Gaps in Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tools and Potential New Indicators

Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping (EJSM) tools can be powerful allies in the fight for justice. These tools allow users to visualize and explore patterns of environmental and climate hazards, revealing what kinds of communities are at risk from these hazards, and the compounded pollution and climate burdens certain communities face.

A comprehensive EJSM tool is one that not only includes environmental and demographic indicators, but also measures factors such as economic progress, health, and resiliency—it is only with these kinds of indicators that we have a holistic, accurate understanding of environmental justice, and climate equity and justice.

The National Wildlife Federation partnered with the Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health Lab at the University of Maryland, on the report Gaps in Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tools and Potential New Indicators. It reviews existing EJSM tools and identifies gaps in the kinds of information they map. These gaps are then used to inform a new set of recommended indicators that better represent the topics of climate equity and resilience and optimize proficiency in quantifying climate disparities.