EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT and RESILIENCY PLANNING (EMRP) Midwest Comprehensive Visualization Dashboards: Environmental Justice and Neighborhood Schools in Chicago, Illinois Joel Flax-Hatch, Apostolis Sambanis, and Michael D. Cailas, with the participation of Greg Arling, Fabio Miranda, and Kristin Osiecki 1.0 COMPREHENSIVE VISUALIZATION DASHBOARDS The UIC School of Public Health (UIC-SPH) Emergency Management and Resiliency Planning (EMRP) program will be presenting a series of Midwest Comprehensive Visualization Dashboards (MCVD) focusing on environmental health and justice issues in this region. The primary objective of the current dashboard (MCVD: EJ.1) is to create visualizations that lead to operational insights supporting data-driven decisions with a focus on environmental justice issues. It is the first in a series of dashboards aiming to identify the distribution of environmental hazards in Chicago neighborhoods. 2.0 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The Illinois Environmental Justice Act (415 ILCS 155/1) aims to "ensure that communities are not disproportionately impacted by degradation of the environment or receive a less than equitable share of environmental protection and benefits." The core concept of this act is Environmental Justice (EJ) which "is based on the principle that all people should be protected from environmental pollution and have the right to a clean and healthy environment. Environmental justice is the protection of the health of the people of Illinois and its environment, equity in the administration of the State's environmental programs, and the provision of adequate opportunities for meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." A prerequisite for validating a state of EJ in a community is identifying disparities in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. In a previous study involving Chicago neighborhoods, the distribution of environmental hazards were documented, focusing on the South West area of the city.1 In this study, a different approach is adopted. The emphasis is placed on a sensitive and relatively immobile population living in these communities: kindergarten (age 5 to 6) to 8th-grade school children (henceforth K-8). In recognition of their vulnerability, the 1997 Executive Order (EO) 13045 (62 FR 19885; April 23, 1997), states that "each Federal agency: (1) shall make it a high priority to identify and assess environmental health risks and safety risks that may disproportionately affect children; and (2) shall ensure that its policies, programs, activities, and standards address disproportionate risks to children that result from environmental health risks or safety risks." Guided by this EO the Office of Children's Health Protection (OCHP) was created aiming to "ensure that all EPA actions and programs address the unique vulnerabilities of children." At a local level, the Chicago Public School (CPS) district administration implicitly recognizes the importance of environmental equity stating that “equity is more than a series of stand-alone initiatives: it is the driving core value which informs every decision we make, from capital improvements to curriculum design."2
© 2021 J. Flax-Hatch, A. Sambanis, and M. D. Cailas
EMRP WP 1.4.10.21
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