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| GIS is a mapping technique to compare 'layers' of data, to see relationships between map layers which aren't visible on the ground. |
| Building a 'spatial inequality' GIS, one layer at a time: | |
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Mebane, NC. The roads 'layer' of the US Census 'TIGER" files is overlain onto the familiar Mapquest image of the town. |
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The city boundary -- in red -- and the "Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction" boundary -- in purple -- define the political edges of Mebane. The ETJ is an area under zoning control from Mebane, but without voting rights. The data is from local regional government files. |
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Racial composition is imported from the US Census. The map pattern delimits percent of the population that is Black, from 0 - 20% (lightest shading) to 80 - 100% (darkest shading). |
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Sewer lines tell us where the municipality has invested in the health and well-being of its citizens. Map data from the regional government. |
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Blue lines, from the state Department of Highways, show where a new highway by-pass, to the golf course area to the north, is proposed. This destructive landuse decreases the value and livability of the neighborhoods it passes through. |
The combination of all these map layers reveals a range of previously hidden, potentially discriminatory landuse conflicts. The conflicts fall into two classes -- loss of landuse value for lack of good infrastructure investment near minority neighborhoods, and loss of political influence because voting-based representation is not given to minority residents. See “Racial apartheid in a small southern town,” in Review of Black Political Economy, J. Johnson, A. Parnell, A. Joyner, Ben Marsh, and C. Christman, 2003, for more details about Mebane. |
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