MEJ aims to create easy-to-use, publicly-available maps that paint a holistic picture of intersecting environmental, social, and health impacts experienced by communities across the US.
With guidance from the residents of impacted communities, MEJ combines environmental, public health, and demographic data into an indicator of vulnerability for communities in every state. MEJ’s goal is to fill an existing data gap for individual states without environmental justice mapping tools, and to provide a valuable tool for advocates, scholars, students, lawyers, and policy makers.
The negative effects of pollution depend on a combination of vulnerability and exposure. People living in poverty, for example, are more likely to develop asthma or die due to air pollution. The method MEJ uses, following the method developed for CalEnviroScreen, reflects this in the two overall components of a census tract’s final “Cumulative EJ Impact”: population characteristics and pollution burden. The CalEnviroScreen methodology was developed through an intensive, multi-year effort to develop a science-backed, peer-reviewed tool to assess environmental justice in a holistic way, and has since been replicated by several other states.
CalEnviroScreen Methodology:
Population characteristics are a combination of socioeconomic data (often referred to as the social determinants of health) and health data that together reflect a populations' vulnerability to pollutants. Pollution burden is a combination of direct exposure to a pollutant and environmental effects, which are adverse environmental conditions caused by pollutants, such as toxic waste sites or wastewater releases. Together, population characteristics and pollution burden help describe the disproportionate impact that environmental pollution has on different communities.
Every indicator is ranked as a percentile from 0 to 100 and averaged with the others of the same component to form an overall score for that component. Each component score is then percentile ranked to create a component percentile. The Sensitive Populations component score, for example, is the average of a census tract’s Asthma, Low Birthweight Infants, and Heart Disease indicator percentiles, and the Sensitive Populations component percentile is the percentile rank of the Sensitive Populations score.
The Population Characteristics score is the average of the Sensitive Populations component score and the Socioeconomic Factors component score. The Population Characteristics percentile is the percentile rank of the Population Characteristics score.
The Pollution Burden score is the average of the Pollution Exposure component score and one half of the Environmental Effects component score (Environmental Effects may have a smaller effect on health outcomes than the indicators included the Exposures component so are weighted half as much as Exposures). The Pollution Burden percentile is the percentile rank of the Pollution Burden score.
The Populaton Characteristics and Pollution Burden scores are then multiplied to find the final Cumulative EJ Impact score for a census tract, and then this final score is percentile-ranked to find a census tract's final Cumulative EJ Impact percentile.
Census tracts with no population aren't given a Population Characteristics score.
Census tracts with an indicator score of zero are assigned a percentile rank of zero. Percentile rank is then only calculated for those census tracts with a score above zero.
Census tracts that are missing data for more than two indicators don't receive a final Cumulative EJ Impact ranking.
%3C!-- --%3E
EJScreen is EPA's environmental justice mapping and screening tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and socioeconomic indicators. EJScreen users choose a geographic area; the tool then provides socioeconomic and environmental information for that area. All of the EJScreen indicators are publicly-available data. EJScreen simply provides a way to display this information and includes a method for combining environmental and socioeconomic indicators into EJ and supplemental indexes. This is the 2024 version of EJScreen (Version 2.3). Among the files is a 2015 dataset (csv) created from data collected via the American Community Survey, 2008-2012.
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
Environmental Justice Block Groups 2022 was created from Connecticut block group boundary data located in the Census Bureau's 2020 TIGER/Line Shapefiles. The poverty data used to determine which block groups qualified as EJ communities (see CT State statute 22a-20a) was based on the Census Bureau's 2020 ACS 5-year estimate. This poverty data was joined with the block group boundaries in ArcPro. Block groups in which the percent of the population below 200% of the federal poverty level was greater than or equal to 30.0 were selected and the resulting selection was exported as a new shapefile. The block groups were then clipped so that only those block groups outside of distressed municipalities were displayed. Maintenance – This layer will be updated annually and will coincide with the annual distressed municipalities update (around August/September). The latest ACS 5-year estimate data should be used to update this layer. Environmental Justice Distressed Municipalities 2020 was created from Connecticut town boundary data located in the Census Bureau's 2020 TIGER/Line Shapefiles (County Subdivisions).
