Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice (2024) / Chapter Skim
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4 Environmental Justice Tools
4 Environmental Justice Tools
Pages 73-98
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The chapter first summarizes previous surveys of EJ tools and then provides a more detailed comparison made by the committee of a subset of tools. The chapter provides practical descriptions of how different tools format indicator data and address cumulative impacts.
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From page 74... ...
. Conclusions from the survey included the need for a clear definition of disadvantaged communities, the importance of calculating cumulative impacts that allow comparison and prioritization, the importance of official state support and enabling policies that require the use of the tools for decision making, and the centrality of community input and engagement in defining "disadvantaged communities" and relevant indicator selection.
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reviewed EJ mapping tools for California, Florida, Maryland, Cuyahoga County in Ohio, the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria region of Texas, Washington State, and EJScreen. They identified six themes that are inadequately represented in current EJ tools: social progress, vulnerability, climate equity, economic progress, health, and resilience.
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The authors call for continued research to understand the universe of related tools to further equip communities and decision makers, to determine how well different tools capture cumulative impacts or burdens and, ultimately, "how tools can advance racial equity as a central objective." Other institutions have sought to develop public databases to identify the growing list of EJ tools and related policies. The Tishman Environment and Design Center at the New School developed a searchable tool of definitions, indicators, thresholds, and benefits focused on the various cumulative impact policies developed across the country (Baptista et al., 2022; Tishman Environment and Design Center, 2022)
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They found that few reports or policies mention specific thresholds or methodologies useful for determining the existence or extent of cumulative impacts. They argue that the methodologies used to measure cumulative impacts or determine thresholds for "unreasonable," "significant," or even "cumulative" harm are inherently normative and subjective, and as such, there is a need for the participation of affected parties -- especially those within EJ communities (Baptista et al., 2022)
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used for indicator data, their approaches to aggregating data and measuring cumulative impacts, and their use of thresholds to identify disadvantaged communities. Important similarities and differences across the tools are described.
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. Burden Categories and Indicators in Selected Tools The indicators and variables incorporated by the reviewed tools vary, as do the groupings or themes used to categorize the indicators into burden categories.
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80 CONSTRUCTING VALID GEOSPATIAL TOOLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TABLE 4.1 Creator, Purpose, and Output Type of 13 Selected EJ Tools Tool Creator Purpose Output Type Climate and Economic White House Council on • Statutory or Binary designation of Justice Screening Tool a Environmental Quality regulatory disadvantage or not requirement • Informational EJScreenb Environmental Protection • Informational Relative rank, score, Agency index Environmental Justice Centers for Disease • Informational Relative rank, score, Index c Control and Prevention index Social Vulnerability Centers for Disease • Informational Relative rank, score, Index d Control and Prevention index Energy Justice Mapping Department of Energy • Statutory or Binary designation of Tool -- Disadvantaged regulatory disadvantage or not Communities Reporter e requirement • Informational Climate Mapping for National Oceanic • Informational Raw data values Resilience and and Atmospheric Adaptation f Administration and Department of the Interior DOT Equitable Department of • Statutory or Binary designation of Transportation Transportation regulatory disadvantaged or not Community Explorer g requirement • Informational Census Community Census Bureau • Informational Relative rank, score, Resilience Estimatesh index National Risk Index i Federal Emergency • Informational Relative rank, score, Management index Administration Massachusetts DPH Massachusetts • Statutory or Tiered designation of Environmental Justice Department of Public regulatory disadvantaged or not Tool j Health requirement • Informational California California Environmental • Statutory or Binary designation of CalEnviroscreenk Protection Agency regulatory disadvantaged or not requirement • Informational Relative rank, score, index Indexes of Multiple British Department for • Statutory or Relative rank, score, Deprivation l Communities and Local regulatory index Government requirement • Informational
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A summary of the four broad categories of burden included in Table 4.2 is given below. Socioeconomic Category Indicators Socioeconomic burden indicators are used to measure the demographic and economic characteristics of communities, such as income, linguistic isolation, housing conditions, education, employment, and transportation.
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Census Community Resilience Estimates √ (CRE) FEMA National Risk Index (NRI)
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For example, raw or originally reported data values for health and environmental indicators in EJScreen are only available after the user requests that a report be generated for a specific location, or the user downloads the data for analysis using another software application. (EJScreen presents data in percentile form on its interactive map.)
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84 FIGURE 4.1 Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation tool display illustrating presentation of raw data values.
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FIGURE 4.1 Continued 85
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Although most of the tools evaluated use percentiles, EJScreen is one of the few that presents percentile scores of individual indicators as the primary value for display. Most tools reviewed use percentiles as an intermediate step in the construction of more complex indicators of cumulative impacts or risk, or the percentile scores are of composite indicator values.
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The Pollution Burden Score is computed similarly, except that the Environmental Effects grouping score is weighted half as much as the Exposures grouping score.10 The averaged scores for the Pollution Burden and Population Characteristics categories are then scaled such that both have maximum values of 10, and the final CalEnviroScreen cumulative impact score is computed by multiplying the scaled Pollution Burden and Population Characteristics category scores. The result is values ranging from 0 to 100 for every census tract in the state, a cumulative impact score.
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88 FIGURE 4.2 Screenshot from EPA's EJScreen illustrating the difference between national and state percentiles for exposure to PM2.5.
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FIGURE 4.2 Continued 89
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90 FIGURE 4.3 The Center for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Environmental Justice Index Explorer illustrating the use of qualitative ranks for comparison.
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• Ratings -- one of five qualitative categories describing the community's component value in comparison to all other communities at the same level. Rating categories range from "Very Low" to "Very High." Social vulnerability and community resilience ratings have specific numerical boundaries, divided into quintiles based on national percentiles: • Very High: 80th to 100th percentiles • Relatively High: 60th to 80th percentiles • Relatively Moderate: 40th to 60th percentiles • Relatively Low: 20th to 40th percentiles • Very Low: 0th to 20th percentiles CUMULATIVE IMPACTS Measuring cumulative impacts is an important consideration in determining those communities that are most significantly disadvantaged or burdened by multiple stressors.
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92 FIGURE 4.4 FEMA's National Risk Index illustrating the use of qualitative ranks for comparison.
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. Multiple Stressors The cumulative impacts arising from the presence of multiple stressors can be measured through various methods (see Chapters 2 and 3)
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This aggregate score is then used in the determination of whether a census tract is designated as disadvantaged. The CDC/ATSDR's EJI calculates a module score for its Environmental Burden module and its Social Vulnerability module by summing (with equal weights)
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For example, although the EJScreen tool does not incorporate cumulative impacts across multiple environmental stressors (since it does not calculate overall cumulative scores) , it does incorporate interaction between individual environmental stressors and a demographic index (or supplemental demographic index)
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This chapter has summarized the features of some existing EJ tools and how they may vary, illustrating the range of approaches taken in constructing EJ mapping tools. For comparison, this section provides a brief overview of key features of CEQ's CEJST, focusing on the burden categories, indicators, and the limited consideration of cumulative impacts.
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A community that exceeds only one threshold has the same designation as a community that exceeds many thresholds. The only way in which CEJST captures some dimension of cumulative impacts is by designating a community as disadvantaged only if the census tract meets both a burden criterion (exceeding the 90th percentile for at least one burden indicator)
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with no true accounting for the magnitude of stressors or cumulative impacts. Subsequent chapters of this report provide more details regarding CEJST.
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