ABSTRACT Despite the current moratorium, shale gas has been posited by the United Kingdom’s government as an important indigenous source of natural gas, a result of heightened concerns over national energy security and dwindling conventional fossil fuel reserves. Although several petroleum development licenses were awarded in the Vale of Pickering area of North Yorkshire in 2015, little research exists at the nexus of social and natural sciences on shale gas developments, particularly on potential risks to communities and the environment in the UK. This study uses the concept of energy justice and an interdisciplinary spatial assessment of potential environmental risks arising from shale gas developments, to evaluate where injustices may emerge, using the Vale of Pickering as a case study. A novel methodology was used to model a possible scenario of shale gas developments, including the spatial dimensions of air and water pollution, seismicity and traffic flows, which were combined to generate an overall environmental risk assessment. This was analysed with a metric of socio-economic vulnerability, to highlight social groups which may be disproportionately at risk from fracking. Overall, modelled proximity-based risk under this scenario did not disproportionately increase in areas with higher populations of socio-economically vulnerable groups, however potential areas for other forms of energy injustices to emerge, such as benefit-sharing injustice were found. This study offers a holistic method for identifying and understanding the local socio-environmental justice dimensions of national energy projects, such as shale gas developments, considerations which can be integrated into future planning processes.

中文翻译：

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北约克郡皮克林谷新建页岩气行业的社会和环境影响评估

摘要 尽管目前暂停使用页岩气，但由于对国家能源安全的高度关注和传统化石燃料储量的减少，英国政府仍将页岩气视为重要的本土天然气来源。尽管 2015 年北约克郡皮克林谷地区获得了多项石油开发许可证，但关于页岩气开发的社会科学和自然科学关系的研究很少，特别是对英国社区和环境的潜在风险。本研究使用能源正义的概念和对页岩气开发产生的潜在环境风险的跨学科空间评估，以皮克林谷作为案例研究，评估可能出现不公正的地方。一种新的方法被用来模拟页岩气开发的可能情景，包括空气和水污染的空间维度、地震活动和交通流量，这些因素结合起来生成整体环境风险评估。这是用社会经济脆弱性指标进行分析的，以突出可能不成比例地面临水力压裂风险的社会群体。总体而言，在这种情况下模拟的基于邻近性的风险并没有在社会经济弱势群体人口较多的地区不成比例地增加，但是发现了其他形式的能源不公正现象的潜在领域，例如利益分享不公正现象。本研究提供了一种识别和理解国家能源项目的当地社会环境正义维度的整体方法，