For this Advanced GIS class, I conducted an analysis of New York City’s waste transfer stations (WTS). Using ArcGIS Pro, I looked at the potential health and environmental impacts of these stations on surrounding communities, with the goal of exploring what the implications of increasingly frequent and extreme climate hazards on these sites, and what could be done to adapt or mitigate for these events.
The purpose of this analysis was to identify any clusters of the waste transfer stations and if so, why? The clusters were located in areas designated by the city as Significant Maritime Industrial Areas (SMIA), which are designed to support industrial working waterfronts.
However, as this map shows, these SMIAs are also associated with poor air quality due to increased truck traffic that comes in and out of these areas, placing a great health burden on surrounding communities.
This map of Hunts Point in the Bronx overlays residential neighborhoods with the waste transfer stations, and a 1-mile buffer to illustrate that any hazards stemming from these WTS can spread to residential areas.
The same overlays of a 1-mile buffer for residential lots and waste transfer stations in Newtown Creek.
Not only are these areas impacted by poor air quality from truck traffic, these sites are also vulnerable to storm surge and sea level rise.
Given these vulnerabilities, the city should find alternative, safer sites for these WTS, or at minimum, develop adaptation and mitigation policies around these sites to protect adjacent communities.