SpaceCode

Lima | Space for Change

A logical framework for environmental decision-making

High-Level Project Summary

SpaceCode created a tool to make environmental decisions in an easy and accessible way, using EJ indices. These indices combine demographic factors with a single environmental factor. This tool can be generated for each country with the developed logical framework. Based on this, data collection is started in order to obtain the necessary indicators for the area to be applied and sectorised by blocks. It is important, due to the lack of identification of the most vulnerable communities that find themselves in an environmental injustice, without being able to apply the necessary actions to mitigate the impact they suffer.

Link to Project "Demo"

Video, to watch it please click here: https://youtu.be/DlKJgsl5FHY

Link to Final Project

The prototype platform is: https://spacecode.cf/

Detailed Project Description

Target audience: 


Our project is addressed to the general public, mainly those leaders, governments and organisations, who have an interest in environmental issues and who do not have a tool to measure environmental injustices within their region, country or state; and who seek to reduce these environmental injustices that prevent equitable access to basic needs; furthermore, that these most vulnerable communities are most affected by environmental hazards, with these communities suffering the most and often contributing the least to climate change (The United Nations Statistics Division, 2021).


Problem:


Communities of colour and low-income and tribal communities have historically been home to many toxic pollutant facilities. These communities bear a disproportionate impact from environmental hazards (THE NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL,2016). Additionally, equitable development is an approach to meeting the needs of underserved communities through policies and programmes that reduce disparities while fostering healthy and vibrant homes. It is increasingly seen as an effective place-based action to create strong and livable communities (THE NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL,2016).

The climate is changing and this is bringing environmental problems, mainly the most vulnerable communities are experiencing significant negative impacts, and they have often contributed the least to this change. Some impacts and communities identified (EARTH SCIENCE APPLIED SCIENCES, 2021):


  •  Sanitation due to inadequate or lack of infrastructure.
  • Agricultural water management due to drought conditions.
  • Vulnerability to extreme weather/flooding.
  • Water quality and supply in general.


Predominantly African American and low socioeconomic communities in Flint, Michigan experienced the highest exposure to lead-contaminated water (EARTH SCIENCE APPLIED SCIENCES, 2021).



Another case is the communities of Salina Grandes, Argentina and Atacama, Chile have been experiencing environmental stress due to decades of extensive lithium mining.


And these cases are only a few cases that have been identified of environmental problems due to the water environment; however, there are many more environmental hazards that are affecting the environment (EPA, 2021) such as:



  • For the levels of PM 2.5 in the air.
  • For the maximum daily concentration of ozone in the air.
  • For the level of diesel particulate matter in the air.
  • By lifetime cancer risk from inhalation of air toxics.
  • By Respiratory Risk Index
  • By Proximity and volume of traffic
  • By potential exposure to lead paint
  • Proximity to Risk Management Plan sites
  • Proximity to hazardous waste facilities
  • Proximity to hazardous waste
  • For wastewater discharge


So, taking into account these problems, how can we identify those most vulnerable communities that are being affected by one or more of these problems? 

This is where we propose a tool to identify the vulnerable communities in your region, country, state or other geographic space that are being affected by one or more of these problems. In this way, we can take the appropriate measures focused on a given environmental problem.


Mission and goals (What do we hope to achieve?)


Faced with all the impacts that climate change is generating and provoking environmental injustice towards the most vulnerable communities, is what motivated us to form SpaceCode and create this tool to identify vulnerable populations or communities of low resources through the information of the EJ indices of a given area and to take decisions oriented at the micro level on environmental injustices; thereby reducing and/or eliminating these negative environmental impacts and being part of new projects that can contribute, in broad strokes, to sustainable climate development.


Our first objective is for the SpaceCode project to focus on our country, Peru, given that there is no government or state strategy to address the environmental problems that are seriously affecting communities at the national level.

In this way, any state, person or organisation can quickly and easily identify the most vulnerable communities that are suffering negative impacts of environmental injustice and have a general recommendation on how to improve these problems in the specific area. 


Also that these states can implement the logical framework within their countries in a scalable way in order to provide actual solutions to these affected communities. 


Logical framework solution to identify environmental injustice (includes EJ benefits) and implementation of solutions for each EJ.


Image: Made for this project.


Data collection:


Objective of the stage: To collect the necessary demographic and environmental data from the various open data sources. 


Often the state has institutions that have among their functions the collection of data according to their needs and also makes it available as an open source for the community. Given this, the purpose is to make the most of these sources to obtain the necessary data for the elaboration of the environmental justice (EJ) indices for the country in which the proposed framework is to be applied.


In particular, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has 11 environmental indicators that help to this end ( https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen/overview-environmental-indicators-ejscreen ).

The aim is to obtain all of these variables for the particular country where the framework we are proposing is to be implemented. Analysing whether it is feasible to obtain them and whether they comply with the following characteristics: 



  • Coverage: Data is available for the level of detection required (or could easily be developed) for the entire country or area where implementation is sought, or near complete coverage is possible.
  • Relevance for environmental justice: The pollutants or impacts are relevant for environmental justice. 
  • Public health relevance: The pollutants or impacts are potentially important in the country to be implemented. 


