Environmental inequity - as unequal distribution of environmental "bads" - e.g. pollution - over social groups and space - often has the following characteristics:

• individuals with high environmental exposure are also socially discriminated
• high environmental exposure correlates with health problems
• the distribution of new environmental hazards increases existing imbalances
• environmental clean-up varies with status of different social or ethnic groups.

Unequal distributions of environmental pollution over social groups and space may be caused by various processes:

• beforehand, by siting decisions of investors, operators, or authorities according to potential resistance of affected individuals and communities (discrimination effect)
• beforehand, by cost-benefit-comparisons of various possible sites (market effect)
• afterwards, by decline of housing and living quality in affected regions, communities, and neighborhoods, moving out of "normal population", and moving in of marginalized individuals (selection or drift effect).

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