From this shapefile, "select by attribute" was used to select the distressed municipalities by town name (note: the list of 2022 distressed municipalities was provided by the CT Department of Economic and Community Development). The selection was then exported a new shapefile. The “Union” tool was used to unite the new shapefile with tribal lands (American Indian Area Geography) boundary data from the 2020 TIGER/Line files. In the resulting layer, the tribal lands were deleted so only the distressed municipalities remained. Maintenance – This layer will be updated annually when the DECD produces its new list of distressed municipalities (around August/September).
Note: A distressed municipality, as designated by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, includes municipalities that no longer meet the threshold requirements but are still in a 5-year grace period. (See definition at CGS Sec. 32-9p(b).) Fitting into that grace period, eight towns continue to be eligible for distressed municipality benefits because they dropped off the list within the last five years. Those are Enfield, Killingly, Naugatuck, Plymouth, New Haven, Preston, Stratford, and Voluntown.
All residents of the State of New Jersey have a right to live, learn, work, and recreate in a clean and healthy environment. Environmental justice requires fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, in the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. This goal can only be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and has equal access to the decision-making processes in the places they live, learn, and work, and recreate.Historically, New Jersey’s low-income communities and communities of color historically have been subjected to a disproportionately high number of environmental and public health stressors—including mobile sources of pollution, and numerous industrial, commercial, and governmental stationary sources of pollution. Further compounding this inequity, New Jersey’s overburdened communities (OBCs) often lack important environmental benefits, such as quality green and open spaces, sufficient tree canopy, or adequate stormwater management.
Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool (EJScreen) is EPA's environmental justice mapping and screening tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and socioeconomic indicators.
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
This dataset provides a valuable tool for evidence-based decision-making to prioritize environmental initiatives for California schools. It offers a comprehensive assessment of key factors such as tree canopy cover, demographics, school performance, vulnerability to climate change and pollution, poverty factors, and more. By utilizing this GIS-based assessment, stakeholders can, for example, identify and prioritize schools in need of cooling and greening interventions. This data-driven approach ensures that vulnerable schools are given priority and resources can be allocated more efficiently to make a positive impact on the well-being and education of California's students. This dataset was made using this created script (script excludes academic performance indicators): https://github.com/camipawlak/school_enviro/tree/main The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Cal Poly's Office of University Diversity and Inclusion via the BEACoN Research Mentoring Program.
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed the “Energy Justice Mapping Tool for Schools” that builds on DOE’s original “Energy Justice Mapping Tool”. This tool is intended to allow users to explore and produce reports for a specific school facility which include but are not limited to the following metrics: whether the school is located in a Disadvantaged Community (DAC), whether it is in a rural location (coded as 41, 42, 43), whether it is designated as a community shelter, and whether the school qualifies for Title I Schoolwide programming.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250122042022/https://energyjustice-schools.egs.anl.gov/
PennEnviroScreen provides an annually updated snapshot of undue environmental burden on vulnerable communities. This dataset is the result of a model which combines Pollution Burden and Population Characteristics data in order to identify Environmental Justice (EJ) Areas in accordance with the EJ Policy and is based upon the US Census Bureau's Census Block Group Delineations. To query if a block group is an EJ area, field EJAREA = yesMore information can be found at the PennEnviroScreen interactive mapping application: https://gis.dep.pa.gov/PennEnviroScreen/
Shapefile contains census tracts identified as disadvantaged in the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) for the five counties that are included in the Bay Area Regional Climate Action Planning Initiative Frontline Communities Map.
The original shapefile was downloaded from the The White House Council on Environmental Quality, Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), Methodology & Data webpage.. The “Clip” tool in ArcMap was used to select only those features which are located within the boundaries of the five Bay Area counties included in the Frontline Communities Map. Only those census tracts where SN_C column is equal to 1 are displayed. Where, SN_C is defined as "Identified as disadvantaged" in the original codebook and 1 is equivalent to a true statement. To learn more about the methodology behind the original dataset, please visit: https://screeningtool.geoplatform.gov/en/methodology#3/33.47/-97.5
The Frontline Communities Map is meant to help identify communities that are considered frontline communities for the purpose of the USEPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program’s planning effort, which is a five-county climate action planning process led by the Air District. USEPA refers to these communities as low-income and disadvantaged communities (LIDACs).
As outlined in Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) is a geospatial mapping tool designed to identify disadvantaged communities that are marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment, for the purposes of Justice40 Initiative.
