Data analysis for ‘Code Red: Baltimore’s Climate Divide’

Introduction

This R markdown document describes a portion of the data analysis for a reporting project examining the effects of climate-change driven temperature increases on the health of people who live in cities. The project was done in partnership with the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism, Capital News Service, the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, NPR, Wide Angle Youth Media and WMAR. It also moved on the Associated Press wire.

For each sentence in the published stories based on Howard Center data analysis, this document provides the original fact, the code and code output that support that fact, and an explanation where necessary.

Here are links to stories in the series published by participating organizations:

CNSMaryland

• Code Red: Baltimore’s Climate Divide
• Heat & Inequality: In Baltimore, the burden of rising temperatures isn’t shared
• Heat & Health: For people with chronic health conditions, heat and humidity are more than a summer nuisance
• The Role of Trees: No trees, no shade, no relief as climate heats up
• Seeking Solutions: Are government leaders and residents ready to act?
• Behind The Scenes: A look at how and why we reported the series

NPR

• As Rising Heat Bakes U.S. Cities, The Poor Often Feel It Most
• Trees Are Key To Fighting Urban Heat — But Cities Keep Losing Them
• How High Heat Can Impact Mental Health

WMAR

• Baltimore neighborhood identified as ‘ground zero’ for local effects of climate crisis

Associated Press

• Investigation: Urban poor hit hardest as the planet heats up
• As temperatures rise, overdoses and hospital visits increase
• No trees, no shade, no relief in cities as climate heats up

Links to Data, Cleaning and Analysis Scripts, RMarkdown HTML Pages

• The entire codebase for this analysis, including R markdown cleaning and analysis scripts – and the raw and cleaned data needed to reproduce the cleaning and analysis, is available through the Howard Center’s GitHub.
  • Repo Readme
  • Data
    • Data cleaning script
    • Raw data folder
    • Cleaned data folder
  • Analysis
    • Analysis for NPR
    • Heat and inequality story analysis
    • Heat and health story analysis
    • Role of trees story analysis
• A site with HTML versions of the R markdown files, for fact-checking the completed the analysis.
  • Landing page
  • Data cleaning script
  • Analysis for NPR
  • Heat and inequality story analysis
  • Heat and health story analysis
  • Role of trees story analysis
• NPR has made available a separate GitHub repo for nationwide analysis on urban heat islands available here.