Community Environmental Justice Explorer
October 28, 2024
The Community Environmental Justice Explorer helps managers, researchers, and the public understand coastal fishing community well-being and resilience to change, with a focus on supporting environmental justice analysis.
Overview of the Community Environmental Justice Explorer
The Community Environmental Justice Explorer web tool helps managers, researchers, and the public understand environmental justice concerns for more than 4,600 coastal fishing communities in the United States. Users can explore and analyze detailed community information in visual data dashboards, including indicator categories (fishing dependence, environmental justice, gentrification pressure, and economic), a new overall community risk score, comparisons against national averages, and reference to climate change indicators.
Development of the tool aligns with NOAA Fisheries’ ongoing social indicators efforts and the U.S. Ocean Justice Strategy. It helps to address the goals of NOAA Fisheries’ Equity and Environmental Justice Strategy, as well as support mandated environmental justice analyses and assessments. Example uses of the tool include social impact analyses, environmental justice assessments, National Standard 8 analyses, integrated ecosystem assessments, climate change analyses, and fishery disaster assessments.
The tool’s capabilities build upon and complement the Community Social Vulnerability Indicators Tool, especially in supporting environmental justice analysis.
Tool Capabilities
Indicator Categories
Social indicator categories, composed of 12 existing social indicators, include fishing dependence, environmental justice, gentrification, and economics, and easy reference to climate change indicators.
Overall Indicator
The Overall Community Risk Score is composed of 12 existing social indicators, allowing users to compare U.S. coastal community vulnerability in a more holistic way.
Data Exploration at a Detailed Level
The tool supports user engagement and data exploration by making detailed data accessible, which allows users to tailor the experience to best meet their needs. Users can select filters, specify and explore community and indicator data, and visualize and interact with data selections.
No New Datasets Needed
Notably, no new datasets need to be collected to support the Community Environmental Justice Explorer. While the core information for both tools pulls from the same fisheries and Census data, it has been packaged and visualized differently in the Community Environmental Justice Explorer.
Tool Information and Resources
- Tool: Community Environmental Justice Explorer (User Guide)
- Other Information: Social indicators work, supporting information, and publications
- Related Tool: Community Social Vulnerability Indicators Tool
- Contact Us: nmfs.social.indicators@noaa.gov