Earth Observation Data to Support Environmental Justice: Linking
Non-permitted Poultry Operations to Social Vulnerability Indices
Abstract
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) apply massive amounts of
untreated waste to nearby farmlands, with severe environmental health
impacts of swine CAFOs and proximity to disadvantaged communities well
documented in some US regions. Most studies documenting the impacts of
CAFOs rely almost exclusively on CAFO locations known from incomplete
public records. Poultry CAFOs generate dry waste and operate without
federal permits; thus, their environmental justice (EJ) impacts are
undocumented. North Carolina (NC), a leading poultry producer, has seen
a significant increase in poultry CAFOs, particularly since the 1997
swine CAFO moratorium. Using literature-derived heuristics, this study
refined the locations of poultry CAFOs derived based on Earth
Observation (EO) data and deep learning, reducing the overestimation of
poultry CAFO density by 54% after heuristic adjustments. We removed
51.8% of misclassified features in NC and 61.5% across the US,
significantly improving dataset accuracy. Spatial analysis, including
Moran’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association, revealed that
poultry CAFOs often cluster in census tracts with high Social
Vulnerability Index (SVI) scores, indicating potential EJ issues.
Notably, one-third of NC’s census tracts with high poultry CAFO density
also have high SVI, primarily in rural eastern regions. Similar patterns
were observed in the South and Southeast of the US. However, not all
high-density CAFO areas correspond with high SVI, suggesting a complex
relationship between CAFO locations and community vulnerabilities. This
study highlights the critical need for comprehensive, high-quality data
on unpermitted poultry CAFOs to fully understand their impacts on
communities and accurately inform EJ evaluations.