EJSCREEN is an environmental justice mapping and screening tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and demographic indicators. This map service contains EJ indexes or scores calculated for each block group in the United States which is what the EPA uses to screen for areas that may be candidates for additional consideration, analysis or outreach as EPA develops programs, policies and activities that may affect communities. The scores here reflect the 2015 public release version of the EJSCREEN tool (https://ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper/).
Check out the metadata link for the details: https://edg.epa.gov/metadata/rest/document?id=%7BB6FE56EE-3D28-4B5C-ABF0-D3B0B9E9DF87%7D&xsl=metadata_to_html_full
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
Background: Efforts to support disadvantaged communities have been prioritized through initiatives like Justice40, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Identifying disadvantaged communities involves several datasets with associated variables related to vulnerability indicators and scores. There are three key datasets:
Problem:
To address these issues, this dataset consolidates information on disadvantaged communities and their associated variables by combining the three distinct datasets:
CEJST: Provides binary data indicating whether a tract is a disadvantaged community. A community is classified as disadvantaged if it meets any of the following thresholds: 1) one or more indicators within categories such as climate change, energy, health, housing, pollution, transportation, and water & wastewater, coupled with low income; 2) one or more indicators in workforce development category and education; or 3) tribal lands. Environment and pollution indicators come from the EPA, while socio-demographic indicators are from the American Community Survey (ACS) for 2015-2019.
Energy Justice Mapping Tool: Offers a DAC score, a continuous variable representing the sum of the 36 indicator percentiles. It includes environment, pollution, and socio-demographic indicators from the EPA and ACS (2015-2019).
Environmental Justice Screening Tool: Includes the 13 Environmental Justice (EJ) Index and Supplemental Index. These continuous variables are weighted with socio-demographic indicators from ACS (2017-2021).
results/DAC.csv
: Contains all columns from the three datasets.results/DAC_s.csv
: A shorter version, including socio-demographic indicators and EJ and Supplemental indices (Environmental Justice Screening Tool), disadvantaged community classification (CEJST), and DAC scores (Energy Justice Mapping Tool).syntax/code.R
: This script illustrates the methodology for merging the three datasets, culminating in the creation of the two CSV files located in the results directory.The dataset aims to help researchers identify overall disadvantaged communities or determine which specific communities are classified as disadvantaged. By consolidating these datasets, researchers can more effectively analyze and compare the various criteria used to define disadvantaged communities, enhancing the comprehensiveness of their studies.
For complete data descriptions and sources, please refer to the original datasets.
description: These data are from EJSCREEN, an environmental justice (EJ) screening and mapping tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and methodology for calculating "EJ indexes," which can be used for highlighting places that may be candidates for further review, analysis, or outreach as the agency develops programs, policies and other activities. The tool provides both summary and detailed information at the Census block group level or a user-defined area for both demographic and environmental indicators. The summary information is in the form of EJ Indexes which combine demographic information with a single environmental indicator (such as proximity to traffic) that can help identify communities living in areas with greater potential for environmental and health impacts. The tool also provides additional detailed demographic and environmental information to supplement screening analyses. EJSCREEN displays this information in color-coded maps, bar charts, and standard reports. Users should keep in mind that screening tools are subject to substantial uncertainty in their demographic and environmental data, particularly when looking at small geographic areas, such as Census block groups. Data on the full range of environmental impacts and demographic factors in any given location are almost certainly not available directly through this tool, and its initial results should be supplemented with additional information and local knowledge before making any judgments about potential areas of EJ concern.; abstract: These data are from EJSCREEN, an environmental justice (EJ) screening and mapping tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and methodology for calculating "EJ indexes," which can be used for highlighting places that may be candidates for further review, analysis, or outreach as the agency develops programs, policies and other activities. The tool provides both summary and detailed information at the Census block group level or a user-defined area for both demographic and environmental indicators. The summary information is in the form of EJ Indexes which combine demographic information with a single environmental indicator (such as proximity to traffic) that can help identify communities living in areas with greater potential for environmental and health impacts. The tool also provides additional detailed demographic and environmental information to supplement screening analyses. EJSCREEN displays this information in color-coded maps, bar charts, and standard reports. Users should keep in mind that screening tools are subject to substantial uncertainty in their demographic and environmental data, particularly when looking at small geographic areas, such as Census block groups. Data on the full range of environmental impacts and demographic factors in any given location are almost certainly not available directly through this tool, and its initial results should be supplemented with additional information and local knowledge before making any judgments about potential areas of EJ concern.
