Grantee Research Project Results
2024 Progress Report: Urban water pollution extent and impact on the Village Creek in Birmingham, AL - analysis and mitigation strategies
EPA Grant Number: SU840581Title: Urban water pollution extent and impact on the Village Creek in Birmingham, AL - analysis and mitigation strategies
Investigators: Karimi, Maryam , Nazari, Rouzbeh
Institution: The University of Alabama at Birmingham
EPA Project Officer: Cunniff, Sydney
Phase: I
Project Period: August 1, 2023 through May 9, 2025
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2023 through July 31,2024
Project Amount: $25,000
RFA: 19th Annual P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet Request for Applications (RFA) (2022) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: P3 Awards , P3 Challenge Area - Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
The main cause of surface and groundwater pollution in Village Creek in Birmingham is the light and heavy industries that were established along the rivers as a result of the rapid urbanization. Due to racialized urban growth driven by Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), the majority of the fast urbanization took place in low-income and minority neighborhoods, affecting populations that are predominately African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islanders. Communities located in high-risk flood zones face significant risks, heightening their vulnerability to flash floods and toxic exposure. Over the years, flooding incidents along the Village Creek River have increased, with approximately 80% of the city located within a 100-year floodplain, designated as having a moderate to high flood risk. This project aimed to analyze the flow of pollutants around the area and investigate the vulnerability of the communities living along the Village Creek River and in the flood-risk zones along the river to pollutants and promote the inclusion of Low Impact Developments (LIDs) and green infrastructures (GI) to mitigate this issue. Therefore, the results of this project significantly can restore the integrity of the Village Creek in the long-term. The study areas for this project selected in heavy industrial sites, non-National Priorities List (NPL) superfund and Brown field sites. Surface runoff in this highly urbanized and industrialized area has the potential to transport pollutants, particularly those deposited in high-flood-risk areas, into Village Creek. This is further exacerbated by the discharge of untreated or partially treated industrial and municipal wastewaters into the stream. Climate change is expected to exacerbate this problem in the in the future (Kiaghadi et al., 2021).
Progress Summary:
This project's primary objective was to create an intuitive platform that gives the general public clear information about high-risk regions and pollution exposure. Additionally, it aimed to propose modified mitigation strategies such as floating gardens, pollution-absorbing rain gardens, and bioswales in the impacted communities. In fact, the research objectives aimed to develop an integral plan that allowed a better understanding of the problem characteristics, analyzed and refined the efficiency of the proposed solutions, and reoriented end users' thinking towards sustainability and resilience goals.
To achieve the main goal of this project, several phases were implemented. First, the movement of pollutant sediments and flood risk zones was identified to distinguish the high-risk exposure area. It is worth mentioning that the water quality data is being collected for the three identified sites in Birmingham. The initial data was collected between October and November, and the next is being collected starting in March and ending in July 2024. A total of 3 samples were collected from each site for soil and water sample analysis to generate total concentrations of the selected metal (Figure 1).
Next, by assessing community hazards and vulnerability factors along the river, risk levels were evaluated and categorized, facilitating the prioritization of high-risk areas for targeted mitigation efforts. Several datasets were used to create a flood risk map and examine patterns of flood susceptibility according to sociodemographic characteristics including race and wealth. This included digital elevation models (DEM), precipitation data, building footprints, transportation routes, and demographic information at the census tract level. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) provided the majority of the data (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Methodology (Source: Kausal et al., 2024)
Future Activities:
The data from the US Census Bureau, which provided the population size in each racial category, Median Household Income (MHI), and average elevation (AE) for each census tract, were related to high-risk flood zones. A total of thirty-seven census tracts was combined into eleven flood-risk regions (Figure 3).
Eight regions were dominated by African American populations, except for a few regions, such as West Homewood Park, Vestavia Hills, and Mountain Brook Village, which were predominantly White (Figure 4).
