Equitable Green Infrastructure Planning

Who Is Missed by Neighborhood-Level Green Infrastructure Prioritization? 

Neighborhood-level indicators offer a practical basis for prioritizing green infrastructure, but community averages may obscure concentrations of flood-exposed homes and localized deficits in vegetation. This study examines whether the spatial scale of assessment changes which residential areas receive priority for further green infrastructure planning in Harris County, Texas. It focuses on a potential mismatch: neighborhoods with relatively abundant vegetation overall may still contain clusters of flood-exposed homes surrounded by heavily developed land. The central question is whether incorporating conditions around individual exposed buildings reveals needs overlooked by conventional neighborhood-level screening.

The analysis integrates residential building records, building-level flood exposure estimates, land-cover data, and census tract-level social vulnerability indicators. It compares prioritization based on tract-wide measures with an approach that incorporates vegetation and impervious cover around flood-exposed homes. Across alternative selection thresholds and weights, the study assesses changes in priority locations, the number and spatial concentration of exposed homes included or omitted, and representation of exposed homes in socially vulnerable neighborhoods. By tracing how spatial aggregation influences planning priorities, this research aims to clarify whose exposure is captured—and whose is overlooked—when cities identify areas for green infrastructure investment. The resulting framework will support targeted follow-up assessment without equating vegetation availability with flood protection or assuming that identified areas are suitable for specific interventions.