Inequalities in noise will affect urban wildlife

Understanding the extent to which systemic biases influence local
ecological communities is essential for developing just and equitable
environmental practices. With over 270 million people across the United
States living in urban areas, understanding the socio-ecological
consequences of racially-targeted zoning, such as redlining, provides
crucial information for urban planning. There is a growing body of
literature documenting the relationships between redlining and disparities
in the distribution of environmental harms and goods, including inequities
in green space cover and pollutant exposure. Yet, it remains unknown
whether noise pollution is also inequitably distributed, and whether
inequitable noise is an important driver of ecological change in urban
environments. We conducted 1) a spatial analysis of urban noise to
determine the extent to which noise overlaps with the distribution of
redlining categories and 2) a systematic literature review to summarize
the effects of noise on wildlife in urban landscapes. We found strong
evidence that noise is inequitably distributed in cities across the United
States, and that inequitable noise may drive complex biological responses
across diverse urban wildlife. These findings lay a foundation for future
research that advances acoustic and urban ecology by centering equity and
challenging systems of oppression.