Assessing environmental justice contributions in research and public policy: an applied framework and methodology

Abstract

How can scholars and practitioners gauge the extent to which environmental justice (EJ) is present in research and policy? Through synthesizing the interdisciplinary environmental justice scholarship, we present a diagnostic framework for appraising the frequency and depth of environmental justice-based engagements in published academic research, with broader applications for gray literature, such as policy documents. We demonstrate how the diagnostic can be applied through a scoping review methodology for assessing EJ contributions in existing research on the Colorado River Basin–a global epicenter for intersecting climate change and water equity concerns. The results demonstrate that the existing literature mostly focuses on specific dimensions of justice and does not consider the interdependent nature of its multiple dimensions and measures. Overall, the applied diagnostic represents one approach for assessing EJ contributions, with important potential for informing research practice and public policy design.