About 73% of the flood-affected population was living in African American neighborhoods. These African American neighborhoods had lower average MHIs than the county average of USD 55,006. In contrast, the average MHIs of the White neighborhoods were the highest, ranging from USD 68,000 to 151,000. Similarly, highly African American-dominated neighborhoods like Ensley, North Birmingham, and Central Park showed increased vulnerability with the lowest average MHIs and elevations. Among them, Bessemer and Brighton had the lowest AE, 153.53m, and the lowest MHI, $17,500. The regression analysis carried out showed that there was a strong positive correlation between MHI and AE in the White neighborhoods (0.74, p-value 0.0001), while moderate to weak negative correlations were observed in both African American and other minority neighborhoods, hence disparities in flood risk and socio-demographic variables.
In conclusion, this study revealed the sociodemographic disparities within flood-prone areas. Using multiple tools including HEC-RAS for 2D, ArcGIS Pro, and JMP Pro for flood modeling, and data analysis and visualization, respectively, socio-demographic information was overlaid onto flood risk maps to pinpoint high-risk zones and identify populations most vulnerable due to overlapping socio-demographic and flood risk factors. The results demonstrated that African American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, American Indian, and Alaska Native neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by flooding. Lower income, education levels and elevation further increase these communities' vulnerability compared to White and Asian neighborhoods, raising concerns about their right to a safe environment. As land use changes and climate impacts intensify flooding, equitable urban planning and resource distribution are essential. Future research will focus on developing a probabilistic flood model and using the social vulnerability index to better understand flooding’s overall impact on these communities (Figure 5 and Figure 6).
Figure 6. Simple linear regression MHI and AE by value owner-occupied units. (Source: Kaushal et al., 2024)
Additionally, by overlaying the high flood risk zones with transportation routes and building footprints, those buildings at risk due to flooding were identified and ranked by census tract, land cover, and land-use patterns. Urbanized areas, found mainly in the center and southern parts of the county, have the highest vulnerable building numbers, except for the northern-western edge of a census tract. Ensley had the highest number of buildings at risk, ranging from 801–1,000 structures. As shown in Figure 7, the impacts of flooding were more pronounced in developed regions. The number of affected buildings was as follows: 17,514 in low-intensity areas, 8,285 in medium-intensity areas, 7,699 in open spaces, and 3,252 in high-intensity areas. Similarly, most flood impacted transportation routes were around urban centers and key highways, such as Interstate 20 (Bessemer, North Birmingham), Interstate 59 (North Birmingham), State Road 79 (Tarrant), and the State Road 149- United States Road 280 intersection near Mountain Brook Village (Figure 8) (Kaushal et al., 2024).
Figure 7. NLCD landcover flood impacted buildings. (Source: Kaushal et al., 2024)
Figure 8. Flood impacted transportation routes (Source: Kaushal et al., 2024)
References:
Kaushal, A., Nazari, R., & Karimi, M. (2024). Study of Elevation Role in Representing Sociodemographic Status and Susceptibility to Flooding in Birmingham, Alabama. Natural Hazards Review, 25(4), 04024029. https://doi.org/10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-2069.
Kiaghadi, A., Rifai, H. S., & Dawson, C. N. (2021). The presence of Superfund sites as a determinant of life expectancy in the United States. Nature Communications, 12(1), 1947. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22249.
Journal Articles on this Report : 2 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 6 publications | 2 publications in selected types | All 2 journal articles |
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Kaushal, A., Karimi, M., Nazari, R., Opare, K., Museru, M., & Nikoo, M. R. (2024). Environmental exposure and respiratory health:Unraveling the impact of toxic release inventory facilities on COPD prevalence. Environmental Pollution, 124, 124286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124286. |
SU840581 (2024) |
not available |
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Kaushal, A., Nazari, R., & Karimi, M. (2024). Study of elevation role in representing sociodemographic status and susceptibility to flooding in Birmingham, Alabama. Natural Hazards Review, 25(4), 04024029. https://doi.org/10.1061/NHREFO.NHENG-206. |
SU840581 (2024) |
not available |
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.