Environmental Justice Research: Developing Decision Support Tools

People at a table working on computers

EPA researchers are working to develop and deliver decision-support tools that can be used for identifying community-level environmental risks, assessing cumulative impacts from environmental and demographic stressors, and comparing and contrasting different potential actions, particularly on the community level.

The ultimate goal is to develop and deliver tools that allow Agency partners—public health officials, educators, local governments, civic groups, and agency program and regional offices members—to harness research results and emerging data in ways that inform decisions. To achieve that goal, Agency teams engage directly with community stakeholders throughout the research and development process, from problem formulation through tool development, testing, and refinement. EPA environmental justice tool development research includes:

EPA recognizes that research to serve communities will have the greatest impact when it addresses problems formulated at the community stakeholder level and when it is conducted, if possible, through participative and collaborative studies.

--EPA Environmental Research Roadmap

  • The development of mapping and visualization tools that provide easy access to community-level environmental, public health, demographic, and other information relevant to environmental justice.

  • Advancing Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) and other structured decision approaches that allow for the translation of scientific information into objectives that are meaningful to both community members and technical experts.

  • Employing citizen science, such as the use of low-cost environmental sensors, crowdsourcing, and GIS (geographic information system) mapping to engage overburdened communities and provide them with resources to monitor and assess local conditions.

EPA Tools to Support Environmental Justice

EnviroAtlas

For communities looking to harness the benefits of trees and other ecosystem services—the benefits people receive from nature—there is EnviroAtlas. A free, web-based resource, it provides geospatial data, easy-to-use tools, and other information related to ecosystem services, their chemical and non-chemical stressors, and human health. Users can explore and analyze environmental, demographic, and economic datasets across the United States at multiple extents and scales.

Proctor Creek Story Map

The Proctor Creek Watershed Story Map is an easy-to-use, interactive, online resource that combines maps with narrative text, images, and multimedia content on a case study of how research and collaboration can advance community-ed environmental justice actions. The story map highlights work in the Proctor Creek watershed in Atlanta—home to some of the city’s most economically disadvantaged and underserved areas—to address community-identified concerns such as flooding, water quality, urban heat islands, mosquito populations, and public health.

The National Stormwater Calculator (SWC)

Like Proctor Creek (see previous example), many disadvantaged communities face the challenges of flooding and contamination from excess stormwater runoff and inadequate sewer infrastructure. SWC provides them with a powerful tool for informing mitigation actions. It is a software application to estimate the annual amount of stormwater runoff from a specific location in the United States, (including Puerto Rico), based on local soil conditions, land cover, and historic rainfall records. It includes a cost estimation module, which allows users to evaluate low-impact development controls to meet stormwater retention targets, with or without the use of green infrastructure.

Smoke Sensor App

Climate change is driving an increase in wildfires, leading to deteriorating and often unhealthy air quality. This can be particularly harmful to those already suffering from compromised cardiovascular health, or living in communities subjected to air pollution from nearby sources such as major roadways and industry. Smoke Sense is a mobile application that supports citizen science projects aimed at increasing awareness of the health effects associated wildfire smoke exposure. Participants can use the app to explore maps of current and forecasted air quality and smoke conditions, learn how to protect their health from wildfire smoke, and record their personal smoke experiences and any concurrent health symptoms. The Smoke Sense app is available in both English and Spanish.

CompTox Chemicals Dashboard

Communities concerned with the potential risks of chemical exposure can use the CompTox Chemical Dashboard to learn more about known or suspected chemicals in their community. The CompTox Chemicals Dashboard is an easily searchable database of information about the properties, toxicity, exposure, and many other aspects of more than 883,000 chemicals.

EJ Research

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Last updated on October 11, 2024