Maps of hazardous waste sites and flood risk in St. Louis Created for the NIEHS Climate Change and Environmental Exposures Challenge: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/funding/challenges/climate_change/index.cfm
Won 2nd place! http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2016/4/feature/feature1-climate/index.htm
Amanda Koltz featured in NIEHS "Global Environmental Health Chat" Podcast: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/programs/geh/podcasts/index.cfm
This repo was created for the application submission and currently redirects to an updated ArcGIS story map at: http://upwiththewaters.wustl.edu/
Abstract
St. Louis, or "The River City," and its surrounding counties have one of the richest histories in all of North America, in large part due to the resources provided by the major river systems that come together in this area. However, the same waterways upon which St. Louis is built also cause semi-regular catastrophic flooding events, and climate models predict that the intensity and frequency of these extreme floods will increase over the next 50-100 years. Moreover, St. Louis has a legacy of being one of the most heavily contaminated urban areas in the country. The region is host to hundreds of millions of pounds of chemical, heavy metal, and radioactive waste from industrial activity. More frequent flooding and other extreme weather events will likely increase exposure risks to the people of St. Louis and have negative impacts on public health.
Mission
Our objective is to provide maps that will help St. Louis residents understand where the greatest potential risks of exposure are in the case of future flooding events. Our maps highlight the number of St. Louisans that live and work near contamination sites within the floodplain, and we have identified public parks that have high likelihood of becoming contaminated. Our hope is that these maps will also help government and land managers prioritize clean-up of the most heavily contaminated and populated areas within the flood plain so that exposure risks to the people of St. Louis can be minimized.