Standard Guide for Climate and Community Mapping

Importancia y uso:

4.1 Climate change is affecting nature, people’s lives and infrastructure everywhere (IPCC 2022). For example, the multiple hazards, pathways and potential outcomes related to climate change and health are illustrated in Fig. 1.

4.1.1 Where people live and their age, health, income, or ability to access health care resources can positively or negatively influence people’s vulnerability to climate change and extreme weather effects (USGCRP, 2016).

4.1.2 A growing body of research has highlighted the disproportionate climate change impacts on overburdened communities, and the compounding and cascading effects of climate change on food, energy, and water systems (USEPA 2021; USGCRP 2023).

4.2 To identify and better address the needs of disproportionately impacted communities Federal and state governments have recently required screening and using the results for permitting, enforcement, grants, infrastructure, and equitable redevelopment. Examples include:

4.2.1 U.S. Executive Order 14008 (2021) that calls for the development of “a data driven climate and economic justice screening tool to identify communities threatened by the cumulative impacts of climate change, racial inequality and multi-source environmental pollution.”

4.2.2 U.S. Executive Order 14096, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, which makes clear that the pursuit of environmental justice is a duty of all executive branch agencies and should be incorporated into their missions, and directs federal agencies to consider measures to address and prevent disproportionate and adverse environmental and health impacts on communities.

4.3 The large variety of mapping tools currently available can make choosing the best tool a potentially daunting task. Decision makers and the public need guidance on how to select the optimal tools to meet their requirements.

4.4 This guide describes a number of tools that are free and publicly available for use by the public and decision makers. This includes: International; federal; state; Tribal; regional and local governments; community groups; Indigenous communities; and the private sector. The tools identify communities threatened by climate change and multi-source environmental pollution.

4.5 This guide offers insights on how to select appropriate tools and describes how these tools can be used to make decisions. Uses may include satisfying Federal, state, Tribal and local requirements, meeting climate and resilience program priorities, evaluating resilience investments, providing transparency, supporting stakeholder involvement and maximizing community benefits (see Executive Orders 14008 and 14096 and § 40202, 40803, 50106, 50216, and 50217 of the IIJA).

4.6 This guide provides a workflow to help tool users understand how to evaluate the quality of data used to create the tools and assumptions or bias in tool outputs. This document also offers recommendations for tool developers on providing feedback to correct misinformation.

4.7 Selected U.S. Federal and State Requirements, Policies and Initiatives: 

4.7.1 Executive Order 13985—Advancing Racial Equity And Support For Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, issued on January 20, 2021, established that the Federal government should pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.

4.7.2 Executive Order 14008—Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, issued on January 27, 2021, created a government-wide Justice40 Initiative with the goal of delivering 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities and tracks performance toward that goal through the establishment of an Environmental Justice Scorecard and development of a Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool (CEJST).

4.7.3 US EPA Climate Adaptation Action Plan—In response to Executive Order 14008, the US EPA's Climate Adaptation Action Plan (10/2021) addresses US EPA's tools such as EJScreen , Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT), and the Stormwater Calculator with Climate Assessment Tool.

4.7.3.1 US EPA Administrator also issued a directive to “strengthen enforcement of violations of cornerstone environmental statutes in communities overburdened by pollution”. The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) issued a memorandum, “Strengthening Enforcement in Communities with Environmental Justice Concerns” on April 30, 2021 which includes the steps to advance environmental justice goals, including (1) Identifying EJ Communities with mapping tools, and (2) building and maintaining good relationships with local communities to develop strategies addressing public health and EJ issues.

4.7.4 Following the issuance of Executive Order 14008, FEMA developed a 2022-2026 Strategic Plan (https://www.fema.gov/about/strategic-plan) to increase climate literacy among emergency managers, build climate resilient communities and empower risk-informed decision making. FEMA developed a National Risk Index Map to meet its strategic objectives. The mapping tool illustrates communities most at risk in the US for 18 hazard types: avalanche, coastal flooding, cold wave, drought, earthquake, hail, heat wave, hurricane, ice storm, landslide, lightning, riverine flooding, strong wind, tornado, tsunami, volcanic activity, wildfire and winter weather.

4.7.5 Pursuant to Senate Bill 535 May 2022, the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal EPA) finalized an update to CalEnviroScreen Version 4.0 (https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/sb535) that identifies designation of disadvantaged communities through Census tracts and features a pollution burden function that can be used to help identify California communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution that exacerbate climate change impacts.

4.7.6 The New Jersey Environmental Justice Law (N.J.S.A. 13:1D-157) (https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/ej/docs/ej-law.pdf), enacted in Sept. 2020, requires the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to evaluate the contributions of certain facilities to existing environmental and public health stressors in overburdened communities (OBC) when reviewing certain permit applications. NJ is the first state required to issue denials for new facilities that cannot avoid disproportionate impacts on OBCs or serve compelling public interest. The Environmental Justice Mapping, Assessment and Protection (EJMAP) Tool (https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/548632a2351b41b8a0443cfc3a9f4ef6) was created to aid this effort.

4.7.7 Executive Order 14096.

4.7.8 The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58).

4.7.9 Section 6040 of the Inflation Reduction Act on 2022 (Public Law 117-169).

Subcomité:

E50.07

Volúmen:

11.06

Número ICS:

13.020.40 (Pollution, pollution control and conservation)