Decision Integration for Stronger Communities (DISC) Development of a Downloadable Software Application


science in ACTION
INNOVATIVE RESEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
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DECISION INTEGRATION FOR STRONGER COMMUNITIES (DISC)
DEVELOPMENT OF A DOWNLOADABLE SOFTWARE APPLICATION
Project Background
Small towns and rural communities are looking for
ways to strengthen their economies, provide better
quality of life, and build upon local assets. This is
more critical than ever as they seek to be resilient and
sustainable in the aftermath of the COVID-19 virus
outbreak. These communities are creating their own
paths for the future that enhance their distinctive
characters and that fit their size, geography, and
resources. In a series of discussions with smaller
communities (~<50,000), EPA has heard that
community leaders want a simple, streamlined and
easy "dashboard" with a compact set of tools that can
help them assess and promote their environmental
quality while assuring associated economic and
social prosperity. They want to be able to use the
dashboard to identify resources to make them more
resilient and facilitate improvement projects.
Project Description
In response to this information need, EPA's Region
10 and EPA's Office of Research and Development
collaborated with interested communities to carry out
a project which takes an iterative, agile development
approach to tailor existing environmental, economic
and social indicators to the unique needs of small
communities. The resulting computer "dashboard" is
called "Decision Integration for Strong
Communities" or DISC. DISC has been designed to
encourage smart growth and offer relevant and
readily-available information. For a community with
fewer economic or staffing resources, it provides a
snapshot of their current sustainability status and
tools which can reduce some of the uncertainties in
the community analysis process. DISC will aid a
VI U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
HI Office of Research and Development
community in addressing its sustainability goals,
whether the community is "shovel-ready" or taking
their first steps toward a more sustainable future.
Community Engagement
To ensure DISC is useful to a variety of smaller and
rural communities, EPA staff reached out to a small
number of interested communities and potential users
at different steps of the development process. For
example, EPA conducted usability research based on
a prototype of DISC with community planners from 5
smaller Washington and Oregon communities. The
prototype was well-received, but communities made
numerous suggestions for improving its utility. EPA
is continuing to develop DISC and is now making it
available for input from additional potential
collaborators.
Use of Existing Indicators
All of the scientific content available through DISC
have been obtained from existing environmental
indicators (nationally consistent measurements), as
well as indicators for other topics that need to be
considered by communities when making
environmental decisions, such connection to nature,
cultural fulfillment, education, health, leisure time,
living standards, safety and security, social cohesion,
and resilience. These indicators are empirically-
based, derived from a broad collection of ecological,
health and socio-economic data collected from
publicly available sources. Discussions with
community participants helped Agency researchers
identify these key topic areas, and incorporate the
indicators into an integrated application with tools
that are useful and accessible for smaller
communities. DISC includes a user-friendly graphic

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interface display that presents information in an
accessible, easily inderstood format, permits
communities to use their local information to adjust
the indicators, and allows them to test varying
scenarios associated with sustainability decisions.
DISC Application
DISC is an application which provides a synthesis of
existing indicators that offers relevant, local and
readily-available information to assist smaller
communities in addressing their sustainabillity goals.
The figure to the right illustrates how the tool may
represent an overall community sustainability score,
and its component scores for community
characteristics relating to the topic areas of interest.
Data are on a county level to insure uniformity of the
information on a national level. Upon initial use,
communities are provided with information on
— Healthcare: 65.8
People with a Regular Family Doctor: 77.00
(Percentage of respondents)
Satisfaction with Healthcare: 53.20 (Percentage of
respondents)
~ Life Expectancy and Mortality: 74.3
Asthma Mortality: 0.10 (Percentage of deaths)
Cancer Mortality: 17.06 (Percentage of deaths)
Diabetes Mortality: 2.77 (Percentage of deaths)
Heart Disease Mortality: 12.16 (Percentage of
deaths)
Infant Mortality: 133.95 (Per 10,000 infants)
Life Expectancy: 78.75 (Average number of years)
Snapshot Results for
County, USA
/51.7\
DISC Score
(Scale: 0 -100)
Nation: 55.9, State: 56.3
The Decision Integration for Strong Communities
(DISC) index is a summary measure that provides
a profile about select community ct
Community Characteristic Scores • • •
Well-being and resilience measures are often used to characterize the drivers
that influence human behavior and affect the human condition. These quality
of life attributes are multi-dimensional that are best described using a host of
metrics that respond to the changing environment in which people live. A
synthesis of this knowledge helps shape our understanding about people and
their needs, both actual and perceived.
Connection to Nature: 61.1	Nation: 55.4, state: 51:
The In.
derived from existing ci
and other related data from years 2015-2019. The
DISC profile index provides a snapshot about
quality of life characteristics common across all
"s sensitive to changes in the
lie, social and ecological er
Cultural Fulfillment: 29.7
Education: 37.8
Leisure Time: 54.4
Living Standards: 44.0
Safety & Security: 73.1
n: 46 0, State: 42 7
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