nicholasl
commented
5 years ago Awesome idea! I worked in real estate and there is also a federally required lead disclosure on properties to 1980 or so. Portland and other cities are also interested in educating home gardeners, especially ones growing near homes.
I'd like to help and learn maps and GIS, I have a list of all of the Austin STR/AirBnb permit addresses that I'd also like to visualize.
I could host a meetup on South First or where are y'all meeting?
lizita
ecglover8
mscarey
What problem are you trying to solve?
There is no comprehensive map of lead concentrations in soils in Austin. Lead is toxic when ingested - especially for children, damaging nervous system development.
Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from your project?
All of us! Identifying areas of high lead concentrations would benefit the public health of Austin by reducing exposure. Analysis of the data could be used to support cleanup programs or funding of community initiatives in areas with higher concentrations.
What other resources/tools are currently serving the same need? How does your project set itself apart?
TCEQ regulates lead in soil and DSHS regulates lead-based paint abatement. The City of Austin has a Brownfields program that host a "soil kitchen" with the EPA every year to collect and test soil samples. They release the results as a spreadsheet with the street and cross street - but not spatially mapped.
Where can we find any research/data available/articles?
http://www.austintexas.gov/soilkitchen https://environmenttexas.org/programs/txe/get-lead-out
What help do you need now?
Cleaning up the data - I compiled all of the four years of data into a google sheet with four tabs. I geocoded it using this tutorial: http://willgeary.github.io/data/2016/11/04/Geocoding-with-Google-Sheets.html, but there are still a lot of wrong locations. I also think I hit the limit on addresses you can geocode with the google API, so maybe someone else could do the rest? Eventually I want to put it in ArcPro, maybe make a viewer?
Here's the google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6lZ9BT3ZH6d5v0YIjERR7cE7qKN_M9iXq8RXhndM5w/edit?usp=sharing
What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?
Definitely validation, I think we might be able to work with the Brownfields office to fill in some of the empty fields and correct ones that don't make sense. Anyone with skills in GIS could help with making the map. Designing a viewer or way to make it interactive would be next.
How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)?
I'm on the slack (Junebug) and you can also email me at lizmcc@utexas.edu
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