Sustainable and healthy communities
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Sustainable and healthy communities is a U.S.EPA research program. It is one of the six research program under the current research strategy (published June 2012).
The Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program (SHC) is designed to inform and empower community decision‐makers as they create and implement sustainability policies. SHC research provides decision support tools, models, and metrics that can be used to make these policies more efficient, balanced, and equitable.[1]
Problem Statement: Communities make social, economic, and environmental trade-offs in a resource-constrained world. These trade-offs are often not well-characterized in terms of the implications for and interactions among human health, ecosystem services, economic vitality, and social equity. Conventional decision-making often does not adequately characterize these complex interactions.
Vision: SHC will inform and empower decision-makers in communities, as well as in federal, state and tribal community-driven programs, to effectively and equitably weigh and integrate human health, socio-economic, environmental, and ecological factors into their decisions in a way that fosters community sustainability.[2]
EPA researchers and their partners and stakeholders are working together to form a deeper understanding of the balance between the three pillars of sustainability—environment, society, and economy.
Their transdisciplinary work will provide the decision tools and data that communities need to make proactive, strategic decisions aimed at a prosperous, more environmentally sustainable future.[3]
Research Focus Areas
Sustainable and Healthy Communities research is focused on three main areas:
1. Develop comprehensive approaches to help communities become more sustainable
The research will help communities develop sustainable solutions to environmental problems and reduce unintended consequences such as air or water pollution.
Research will focus on problems that are widespread across communities in the U.S. such as water quality and land-use issues as well as comprehensive approaches to help communities address multiple barriers to sustainability in an integrated way.
The research aims to assist decision makers in individual communities and communities in a region where cooperation could help to solve common problems or deal with potentially conflicting goals.[3]
2. Develop decision support tools, models and metrics that can be used to improve sustainable community practices
The research will develop decision support tools, models, and metrics that can be used to improve community sustainability.
Examples include web-based decision support tools to help local managers and stakeholders analyze and visualize the consequences of alternative policy decisions. These tools would extend beyond particular problems such as traffic congestion or water use to include consequences with respect to other environmental issues, economic impacts, and social impacts on different segments of the community.
These tools will use the latest advancements in decision analysis to be sure that they are as useful and accurate as possible.
Research will also develop models and data bases that will enhance the capabilities of the decision support tools. The models will take into account the interactions between human health, ecosystem services, and the costs and benefits of alternative choices about how to solve environmental problems in ways that are sustainable over time.
EPA scientists will help communities identify and/or develop indicators that can be used to measure and evaluate the environmental integrity of their community, diagnose problems, and track the performance of various approaches.[3]
3. Meet EPA’s regulatory requirements
EPA has high-priority needs for research and expertise to develop and support regulations, protect environmental health and conduct environmental monitoring, and other priorities.
Sustainable and Healthy Communities research will conduct highly focused, short-term research to meet specific regulatory or other operational needs of EPA in the areas of waste management, site remediation, ecosystem services, community health, green technology, and environmental justice.[3]
See also
- Research Programs: Science for a Sustainable Future | Overview | Contacts
- Sustainable and healthy communities research program | A report
- EPA ORD (Office of Research and Development)
References
Related files
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