ghost
commented
7 years ago Credit to @christyleos for the proposal format!
Open ghost opened 7 years ago
ghost
commented
7 years ago Credit to @christyleos for the proposal format!
dylanjbarth
commented
7 years ago I am very interested in the health aspect here. I'm imagining a map that shows the official boundary of the superfund site and a re-drawn boundary showing increased health risks.
I did some digging for hyper local health data, still looking but wanted to post some starting points:
ghost
commented
7 years ago Nice finds! To add to this, http://www.houstonstateofhealth.com/ also has a variety of health, environment, and economic datasets.
Statement of Problem: Superfund sites are the most contaminated locations throughout the United States. These are usually locations that are uninhabitable due to their toxicity, and are either closed to the public or are contained to a manageable size. Though the EPA does monitor the environmental impact of Superfund sites after cleanup/containment, I would like to explore the potential economic/health impact zones surrounding Superfund sites in an effort to better inform the City of Houston of potential losses in revenue, well-being, or property values of the surrounding areas. In a time when the EPA is experiencing significant reductions in their budget, having a third party analysis can help clarify how these locations are affecting our city.
Proposed Solution: Since we’re limited in scope for the hackathon, I’d like to start by looking at correlations between Superfund sites which can be found here and various metrics that have easily accessible datasets. Here’s some ideas for data: Incidence of cancers/asthma/etc for nearby neighborhoods. Average property value by sqft Any toxin readings, if we can get this information. Each Superfund site has a representative we can contact, so it’s a possibility we can work with them to find other metrics
Existing Solutions: The EPA ranks, monitors, and proposes cleanup solutions for each Superfund site. Here’s a status of each for Harris County. Our state is also involved via CERCLA, but I don’t have much information about what all we’re doing. It’d be great if there was a subject matter expert I could get in contact with!
Technology Requirements: Web Scraping: There will be some data sets we’ll need to pull manually, I’m sure. (Potential) Web Framework - if we want a more interactive presentation, creating a simple data viz web app might be an option. (note: I am a developer, so if needed I can fill these)
Team Requirements: Data Analyst - since this is mostly a data analysis project, the more the better! Designer/UX - we would like to be able to display this information in an understandable way Pitch Person - once the data is analyzed, our “solution” is mostly based on presenting evidence (potentially to the city or state), so someone experienced in pitches, sales, or lectures would be ideal. Subject Matter Expert(s) - it will be very helpful to have someone who can easily understand the EPA reports for each Superfund site and direct us on what metrics might be most useful for gauging contamination outside of their boundaries. This can be someone with experience in toxicology or environmental science. Writer - Again, since presentation will be an important component, we’ll need someone who can create engaging narratives and structure a presentation.