New interoperable web tools to facilitate decision-making to support community sustainability

Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program (SHCRP) is building on past decision-support efforts and expanding the scope and accessibility of available tools to empower decision-makers ranging from individuals up to national policymakers to move towards sustainability goals. Initially, the SHCRP is integrating a National Atlas of Ecosystem Services (developed in ESRI’s ArcServer application for geographical information analysis) with the Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) Program’s Environmental Decision Toolkit (EDT) that focuses on analysis of multiple stresses (e.g., air pollution, land-use change) with multiple resources (e.g., habitat, drinking water supplies) (developed in the SPlus statistical application) for prioritizing protection, mitigation, and restoration actions. Future plans for the interoperable suite of tools include the incorporation of the use of social media to identify issues and solutions, as well as potential connections among different communities. Of special significance to science education, these applications involve tools and data layers that are authentic, diverse, and rich with respect to environmental and social relevance. Students can readily grasp the significance of the environmental information displayed in map form. Thus, they are introduced immediately to technologies for data collection (remote sensing, GIS, etc.), flexible and scalable analyses, and the various agencies that collect, store, and distribute data that are becoming more available at an increasing rate. Further, the integrated tools encourage teachers and their students to consider local opportunities for understanding and empowerment and the reporting of results to local administrators to effect change. Such projects, in turn, establish opportunity for a wide range of significant scientist–student partnership (SSP) connections that can help integrate the teachers and the students into local decision-making processes as valued stakeholders, to the benefit of the students and community.