EJSCREEN is an environmental justice (EJ) screening and mapping tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and methodology for calculating "EJ indexes," which can be used for highlighting places that may be candidates for further review, analysis, or outreach as the agency develops programs, policies and other activities. The tool provides both summary and detailed information at the Census block group level or a user-defined area for both demographic and environmental indicators. The summary information is in the form of EJ Indexes which combine demographic information with a single environmental indicator (such as proximity to traffic) that can help identify communities living in areas with greater potential for environmental and health impacts. The tool also provides additional detailed demographic and environmental information to supplement screening analyses. EJSCREEN displays this information in color-coded maps, bar charts, and standard reports. Users should keep in mind that screening tools are subject to substantial uncertainty in their demographic and environmental data, particularly when looking at small geographic areas, such as Census block groups. Data on the full range of environmental impacts and demographic factors in any given location are almost certainly not available directly through this tool, and its initial results should be supplemented with additional information and local knowledge before making any judgments about potential areas of EJ concern. Download data: ftp://newftp.epa.gov/EJSCREEN
This layer is an archive of Version 1.0 of the CEJST data as a fully functional GIS layer. See an archive of the latest version of the CEJST tool using Version 2.0 of the data released in December 2024 here.This layer assesses and identifies communities that are disadvantaged according to updated Justice40 Initiative criteria. Census tracts in the U.S. and its territories that meet the Version 1.0 criteria are shaded in semi-transparent blue colors to work with a variety of basemaps. See this web map for use in your dashboards, story maps, and apps.Details of the assessment are provided in the popup for every census tract in the United States and its territories American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This map uses 2010 census tracts from Version 1.0 of the source data downloaded November 22, 2022.If you have been using a previous version of the Justice40 data, please know that this Version 1.0 differs in many ways. See the updated Justice40 Initiative criteria for current specifics. Use this layer to help plan for grant applications, to perform spatial analysis, and to create informative dashboards and web applications. See this blog post for more information.From the source:This data "highlights disadvantaged census tracts across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. Communities are considered disadvantaged:If they are in census tracts that meet the thresholds for at least one of the tool’s categories of burden, orIf they are on land within the boundaries of Federally Recognized TribesCategories of BurdensThe tool uses datasets as indicators of burdens. The burdens are organized into categories. A community is highlighted as disadvantaged on the CEJST map if it is in a census tract that is (1) at or above the threshold for one or more environmental, climate, or other burdens, and (2) at or above the threshold for an associated socioeconomic burden.In addition, a census tract that is completely surrounded by disadvantaged communities and is at or above the 50% percentile for low income is also considered disadvantaged.Census tracts are small units of geography. Census tract boundaries for statistical areas are determined by the U.S. Census Bureau once every ten years. The tool utilizes the census tract boundaries from 2010. This was chosen because many of the data sources in the tool currently use the 2010 census boundaries."PurposeThe goal of the Justice40 Initiative is to provide 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments in [eight] key areas to disadvantaged communities. These [eight] key areas are: climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, [health burdens] and the development of critical clean water infrastructure." Source: Climate and Economic Justice Screening tool"Sec. 219. Policy. To secure an equitable economic future, the United States must ensure that environmental and economic justice are key considerations in how we govern. That means investing and building a clean energy economy that creates well‑paying union jobs, turning disadvantaged communities — historically marginalized and overburdened — into healthy, thriving communities, and undertaking robust actions to mitigate climate change while preparing for the impacts of climate change across rural, urban, and Tribal areas. Agencies shall make achieving environmental justice part of their missions by developing programs, policies, and activities to address the disproportionately high and adverse human health, environmental, climate-related and other cumulative impacts on disadvantaged communities, as well as the accompanying economic challenges of such impacts. It is therefore the policy of my Administration to secure environmental justice and spur economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities that have been historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment in housing, transportation, water and wastewater infrastructure, and health care." Source: Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and AbroadUse of this Data"The pilot identifies 21 priority programs to immediately begin enhancing benefits for disadvantaged communities. These priority programs will provide a blueprint for other agencies to help inform their work to implement the Justice40 Initiative across government." Source: The Path to Achieving Justice 40The layer has some transparency applied to allow it to work sufficiently well on top of many basemaps. For optimum map display where streets and labels are clearly shown on top of this layer, try one of the Human Geography basemaps and set transparency to 0%, as is done in this example web map.Browse the DataView the Data tab in the top right of this page to browse the data in a table and view the metadata available for each field, including field name, field alias, and a field description explaining what the field represents.Symbology updated 2/19/2023 to show additional tracts whose overlap with tribal lands is greater than 0% but less than 1%, to be designated as "Partially Disadvantaged" alongside tracts whose overlap with tribal lands is 1% or more.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
