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KPBS Midday Edition

New Tool Measures Climate Inequality In San Diego Neighborhoods

A crew from the San Diego Urban Corps plants a Crape Myrtle in front of my house in El Cerrito. Crape Myrtles are flowering deciduous trees that are drought tolerant. August 2, 2011.
Tom Fudge
A crew from the San Diego Urban Corps plants a Crape Myrtle in front of my house in El Cerrito. Crape Myrtles are flowering deciduous trees that are drought tolerant. August 2, 2011.
The tool is part of an effort to address environmental justice and social equity as part of implementing the city's Climate Plan goals.

How does your neighborhood stack up when it comes to flood risk, tree coverage, asthma rates, pedestrian access and the burden of housing costs?

A new city tool weighs those factors and 30 others to determine where a census tract falls on its Climate Equity Index. The tool is designed to help the city address environmental justice and social equity as part of implementing the city's Climate Action Plan goals.

RELATED: San Diego Reaches 2020 Climate Goals Two Years Early

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"We understand that our under-served communities are hardest hit when it comes to dealing with a changing climate. And so the theory is that we need to ... understand where those communities are and what type of investment needs to go in, to help them be more resilient," said Roberto Carlos Torres, the city's climate equity specialist who helped create the index.

Torres joined Midday Edition on Thursday to discuss how the Climate Equity Index works and how the city plans to use it.