Water, dust, and environmental justice: The case of agricultural water diversions
研究农业调水导致加州索尔顿湖湖床裸露、粉尘排放增加，发现历史上弱势社区承受了不成比例的污染加重，凸显了调水决策需进行分配分析以确保公平补偿。
Abstract Water diversions for agriculture reduce ecosystem services provided by saline lakes around the world. Exposed lakebed surfaces are major sources of dust emissions that may exacerbate existing environmental inequities. This paper studies the effects of water diversions and their impacts on particulate pollution arising from reduced inflows to the Salton Sea in California via a spatially explicit particle transport model and changing lakebed exposure. We demonstrate that lakebed dust emissions increased ambient and concentrations and worsened environmental inequalities, with historically disadvantaged communities receiving a disproportionate increase in pollution. Water diversion decisions are often determined by political processes; our findings demonstrate the need for distributional analysis of such decisions to ensure equitable compensation.