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* Metric Name: Hispanic and/or Black, Indigenous or person of color (HSPBIPOC)  

* Tier: 2  

* Data Vintage: 2020  

* Unit Of Measure: Categorical

\- Class Code 1: _Low_. The subject population concentration is low; the local
proportion of the subject population variable is between roughly 10% and 50%
of the corresponding proportion in the Sierra Nevada region population in
total

\- Class Code 2: _Somewhat low_. The subject population concentration is
somewhat low; the local proportion of the subject population variable is
between roughly 50% and 85% of the corresponding proportion in the Sierra
Nevada region population in total

\- Class Code 3: _Proportionate._ The subject population concentration is
roughly proportionate to the corresponding proportion in the Sierra Nevada
region population in total - from about 85% to 115% of the regional proportion

\- Class Code 4: _Somewhat high._ The subject population concentration is
somewhat high; the local proportion of the subject population variable is
between roughly 115% and 150% of the corresponding proportion in the Sierra
Nevada region population in total

\- Class Code 5: _High._ The subject population concentration is high; the
local proportion of the subject population variable is between roughly 150%
and 200% of the corresponding proportion in the Sierra Nevada region
population in total

\- Class Code 6: _Very high._ The subject population concentration is very
high; the local proportion of the subject population variable roughly 2 to 3
times that of the corresponding proportion in the Sierra Nevada region
population in total

\- Class Code 7: _Extremely high._ The subject population concentration is
very extremely high; the local proportion of the subject population variable
is at least 3 times that of the corresponding proportion in the Sierra Nevada
region population in total (the upper limit is determined by natural breaks,if
exceptional outliers are present, but is typically over 6 times (600%)

  

* Metric Definition and Relevance: Relative concentration of the Sierra Nevada region’s Hispanic and/or Black, Indigenous or person of color (HSPBIPOC) population. The variable HSPBIPOC is equivalent to all individuals who select a combination of racial and ethnic identity in response to the Census questionnaire EXCEPT those who select "not Hispanic" for the ethnic identity question, and "white race alone" for the racial identity question. This is the most encompassing possible definition of racial and ethnic identities that may be associated with historic underservice by agencies, or be more likely to express environmental justice concerns (as compared to predominantly non-Hispanic white communities). Until 2021, federal agency guidance for considering environmental justice impacts of proposed actions focused on how the actions affected "racial or ethnic minorities." “Racial minority" is an increasingly meaningless concept in the USA, and particularly so in California, where only about 3/8 of the state's population identifies as non-Hispanic and white race alone - a clear majority of Californians identify as Hispanic and/or not white. Because many federal and state map screening tools continue to rely on "minority population" as an indicator for flagging potentially vulnerable / disadvantaged/ underserved populations, our analysis includes the variable HSPBIPOC which is effectively "all minority" population according to the now outdated federal environmental justice direction. A more meaningful analysis for the potential impact of forest management actions on specific populations considers racial or ethnic populations individually: e.g., all people identifying as Hispanic regardless of race; all people identifying as American Indian, regardless of Hispanic ethnicity; etc.

“Relative concentration” is a measure that compares the proportion of
population within each Census block group data unit that identify as HSPBIPOC
alone to the proportion of all people that live within the 775 block groups in
the Sierra Nevada RRK region that identify as HSPBIPOC alone. Example: if 5.2%
of people in a block group identify as HSPBIPOC, the block group has twice the
proportion of HSPBIPOC individuals compared to the Sierra Nevada RRK region
(2.6%), and more than three times the proportion compared to the entire state
of California (1.6%). If the local proportion is twice the regional
proportion, then HSPBIPOC individuals are highly concentrated locally.

  

* Creation Method: Data reporting units are Census block groups. Standard block groups are clusters of Census blocks within the same census tract that have the same first digit of their 4-character census block number (e.g., Blocks 3001, 3002, 3003 to 3999 in census tract 1210.02 belong to block group 3). Block groups delineated for the 2020 Census generally contain 600 to 3,000 people. 

Census blocks are statistical areas bounded on all sides by visible features
(e.g., streets, roads, streams, and railroad tracks), and by non-visible
boundaries (e.g., city, town, township, county limits, and short line-of-sight
extensions of streets and roads). Census blocks in suburban and rural areas
may be large, irregular, and bounded by a variety of features (e.g., roads,
streams, and/or transmission line rights-of-way). In remote areas, census
blocks may encompass hundreds of square miles. Census blocks cover all
territory in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island areas. Blocks do
not cross the boundaries of any entity for which the Census Bureau tabulates
data. See note 1.

Data describing concentrations of population characteristics that are
potentially related to environmental justice issues were provided to CWI
through a collaboration with the USDA Forest Service, Geospatial Technology
and Applications Center. The concentration methodology was created by GTAC for
social science analysis applications within the Forest Service; it is based on
research published in 2018 and 2020 (See Note 2). Data were compiled and
prepared for incorporating in the regional resource kits by Mark Adams,
Geographer, USFS-GTAC. For more information, contact:
[mark.adams1@usda.gov](mailto:mark.adams1@usda.gov).

Note; 1) The pixels attributed with a categorical data unit describing the
relative concentration of HSPBIPOC population are derived from a vector
polygon feature that has been modified as follows: Census block groups from
the Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line geodatabase features for 2021 are selected
based on their spatial intersection with the Sierra Nevada RRK boundary. The
resulting 775 block group features are modified by first erasing from the
feature the area of all constituent Census blocks which have neither housing
nor population recorded in the PL-94171 Redistricting dataset for 2020. In a
second step, areas of federal and state public lands on which housing by
definition is not located are erased from the interim feature. The result is a
block group feature that depicts to the maximum practicable extent the areas
within the block group where people that are represented by the Census
Bureau’s Census count could actually be residing. It is this modified block
group feature that has been rasterized to match the 30m pixel grid that all
biophysical datasets are reported in.

References for the concentration levels analysis:

Adams, Mark D. O. and S. Charnley. 2020. The Environmental Justice
Implications of Managing Hazardous Fuels on Federal Forest Lands, Annals of
the American Association of Geographers, 110:6, 1907-1935, DOI:
10.1080/24694452.2020.1727307

Adams, Mark D. O. and S. Charnley. 2018. Environmental justice and U.S. Forest
Service hazardous fuels reduction: A spatial method for impact assessment of
federal resource management actions.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.12.014

Data were derived from the 2020 Census Total population for the block group
from the redistricting file (PL 94-171) of the 2020 Census, released summer
2021. The raw data were obtained directly from the Census Bureau data set
table named in "Origin"; all data sets downloaded from census.data.gov and
joined to TIGER Census block group features. There are 775 Census block groups
within or intersecting the Sierra Nevada RRK region boundary.

  

* Credits: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, 2020 Decennial Census Redistricting File (PL 94-171). Racial identity data are reported in Table P1 of the PL 94-171 release. Population counts were obtained via the Data.Census.Gov web portal and joined to the Census Bureau’s TIGER/line feature classes for block groups (see reporting units above)