NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (HAQAST) is a collaborative team that works in partnership with public health and air quality agencies to use NASA data and tools for the public benefit. Satellite Data for Environmental Justice (SD4EJ) is a NASA HAQAST Tiger Team whose goal is to integrate satellite data into environmental justice (EJ) screening and mapping tools. Satellite data have strength in spatial coverage to comprehensively identify and target EJ communities for investments and remediation. Through the use of satellite data, we can discern differences in heat, pollution, and other environmental hazards within individual census tracts.
Satellite Data for Environmental Justice (SD4EJ) provides satellite data expertise for the following indicators and more: heat, the light at night, fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and formaldehyde (HCHO).
- Meet the Team
- Environmental Justice News
- Stakeholders
- Geographic System Story Maps
- Educational Resources
Susan Annenberg
Co-PI
Qian Xiao
Co-PI
Gaige Kerr
Principle Coordinator
Natalie Youssef
Communications Specialist
Science Questions Arrive in Ports
Scientists Analyze How the Pandemic Affected Air Quality
Child Asthma and Other Health Effects of Long-Term Urban Air Pollution
Racial Disparities in Air Pollution
Low-Carbon Energy Minimizes Racial Disparities in Neighborhoods with Air Pollution
Activists Fear EPA’s Truck Pollution Rule Will Miss the Mark
The pandemic made clear who doesn’t get to breathe clean air. Now what?
NASA Q&A: Scientists Analyze How the Pandemic Affected Air Quality
Exposure “Environmental Justice: Screening Tools, EJ Indexes, and Justice40”
Public comments to the EPA on proposed heavy-duty vehicle NOx emission standards.
SD4EJ Stakeholders
This Tiger Team is engaged with several stakeholders who map EJ indicators, and the team works towards sharing, reformatting, and interpreting satellite data for EJ applications. The content below highlight a few of the team’s many stakeholders exploring how satellite data can complement their existing work to understand and advance environmental justice.
Environmental Defense Fund:
SD4EJ works with the Environmental Defense Fund to integrate satellite data into their climate vulnerability index. The CVI integrates existing datasets on climate, health, and environment and identifies vulnerabilities and factors driving those vulnerabilities on a national scale.
CDC:
The CDC has an Environmental Justice Dashboard. This dashboard uses the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), calculated based on social factors, including unemployment, minority status, and disability. The SVI illustrates high levels of social vulnerability. This data highlights environmental injustices in communities experiencing human suffering, financial hardships, or public health emergencies.
Consortium for the Valuation of Applications Benefits Linked with Earth Science (VALUABLES):
The Consortium for the Valuation of Applications Benefits Linked with Earth Sciences is a cooperative agreement between Resources for the Future (RFF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This program measures how satellite information can benefit people and the environment and inform policy or decision-making.
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Environmental Justice:
The EPA has an environmental justice screening and mapping tool, EJScreen. SD4EJ is exploring how NO2, an air pollutant not currently included in this screening tool, might provide additional insights into air quality and health disparities. Global estimates of surface NO2 concentrations at 1km x 1km are documented in Anenberg, Mohegh, et al. (2022). These estimates, available annually for 2005-2020, are formed by combining a land-use regression model described in Larkin et al. (2015) with satellite-derived tropospheric column NO2 from NASA’s Ozone Mapping Instrument.
CEEJH at UMD:
CEEJH has developed public participatory geospatial information science (PPGIS) tools for visualizing environmental justice in communities. These tools measure air pollution, chemical releases, food justice, green space, and climate resilience on a map to identify burdens and health disparities in Maryland. Locate the Maryland Environmental Justice Screen Tool here.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD):
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) is responsible for controlling emissions from stationary sources of air pollutants. The SCAQMD has instituted several community initiatives to help improve air quality for residents of the south basin, including the Environmental Justice Program. The goals of this program are to advise on environmental justice issues, create and sustain positive and productive relationships between the South Coast AQMD and community members, and contribute to the progress and achievement of environmental justice through decisions and activities. The SCAQMD team is working to understand environmental justice issues related to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the growing impact of warehousing and e-commerce in Southern California.
New York State Department of Health:
The NY State Department of Health uses Geographic Information Systems to map potential environmental justice areas here. This map highlights minority groups and percentages of the population with incomes below the federal poverty level. The New York State Department of Health uses data from the NY State Data GIS Clearinghouse and Environmental Resource Mapper to identify potential environmental justice areas based on resources, environmental features that are state or federally protected, areas of conservation or concern, and other factors.
Nick Pendleton, a recent MPH graduate from the Milken Institute of Health at George Washington University, served as a Communications Specialist for the SD4EJ team. Nick created a Geographic Information System Story map and Dashboard of the United States using satellite data to map air quality and socioeconomic data around race, ethnicity, poverty, and health status. This data helps identify the most vulnerable communities or individuals and recognize environmental justice issues.
Mapping Tools
Mapping for Environmental Justice
EPA Environmental Justice and Screening Tool
Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map
DEQ North Carolina Community Mapping System
Colorado EnviroScreen | Department of Public Health & Environment
Environmental Justice Data
CDC Environmental Justice Dashboard
Washington State Department of Health Environmental Public Health Data
S. County-Level Population Projections for Race and Age Based on the SSP
PM 2.5 Data From Forest Fires Throughout the US, Land Surface Temperature
Daily and Annual PM2.5 Concentrations in the United States at a Resolution of 1km
Other Resources and Training
New Jersey Environmental Justice Resources