HazMatMapper is an online and interactive geographic visualization tool designed to facilitate exploration of transnational flows of hazardous waste in North America (http://geography.wisc.edu/hazardouswaste/map/). While conventional narratives suggest that wealthier countries such as Canada and the United States (US) export waste to poorer countries like Mexico, little is known about how waste trading may affect specific sites within any of the three countries. To move beyond anecdotal discussions and national aggregates, we assembled a novel geographic dataset describing transnational hazardous waste shipments from 2007 to 2012 through two Freedom of Information Act requests for documents held by the US Environmental Protection Agency. While not yet detailing all of the transnational hazardous waste trade in North America, HazMatMapper supports multiscale and site-specific visual exploration of US imports of hazardous waste from Canada and Mexico. It thus enables academic researchers, waste regulators, and the general public to generate hypotheses on regional clustering, transnational corporate structuring, and environmental justice concerns, as well as to understand the limitations of existing regulatory data collection itself. Here, we discuss the dataset and design process behind HazMatMapper and demonstrate its utility for understanding the transnational hazardous waste trade.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
EJScreen is EPA's environmental justice mapping and screening tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and socioeconomic indicators. These files were downloaded from https://gaftp.epa.gov/EJScreen/ and each ZIP contains one year of data.
From the website: The available data includes the EJScreen as compared to the state or nation. They are available for download at the block group or tract level resolution in geodatabase (.gdb) or comma separated values (.csv) formats. There is a data dictionary spreadsheet (.xlsx) that provides a description of each of the column names. Additionally, the data is published as a feature service for users that wish to view the data within GIS software. These data downloads are recommended for users with GIS and statistical expertise, and it is essential that anyone using the raw data understand the caveats and limitations described in the EJScreen Technical Documentation (pdf) (770.34 KB) .
Created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Archived by the Open Environmental Data Project. “The Environmental Justice Index uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, OpenStreetMap, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank the cumulative impacts of environmental injustice on health for every census tract. Census tracts are subdivisions of counties for which the Census collects statistical data. The EJI ranks each tract on 36 environmental, social, and health factors and groups them into three overarching modules and ten different domains.” [Source: CDC]
description: EJSCREEN is an environmental justice (EJ) screening and mapping tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and methodology for calculating "EJ indexes," which can be used for highlighting places that may be candidates for further review, analysis, or outreach as the agency develops programs, policies and other activities. The tool provides both summary and detailed information at the Census block group level or a user-defined area for both demographic and environmental indicators. The summary information is in the form of EJ Indexes which combine demographic information with a single environmental indicator (such as proximity to traffic) that can help identify communities living in areas with greater potential for environmental and health impacts. The tool also provides additional detailed demographic and environmental information to supplement screening analyses. EJSCREEN displays this information in color-coded maps, bar charts, and standard reports. Users should keep in mind that screening tools are subject to substantial uncertainty in their demographic and environmental data, particularly when looking at small geographic areas, such as Census block groups. Data on the full range of environmental impacts and demographic factors in any given location are almost certainly not available directly through this tool, and its initial results should be supplemented with additional information and local knowledge before making any judgments about potential areas of EJ concern. The National-scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) environmental indicators and EJ indexes, which include cancer risk, respiratory hazard, neurodevelopment hazard, and diesel particulate matter will be added into EJSCREEN during the first full public update after the soon-to-be-released 2011 dataset is made available. All NATA associated indicator and index elements are currently set to "Null".; abstract: EJSCREEN is an environmental justice (EJ) screening and mapping tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and methodology for calculating "EJ indexes," which can be used for highlighting places that may be candidates for further review, analysis, or outreach as the agency develops programs, policies and other activities. The tool provides both summary and detailed information at the Census block group level or a user-defined area for both demographic and environmental indicators. The summary information is in the form of EJ Indexes which combine demographic information with a single environmental indicator (such as proximity to traffic) that can help identify communities living in areas with greater potential for environmental and health impacts. The tool also provides additional detailed demographic and environmental information to supplement screening analyses. EJSCREEN displays this information in color-coded maps, bar charts, and standard reports. Users should keep in mind that screening tools are subject to substantial uncertainty in their demographic and environmental data, particularly when looking at small geographic areas, such as Census block groups. Data on the full range of environmental impacts and demographic factors in any given location are almost certainly not available directly through this tool, and its initial results should be supplemented with additional information and local knowledge before making any judgments about potential areas of EJ concern. The National-scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) environmental indicators and EJ indexes, which include cancer risk, respiratory hazard, neurodevelopment hazard, and diesel particulate matter will be added into EJSCREEN during the first full public update after the soon-to-be-released 2011 dataset is made available. All NATA associated indicator and index elements are currently set to "Null".
