Environmental equity

Environmental and climate change impacts are disproportionately felt by those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, with these communities facing greater barriers to action, particularly in areas vulnerable to extreme heat and flooding.

Now, a wide range of users, including local authorities, government and NGOs, can see – at a street level – where environmental and climate pressures are hitting socio-economically deprived communities hardest.

Two new tools

Launched at London Climate Week, two new analytical tools will provide organisations across England with robust evidence to pinpoint where environmental pressures overlap with socio-economic and health challenges.

The Index of Multiple Environmental Deprivation (IMED) maps cumulative environmental pressures, including climate risks, air quality, flood risk, noise and access to green space, across England at street-level resolution and other local geographies including Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) 

The Environmental Equity Index (EEI) builds on this by incorporating socio-economic and health indicators to reveal where these pressures intersect and accumulate. Used together, the tools help identify areas experiencing the greatest combined burdens, supporting more targeted and joined-up responses.

Professor Jon Fairburn (Staffordshire University) and Professor Gordon Mitchell (University of Leeds) said: ‘By bringing together rich spatial data into a single, evidence-driven index, IMED reveals the true cumulative burden of environmental deprivation – informing citizens and empowering decision-makers to target interventions where they are needed most. This index gives local authorities a clearer, place-based understanding of how environmental pressures – from air quality to heat stress – combine across neighbourhoods, supporting targeted action and better outcomes for communities most in need.’

A joined-up approach

The tools provide a consistent, transparent evidence base designed for use by a wide range of organisations who can then target resources, strengthen planning decisions and take more joined-up approaches to environmental, socio-economic and health challenges.

For example, measures such as urban greening, housing retrofit, heat resilient design standards and targeted public health responses need to be prioritised in the most deprived areas.