and maintain sustainable performance improvement strategies. She holds her bachelor’s of science in environmental science and master’s of public health, specializing in environmental health.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jonathan Hall
Jonathan Hall is a master’s of public policy graduate from the University of Maryland-College Park specializing in environmental policy. He uses GIS to inform public policy with spatial solutions. He is interested in resource sustainability, pollution, and environmental health. He has done work for the Global Environmental Fund attempting to map tree loss and mercury pollution in relation to gold mining.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ashley Deng
Ashley Deng is a second year public health science student and Banneker Key scholar at the University of Maryland-College Park. She currently conducts research in the Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH) laboratory under Dr. Wilson. Her research interests lie in environmental justice, kinesiology, women’s health, and infectious disease.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Niya Khanjar
Niya Khanjar is a second-year engineering student at the University of Maryland-College Park. She is majoring in bioengineering, with a minor in sustainability studies. She has worked in the CEEJH laboratory under Dr. Wilson as an undergraduate research assistant since June 2020.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Camryn Edwards
Camryn Edwards is a senior at the University of Maryland-College Park majoring in public health science with a minor in Black women’s studies. Her previous research experience centers around the effect of residential reentry programs on the mental health of formerly incarcerated women.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Isabelle Berman
Isabelle Berman is a member of the CEEJH laboratory. Isabelle has worked for Montgomery County, Maryland’s Department of Environmental Protection, studying local stream ecology data and community engagement in climate change.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Joseph Galarraga
Joseph Galarraga holds a master’s of public health degree with a concentration in health equity from the University of Maryland School of Public Health, Health Policy and Management department. He is a faculty assistant with the CEEJH laboratory. His research interests include housing and health, community development, environmental health, and health disparities.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sacoby Wilson
Sacoby Wilson is Associate Professor and Director of the CEEJH laboratory at the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland-College Park. He has 20 years of experience performing community-engaged research including community-based participatory research, crowd science, and citizen science on environmental justice and health topics in the mid-Atlantic region, Carolinas, Deep South, and the Gulf Coast. He is on the board of the Citizen Science Association, former board member for Community Campus Partnerships for Health, and a member of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The proliferation of urban farming in Baltimore City has helped counter the lack of available healthy food but raises concerns regarding public health and environmental justice because of its potential proximity to environmental hazards and toxic sites. We used GIS mapping and a Getis–Ord Gi* hotspot analysis to determine if specific environmental hazards were disproportionately located in census tracts with urban farms or in low-income communities of color. These analyses found that most urban farms were in pockets of lowincome communities of color. However, most environmental hazards were not proximate to urban farms but in regions with more White populations bordering the Inner Harbor, including Federal Hill, and in historically industrial centers such as Curtis Bay. These findings are hopeful with respect to the notion of urban farming as a healthy and sustainable solution to food insecurity with low risk of contamination. Even so, there were cases of hazardous sites in census tracts deemed urban farm hotspots. Some urban farms located in areas with high percentages of lowincome communities and Black or African American populations have the potential to be contaminated by hazardous sites. The methodology in this study could be used in the siting of future urban agricultural ventures in cities with legacy pollution as a first step in ensuring that growing operations are not sited near toxic hazards that could threaten the safety of produce for consumption.

KEYWORDS
  • Urban agriculture
  • toxic release inventories
  • environmental justice
  • public health
  • food systems
  • GIS mapping
  • © 2021 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

Log in using your username and password

Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Landscape Journal: 40 (1)
Landscape Journal
Vol. 40, Issue 1
1 Jan 2021
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Landscape Journal.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Proximity of Urban Farms to Contaminated Sites in Baltimore, Maryland
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Landscape Journal
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Landscape Journal web site.
Citation Tools
Proximity of Urban Farms to Contaminated Sites in Baltimore, Maryland
Isabel Shargo, Jonathan Hall, Ashley Deng, Niya Khanjar, Camryn Edwards, Isabelle Berman, Joseph Galarraga, Sacoby Wilson
Landscape Journal Jan 2021, 40 (1) 17-33; DOI: 10.3368/wplj.40.1.17

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Proximity of Urban Farms to Contaminated Sites in Baltimore, Maryland
Isabel Shargo, Jonathan Hall, Ashley Deng, Niya Khanjar, Camryn Edwards, Isabelle Berman, Joseph Galarraga, Sacoby Wilson
Landscape Journal Jan 2021, 40 (1) 17-33; DOI: 10.3368/wplj.40.1.17
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
Bookmark this article

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • The Olmsteds and the Land-Grant Universities
  • The Vanishing Landscape of the Southern West Virginia Coalfields
  • Protecting the Identity of Sheep-Farming Landscapes in the Outer Carpathians: A Typology, Delimitation, and Interpretation
Show more Peer-Reviewed Articles

Similar Articles

Keywords

  • Urban agriculture
  • toxic release inventories
  • environmental justice
  • public health
  • food systems
  • GIS mapping
UWP

© 2023 Landscape Journal

Powered by HighWire