Geospatial Data Needs: EPA Seeks Input from the U.S. Pacific Territories
Regional-ORD Applied Research Pacific Territories Project (ROAR-PT)
Background
The U.S. Pacific Territories (PT) include Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. These territories face unique challenges and lack the public-facing geospatial data that EPA has developed and made available for much of the rest of the country (through websites like EnviroAtlas).
With more environmental data available, there is the potential to unlock resources and better understand the conditions in the Pacific Islands.
EPA partners in PT communities have requested that these tools and datasets be expanded to cover their regions, and we want to know what information is most important to those communities.
Approach
This project will identify and create environmental and public health geospatial datasets (i.e., maps) that can be implemented in existing user-friendly tools (such as EnviroAtlas) for use by interested parties not only to visualize and analyze available data, but also to support environmental decision-making. User engagement is of high priority in determining which datasets and tools are of most interest for these communities.
Results
The resulting tools will aid PT communities in environmental and public health decision making and planning. Users will be able to visualize potential environmental, climate, and health impacts and solutions. This project will support EPA Region 9 in decision-making processes and will benefit PT communities in responding to environmental impacts.
We Want to Hear from You!
We are seeking input about what data would be most helpful to stakeholders, decision-makers, and communities in the Pacific Territories. To learn more about the project, contribute comments, or ask questions, fill out the form below.