HHS 250: Intro to Environmental Health

EnviroAtlas is a web-based decision support tool that provides geospatial data, easy-to-use tools, and other resources related to the benefits people receive from nature (i.e., ecosystem goods and 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. EnviroAtlas helps communities understand the relationships between nature, human health, well-being, and the economy.

National Stormwater Calculator (SWC) is a software application used 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 (LID) controls as they consider how to meet a desired stormwater retention target, with or without the use of green infrastructure. SWC may also be used to plan and design low-impact development (LID)/green infrastructure in communities to make them more resilient to urban flooding and extreme storms.

Smoke Sense is a mobile application that supports a citizen science project to better understand and increase awareness of the health effects associated with exposure to wildfire smoke. 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.

Cyanobacteria Assessment Network Mobile Application (CyAN App) is a customizable app that provides access to algal bloom satellite data for over 2,000 of the largest lakes and reservoirs across the United States to inform decisions regarding recreational and drinking water safety. Users can view information about cyanobacteria concentrations on a national scale or can zoom in to a specific lake or reservoir at a resolution of one square kilometer or greater. Users can determine their own thresholds for cyanobacteria concentrations and compare multiple water bodies, allowing for better-informed and efficient decisions.

The Non-Potable Environmental and Economic Water Reuse Calculator (NEWR Calculator) is a simple to use web-based tool for screening-level assessments of source water options for any urban building location across the United States that is considering onsite non-potable reuse. Non-potable water reuse is one solution that can help communities reclaim, recycle, and then reuse water for non-drinking water purposes, such as toilet flushing, clothes washing, and irrigation. NEWR can be used to identify the most environmentally and cost-effective suite of source water options to meet non-potable needs based on geography, climate, building size, and building type.

The Locating and Selecting Scenarios Online (LASSO) tool guides you step-by-step through the process of identifying and downloading climate change scenarios—or projections—that are relevant to your interest or research question. At each step you will define criteria that will subset climate change information from a much larger archive, with LASSO providing helpful information and suggestions along the way. At the end of the process, you will have the option to download maps, figures, and GIS-ready spatial data, or use an interactive scatterplot widget to customize or change your choices.

The Integrated Climate and Land-Use Scenarios (ICLUS) project produced spatially explicit projections of population and land-use that are based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) scenarios and pathways.
First, social, economic, and demographic storylines were adapted for the United States. These modified storylines were then used to create population projections that would reflect different assumptions about fertility, mortality, and immigration through the end of this century. Next, a spatial interaction model was used to simulate the annual movement of people within the United States. Then the results of these population projections are used to calculate the demand for new residential lands.

The Proctor Creek Watershed Story Map is an easy- to-use interactive online tool that combines maps with narrative text, images, and multimedia content to convey information as a story and inform and connect with viewers. The Story Map explores community-identified concerns, such as flooding and water quality, urban heat islands, mosquitoes, and health, and considers the potential for green infrastructure to address those concerns.

The CompTox Chemicals Dashboard is an easily searchable database of 883,000+ chemicals to learn about chemical properties, toxicity, exposure, and many other aspects of a particular chemical.

The Ecotoxicology (ECOTOX) Knowledgebase provides information on adverse effects of single chemical stressors to ecologically relevant aquatic and terrestrial species. ECOTOX includes more than a million test records covering 13,621 aquatic and terrestrial species and 13,621 chemicals.

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. EJSCREEN users choose a geographic area; the tool then provides demographic 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 demographic indicators into EJ indexes.

Burning fossil fuels at power plants creates emissions that contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone and fine PM, which can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular problems, among other issues. To help answer questions about environmental justice in the communities around power plants, the Power Plants and Neighboring Communities webpage features interactive maps and graphs that provide information on key demographics that can be used as a general indicator of a community’s potential susceptibility to these types of environmental exposures.

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a resource for learning about toxic chemical releases and pollution prevention activities reported by industrial and federal facilities. TRI data support informed decision-making by communities, government agencies, companies, and others.

Freshwater Explorer is an interactive web-based mapping tool that provides information about background and observed salt and mineral content for freshwater streams, lakes, and wells in all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It can be used by anyone, including citizens and non-governmental organizations, to better understand national and local water quality issues and provides water quality information to help federal, state, territory, tribal, and local partners make decisions about freshwater resources.

EPA’s Report on the Environment shows how the condition of the U.S. environment and human health is changing over time. The purpose of the 80+ peer-reviewed ROE indicators is to help answer 23 questions critical to EPA's mission of protecting the environment and human health. The indicators are supported by data gathered from federal and state agencies and non- governmental organizations. Each indicator comprises: graphics, text describing what the indicator shows and its limitations, and technical documentation. For each indicator area, the ROE also provides suggestions for what you can do to protect the environment, contribute to a sustainable future, and protect your health from environmental hazards.

The Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST) enables communities and watershed organizations to determine the most cost-effective water resource management options to meet water quantity and quality goals within an integrated water management framework. WMOST considers options for stormwater (including green infrastructure), wastewater, drinking water, and land conservation practices. WMOST can be used to evaluate options to meet water quality criteria, total maximum daily loads, water supply or environmental flow requirements, combined sewer overflow reductions, and/or flood reduction goals.

EPA's Global Change Explorer (GCX) is a collection of web tools that visualize, compare, and provide access to spatial data that describe potential future environmental change. These data can serve as a starting point when assessing the vulnerability of air, water, ecosystems, and human health to climate change, land use change, and other large-scale environmental stressors. The data and tools in the Global Change Explorer are relevant across multiple scientific disciplines and environmental media, providing a foundation for integrated assessments of global change.

Use CDC’s Environmental Justice Dashboard to explore data on environmental exposures, community characteristics, and health burden — factors important to understanding and addressing environmental justice issues.

CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index helps public health officials and emergency response planners meet the needs of socially vulnerable populations in emergency response and recovery efforts.

The National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) brings together health data and environment data from national, state, and city sources and provides supporting information to make the data easier to understand. The Tracking Network has data and information on environments and hazards, health effects, and population health.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Air Tracker is an interactive web-based application (works best in Chrome) that allows community groups, local governments, public health officials, air quality experts, or citizens concerned for their health to see air pollution hotspots in real-time and trace them back to potential sources. Clicking on any location on the map reveals a footprint from that specific location at that specific time - the darker blue colors of the footprint indicate the area upwind of the clicked location (based on wind direction and speed) and therefore the places where a pollution source impacting that site is most likely to be found. This tool can be used to track pollution and make it visible in real-time.