Long Island Disadvantaged Communities: Indices and Designations
This map shows the information behind how New York State officials identified those areas both on Long Island and throughout the State meeting the final “disadvantaged community” definition as voted on by the Climate Justice Working Group on March 27th, 2023. In a process that began with the legislature’s and governor’s approval of the path-breaking Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in 2019, this Working Group compiled 45 indicators for which data was available at the level of the census tracts (approximately 3000 people living there) used in the 2020 census. These indicators were to help determine which communities across the state qualified for the extra benefits and resources promised by the act to “disadvantaged communities.” The map below compiles most of these indicators into a single, searchable map centering on Long Island. Along with Nassau and Suffolk Counties, it also includes the New York City boroughs on the island, Queens and Brooklyn (Kings County).
Please note that all the indicator numbers represent how a given tract compares with all others across New York State. They reflect where this tract stands in New York State percentiles, not raw numbers such as air pollutant levels nor actual percentages such as of those in a tract with incomes below the federal poverty line. Hence:
- .75-1.00=highest percentiles (compared with other 4,917 census tracts in New York State)
- .25-.74=middle percentiles
- .01-24=lowest percentiles
Out of these statewide rankings, the Working Group then also developed an overall index of the differential burden from cumulative impacts–environmental and climate-related as well as social and economic–faced by different communities across the state. Those tracts that were highest on this synthetic index were deemed “disadvantaged communities.” 35% of New York States’ census tracts were thereby deemed “disadvantaged” versus 65% that were not.
For more information on the New York State indices and indexing process, see here. For a full-screen interactive version of this map, see here.
You can search this map by census tract for the information below. Underlying roads, towns, and other locational information can be gleaned by turning all the layers off and looking at the basemap.
- Towns under study by History 396, spring 2026
- Which tracts were designated as “disadvantaged”
- Air Pollution
- Particulates 2.5 mm or smaller
- Traffic from Diesel Trucks and Buses
- Vehicular Traffic Density
- Proximity to
- Wastewater Discharges
- Industrial Land Uses
- Active Landfills
- Oil Storage Facilities
- Waste Combustion Facilities
- Power Generation Facilities
- Risk Management Plan Sites
- Remediation Sites
- Climate Change-related
- Coastal and Tidal Flood Risks (Projected)
- Inland Flood Risks (Projected)
- Extreme Heat (Days above 90 Degrees; Projected)
- Low Vegetative Cover
- Racioethnic Demographics
- Latino Percentage
- Asian Percentage
- Black Percentage
- Native American Percentage
- English Proficiency
- Housing, Income, and Related
- Historical Redlining Index
- Percent Renters
- Percent Less than 80% of Area Median Income
- Percent Below Federal Poverty Line
- Percent without College Education
- Unemployment
- Health
- Asthma Emergency Room Visits
- COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Emergency Room Visits
- Hospitalizations for Heart Attacks
- Premature Deaths
- Percent with Disabilities
- Percent without Health Insurance
- Additional
- Housing Cost Burden (Rental Costs)
- Energy Poverty/Cost Burden
- Lack of Internet Access
You can also search a full-screen version of this map here.
You can find information on the kinds and sources of raw data in the technical documentation here.
Here’s more on the legislative mandate for culling this data and the resulting indexes, also from the technical documentation (pp. 3-4).
“Climate Act Guidelines for Identifying DACs
As outlined in the Climate Act (ECL § 75-0111), DACs were identified:
‘…based on geographic, public health, environmental hazard, and socioeconomic criteria, which shall include but are not limited to:
- Areas burdened by cumulative environmental pollution and other hazards that can lead to negative public health effects;
- Areas with concentrations of people that are of low income, high unemployment, highrent burden, low levels of home ownership, low levels of educational attainment, or members of groups that have
historically experienced discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity; and - Areas vulnerable to the impacts of climate change such as flooding, storm surges, and urban heat island effects.'”
“Applications of the DAC
The DAC criteria will be used for four statutory purposes:
- Co-pollutant reductions;
- Greenhouse gas emissions reductions;
- Regulatory impact statements; and
- Allocation of clean energy and energy efficiency investments (ECL § 75-0111(1)(b)).
With respect to ‘allocation of investments,’ the DAC criteria will be used by State entities to direct clean energy and/or energy efficiency investments in a manner to ensure that DACs receive no less than 35% of benefits, with a goal of 40% of benefits.”