ABSTRACT
Environmental justice as well as environmental law and policy appraisal are areas of research and social action that aim to measure and demonstrate how one aspect of spatial inequality operates. Because a strength of geographic information systems (GIS's) contribution to the field of environmental justice lies in burden estimation, and because a range of estimation strategies has been developed, this chapter focuses on how GIS can best be used for outcome studies. It illustrates how conceptualisation of burden can be matched to GIS methods and provides examples of applications. The chapter covers some specific challenges that have been identified with regard to spatial analysis and environmental justice research. Researchers benefit from a host of GIS and spatial analysis tools that can be used in environmental justice research. The origins of the environmental justice movement and field of study lie in studying locations of disamenities in relation to population characteristics, but increasingly researchers have expanded their focus to include amenity distribution.
