Inequalities in the exposure to environmental burdens and access to environmental benefits are an environmental justice concern for urban and regional environmental planning. Recent studies have assessed the exposure of different populations to a combination of environmental hazards through GIS-based Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessments (CEIA). The contribution of this study is the development of a CEIA, which incorporates the distance-based impact of transportation, the cumulative impact of environmental hazards, and access to environmental benefits for Santa Clara County (SCC), a highly diverse and rapidly developing region also known as ‘Silicon Valley’. Our results show that social vulnerability, cumulative environmental hazards, and environmental benefits exhibit distinct spatial patterns in SCC.
