Environmental Justice Data Catalog

The Catalog provides links to datasets that may be helpful in environmental justice research.

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Examples of how NASA Earth science data are being applied to environmental justice. Clockwise from upper left: Identifying vulnerable populations using remotely-sensed urban heat island data in Sacramento, CA; detecting power outages using nighttime lights imagery in New Orleans, LA; assessing Navajo Nation water resources using NASA's Drought Severity Evaluation Tool (DSET) in the U.S. Southwest; helping policy officials identify communities in need using U.S. Social Vulnerability Index data from NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Credit: NASA ESDS.

NASA Earth science data are available without restriction and are an invaluable resource for exploring Earth’s natural processes. When combined with socioeconomic data about race, ethnicity, poverty, and health, these observations can help better identify vulnerable populations and support environmental justice. Environmental justice refers to the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, in the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

The NASA Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program’s Environmental Justice Data Catalog is your guide to datasets that may be useful in environmental justice research. Datasets are organized based on their environmental justice indicator (such as disasters, urban flooding, extreme heat, and food availability) and the possible use cases for each dataset.

For additional information about NASA environmental justice efforts, please see the NASA Earth Science Division (ESD) Equity and Environmental Justice page. ESDS provides many resources for exploring environmental justice and showing how NASA Earth science data can be applied. The new ESDS Visualization, Exploration, Data, and Analysis (VEDA) Dashboard has an interactive Environmental Justice Thematic Area. Other ESDS resources include the report from the Understanding Needs to Broaden Outside Use of NASA Data (UNBOUND)-Environmental Justice workshop and the Environmental Justice and Vulnerability Levels/Index Earthdata topic pages.

Explore the Environmental Justice Data Catalog (XLS)

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