Regional ORD Applied Research Pacific Territories Project (ROAR-PT)
Seeking Input: Developing Climate Change and Environmental Justice Data and Public Pilot Tool for U.S. Pacific Territories
Background
The U.S. Pacific Territories (PT) include Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. These territories face unique challenges relating to climate change and environmental justice, and they also lack public-facing GIS-based tools that the EPA has developed for much of the rest of the United States (through websites such as EnviroAtlas and EJScreen). EPA partners in PT communities have requested that these tools and datasets be expanded to cover their regions.
- Fact Sheet: Seeking Input - Climate Change and EJ Data and Public Pilot Tool for U.S. Pacific Territories (pdf)
- Regional Science Program Fact Sheet (pdf)
Approach
This project will identify and create environmental and public health geospatial datasets (i.e., maps) that can be implemented in existing user-friendly tools (such as EJScreen or EnviroAtlas) for use by interested parties not only to visualize and analyze available data, but also to support environmental decision-making. User engagement is of high priority in determining which datasets and tools are of most interest for these communities.
Results
The resulting tools will aid PT communities in environmental and public health decision making and planning. Users will be able to visualize potential environmental, climate, and health impacts and solutions. This project will support EPA Region 9 in decision-making processes and will benefit PT communities in responding to environmental justice impacts.
We Would Love to Hear From You!
We are seeking input about what data would be most helpful to stakeholders, decision-makers, and communities in the Pacific Territories. To learn more about the project, contribute comments, or ask questions, fill out the form below.