In addition, demographic variables such as population per area, % low-income, % minorities, longitude and latitude of the respective areas will be sought. 


The variables must be adapted to the characteristics of the area to be applied.


For the simulation for Peru, which was carried out during the days of the challenge, it was found that it would be possible to access data for certain variables, in particular from two main sources: 



Source CENSUS Peru: The Peruvian census is conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) and is carried out every few years, which helps to get an overview of how Peru is currently doing. This source mainly provides demographic data, such as: 


- Amount of population per department

- Number of low-income people per department (classified as poor and extremely poor).

- Number of people belonging to minorities (This is a variable that would require more research to be able to define exactly who would be considered, also based on the availability of data). 


SINIA source (National Environmental Information System): This source is used to obtain environmental variables. In particular for Peru, the opportunity to have access to variables that could help to obtain the following indexes EJ.


Image: Made for this project.


Apart from these, there are other variables in SINIA that have the potential to help better contextualise the findings that can be found.



Information processing: 

Objectives: 

-To perform the necessary transformations and calculations in order to obtain the environmental justice indexes. (EJ)

-Selection of prioritised areas affected by environmental justice.


Given that we will seek to obtain EJ indices for each of the environmental indicators chosen for the country in which the framework is to be applied. We must first take into consideration the following formula in order to calculate the indices. (Based on the methodology used in the EPA's EJSCREEN tool).




In the first instance it is required to calculate the "Demographic Index for Block Group" (In the simulation of Peru the departments were considered as this group, based on the available data) and the "Demographic Index for country or general area". 


These indices can be calculated at the corresponding "Block Group" or "Country or general area" level using the following formula. 




After this, the EJ indices are calculated for each environmental variable and the corresponding percentile is obtained for the value obtained as an EJ index at the country or general area level. This level for which the percentiles can be obtained depends on the availability of data. 


In the case of the simulation with Peru, we worked with fictitious data, given the limited time available during the challenge. This was done in order to be able to elaborate a prototype of the solution. 


The following variables or indicators were considered: 


Dummy data, used for prototyping purposes: 



The assessment and selection of areas likely to be affected by environmental justice would then proceed, using the percentiles of the EJ indices. If an area has a percentile greater than 80 on several of the EJ indices, it is likely to be a vulnerable area.  


With these areas, the analysis will continue with data that may be available to further contextualise and select priority areas in which actions will be deployed to mitigate the impacts that are occurring in these areas. 


The potential of this framework is that it could be replicated for other countries, helping them to take action to mitigate environmental injustice in areas they can detect. 


How the platform works

The simulation was carried out for Peru, the platform helps us by being able to visualise different departments with their percentile corresponding to each EJ indicator. The marked departments have a characteristic colour according to the following table: 


The departments that are marked are cumulative in order to show in which percentile range they are in with respect to the same indicator. (Remember that the data shown is fictitious for the purpose of the prototype).


In this way, possible vulnerable departments can be assessed and detected.  


In addition, clicking on the pins will show more detailed data for the first department selected. This would give us a first overview with more context, as the indicators are shown in more detail.




They would then be used for the corresponding analyses explained above at the end of the framework section.


Space Agency Data

Indicators, images, animations, papers and spatial gallery resources are being used to construct a logical framework to identify the most vulnerable communities affected by environmental injustice for a given environmental problem that is affecting that community.



  • The Environmental Justice (EJ) indicators developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); which is currently only applied to the USA. These indicators inspired us to replicate them in more countries, following the logical framework that we present and taking them to a platform such as the one presented, in order to have quick and easy access to the most vulnerable communities that are being affected by various environmental problems.



  • EARTHDATA open access for open science provided by NASA, which verifies the data from various countries, as well as the review of the indicators and environmental problems that are being measured.



  • CalEnviroScreen 3.0 , created in 2017 by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is a tool that displays maps reflecting changes in percentile values and identifies vulnerable communities in California.

Hackathon Journey

For us, as SpaceCode team, this experience was very enriching for both our knowledge and our teamwork. We learned that it is possible not only to dream big but also that we have the opportunity to make a genuine change in the world through our ideas, our commitment and above all through action. For us our inspiration was our vocation of service that motivates us to make a positive impact on society. For this project we took an environmental and global approach based on the analysis of environmental indicators to identify areas where environmental injustice exists and to help make decisions to address the issues that are directly and indirectly involved in these areas.

References

NASA AND ITS PARTNERS' RESOURCES



EXTERNAL RESOURCES


Tags

#Environmental #Environmental Justice #Technology #data #EJ #Team #Change #NASA

Global Judging

This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.

Space for Change

Marginalized communities are often disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards. Your challenge is to use NASA's Earth observation data to: 1) identify regions where such environmental injustice occurs, and 2) design implementable solutions that enable equitable outcomes.