Created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Archived by the Open Environmental Data Project. “The Environmental Justice Index uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, OpenStreetMap, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank the cumulative impacts of environmental injustice on health for every census tract. Census tracts are subdivisions of counties for which the Census collects statistical data. The EJI ranks each tract on 36 environmental, social, and health factors and groups them into three overarching modules and ten different domains.” [Source: CDC]
Created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Archived by the Open Environmental Data Project. “The Environmental Justice Index uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, OpenStreetMap, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank the cumulative impacts of environmental injustice on health for every census tract. Census tracts are subdivisions of counties for which the Census collects statistical data. The EJI ranks each tract on 36 environmental, social, and health factors and groups them into three overarching modules and ten different domains.” [Source: CDC]
MEJ aims to create easy-to-use, publicly-available maps that paint a holistic picture of intersecting environmental, social, and health impacts experienced by communities across the US.
With guidance from the residents of impacted communities, MEJ combines environmental, public health, and demographic data into an indicator of vulnerability for communities in every state. MEJ’s goal is to fill an existing data gap for individual states without environmental justice mapping tools, and to provide a valuable tool for advocates, scholars, students, lawyers, and policy makers.
The negative effects of pollution depend on a combination of vulnerability and exposure. People living in poverty, for example, are more likely to develop asthma or die due to air pollution. The method MEJ uses, following the method developed for CalEnviroScreen, reflects this in the two overall components of a census tract’s final “Cumulative EJ Impact”: population characteristics and pollution burden. The CalEnviroScreen methodology was developed through an intensive, multi-year effort to develop a science-backed, peer-reviewed tool to assess environmental justice in a holistic way, and has since been replicated by several other states.
CalEnviroScreen Methodology:
Population characteristics are a combination of socioeconomic data (often referred to as the social determinants of health) and health data that together reflect a populations' vulnerability to pollutants. Pollution burden is a combination of direct exposure to a pollutant and environmental effects, which are adverse environmental conditions caused by pollutants, such as toxic waste sites or wastewater releases. Together, population characteristics and pollution burden help describe the disproportionate impact that environmental pollution has on different communities.
Every indicator is ranked as a percentile from 0 to 100 and averaged with the others of the same component to form an overall score for that component. Each component score is then percentile ranked to create a component percentile. The Sensitive Populations component score, for example, is the average of a census tract’s Asthma, Low Birthweight Infants, and Heart Disease indicator percentiles, and the Sensitive Populations component percentile is the percentile rank of the Sensitive Populations score.
The Population Characteristics score is the average of the Sensitive Populations component score and the Socioeconomic Factors component score. The Population Characteristics percentile is the percentile rank of the Population Characteristics score.
The Pollution Burden score is the average of the Pollution Exposure component score and one half of the Environmental Effects component score (Environmental Effects may have a smaller effect on health outcomes than the indicators included the Exposures component so are weighted half as much as Exposures). The Pollution Burden percentile is the percentile rank of the Pollution Burden score.
The Populaton Characteristics and Pollution Burden scores are then multiplied to find the final Cumulative EJ Impact score for a census tract, and then this final score is percentile-ranked to find a census tract's final Cumulative EJ Impact percentile.
Census tracts with no population aren't given a Population Characteristics score.
Census tracts with an indicator score of zero are assigned a percentile rank of zero. Percentile rank is then only calculated for those census tracts with a score above zero.
Census tracts that are missing data for more than two indicators don't receive a final Cumulative EJ Impact ranking.
%3C!-- --%3E