Dr. David Casagrande

Shale Gas & Quality of Life

Associate Professor of Anthropology

Dept. of Sociology/
Anthropology
and
the Environmental Initiative

STEPS Building, Room 436
Lehigh University
1 West Packer Ave.
Bethlehem, PA 18015

Tel: (610) 758-2672

Our interdisciplinary study of the effects of rapid economic development and environmental impacts of unconventional shale gas extraction on quality-of-life focuses on 12 Pennsylvania communities (project overview). Our research team includes experts in economics, anthropology, psychology, sociology, satellite image analysis, political science, risk communication, environmental education and geographic information systems. The research combines household and community-level data because a community’s infrastructure and socioeconomic character greatly influence household quality-of-life. Through focus groups and in-depth interviews, we have developed a quality-of-life index specific to the study population and the issue of gas extraction. Using a household survey, we are measuring psychological stress, information flow and media use, and quality-of-life in 500 households distributed among 12 townships that are similar in socioeconomic characteristics but differ in economic development amenities. Examples of economic development amenities include available office or retail space, housing stock, institutions of higher education and transportation infrastructure. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) we are spatially correlating household survey data with data describing township socioeconomic characteristics, economic development amenities and drilling activity derived from the US Census, township and county records, and satellite imagery. These data and the psychological stress scale represent independent variables in a structural equation model that predicts life-satisfaction as a dependent variable. Our analysis provides insights into which aspects of extraction most affect quality-of-life and why some communities experience more improvement in quality-of-life than others.