Mapping for Environmental Justice
Partner: Kelly Armijo, UC Berkeley, Non-Profit
Overview
Project Description
Mapping for Environmental Justice (MEJ) creates easy-to-use, publicly-available maps that paint a holistic picture of intersecting environmental, social, and health impacts experienced by communities across the US. MEJ’s maps combine environmental, public health, and socioeconomic data into a single indicator that reflects the combined impacts of race, poverty, and pollution that low-income communities, communities of color, and historically marginalized communities experience. Our maps are driven by an in-depth community input process that gives communities the power to dictate the data used to create the environmental justice indicator in their state. This environmental justice indicator acts as a score for each census-tract that allows for an easy neighborhood-by-neighborhood comparison by policymakers, community members, advocates, and researchers. MEJ has created a demo map for Colorado, and is looking to improve our interactive map and website, and also expand our map to other states.
Expected Deliverable
We hope to see an improved website and map for Colorado, either using our existing framework or a new one, and potentially a new map for an additional state identified by our team that would utilize existing datasets and incorporate new datasets.
What would a successful semester look like to you?
A successful semester would would end with a beautiful interactive map and website that a wide range of stakeholders find easy to use. If we expand our map to an additional state, our website would host both a map for Colorado and the new state in an intuitive, easy to use manner. The semester would also include regular communication with students so that they feel like they’re a part of the team and are able to gain a deeper understanding of environmental justice, the role that data can play in policymaking, and the importance of grounding environmental justice data in communities’ lived experiences.
Additional Skills from ideal candidates
Prior experience working in environmental justice and community outreach is useful, although not required.
Data
Models
Conclusion