SUSTAINABLE AND HEALTHY COMMUNITIES RESEARCH
Background
Community sustainability is
often defined by the desire to
meet today's needs without
compromising the quality of life
for future generations.
However, as communities are
faced with real difficulty
meeting "today's needs,"
making progress on
sustainability often requires
helping them find strategies that
improve conditions in both the
short and long term. The
challenge is to help them
identify the right mix of policies
and investments that protect our
shared environment, while
improving public health,
supporting economic recovery,
making the most efficient use of
public dollars, and enhancing
quality of life for a broad range
of residents.
Providing science to answer the
questions that help communities
make progress is at the heart of
EPA's Sustainable and Health
Communities (SHC) research
program.
Whether a community is
growing or losing population,
using a systems-approach, that
is considering the total resource
impacts and outcomes (TRIO)
of any decision, can help move
communities to a more
sustainable future, especially
when resources to support
change are limited. EPA's
Sustainable and Healthy
Communities research aims to
help community leaders make
decisions that meet their needs
in a way that preserves the
environment and enhances
human health and well-being.
Researchers are engaging
community leaders, non-
governmental organizations and
other stakeholders to better
understand the challenges they
face and to provide them with
effective approaches to
improving their communities.
Through the use of innovative,
user-friendly methods and tools,
EPA is supporting community
leaders to make decisions that
better protect human health and
well-being while preserving
ecosystems and the vital
services they provide, such as
clean air and water, food and
fiber production, etc.
Research Focus Areas
Sustainable and Healthy
Communities research is
focused on four themes:
1. Data and tools to support
sustainable communities
This research will provide
communities with data,
methods, and computer
applications that can inform
decision making and track
progress made towards meeting
community goals and improving
sustainability.
Web-based decision support
tools will allow local managers
and stakeholders to visualize
and analyze the consequences of
policy decisions. Flexible,
interactive tools and
comprehensive environmental
and socio-economic data will
enhance the ability to weigh the
full suite of decision trade-offs ,
by considering the interactions
between ecosystem services,
human health and well being,
and the costs and benefits of
management policies.
To measure the effects of
decisions, EPA scientists will
help communities identify and
develop indicators to evaluate
the status of the environment,
diagnose problems, and track
the performance of various
approaches.
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development

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For example:
•	EnviroAtlas
will display
and allow interactive
analysis of spatial data on
environmental conditions,
human health statistics, and
socio-economic factors for
communities across the
country. More detailed data
for urban areas can be used
to identify local issues and
evaluate potential solutions.
2. Forecasting and assessing
ecological and community
health
Ecosystems provide goods and
services that are vital to
communities, such as water
filtration, temperature
moderation, flood regulation,
food and fiber production, or
recreational use of green space.
Knowing the benefits and value
of these ecosystem services can
help communities factor in the
implications of lost services and
the costs of replacing crucial
functions that support viable
economies and human health
and well-being. Complementary
research will generate human
exposure factors and public
health information to screen for
cumulative risk to chemical
contaminants along with
guidance on how communities
might improve public health
outcomes. This information will
enable decisions that improve
public health, including that of
children and other vulnerable
groups, while fostering equity
and environmental justice.
For example:
•	SHC is creating a
standardized classification
system for ecosystem goods
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
and service metrics to
enable comparison across
different places and
different circumstances.
This will allow improved
assessment of impacts and
mitigation (e.g. trading).
•	SHC will develop age-
specific exposure factors
and health metrics for
assessing children's risks.
SHC will also create web-
based community-focused
tools that bring exposure
and health data together for
analysis to allow screening
and proactive decision-
making.
3.	Near-term approaches for
sustainable solutions
SHC will conduct highly
focused research in important
areas such as contaminated
sites, nitrogen management, and
waste and materials
management. This research will
help communities develop
sustainable solutions to
environmental problems and
prevent pollution of air, land
and water by enabling decisions
that avoid unintended and
undesirable consequences.
For example:
•	SHC will examine how
contaminants in sediments
accumulate and travel
through the food chain,
especially for fish that will
be consumed. This
information will help
determine the best
management options for
contaminated sediments.
4.	Integrated solutions for
sustainable outcomes
Research will focus on
addressing problems that are
widespread across communities
in the U.S. by emphasizing
improvements in land-use
management practices,
buildings and infrastructure,
transportation systems and
waste and materials
management. These
comprehensive approaches are
geared towards helping
communities overcome barriers
to sustainability in an integrated
way.
For example:
SHC will use reports on the
state of the science and practice
for four important community
decision areas as the foundation
for a method to
comprehensively evaluate costs
and benefits of local actions on
nature's functions and human
health and well-being. This
information will provide
communities with an awareness
of how their actions can have
adverse impacts or ripple effect
benefits, and support better
decisions.
To test these approaches and
tools, EPA is collaborating with
the community of Durham,
North Carolina to help support
community leaders with
decision making that can better
meet their goals. This
collaboration will help EPA
assess and adapt its research to
assist a variety of communities.
Web site:
http://www.epa. gov/research/ecoscience/
http://www.epa.gov/research/healthscience/
http://www. epa.gov/researcli/landscience/
Contact:
Michael Slimak,
National Program Director,
703-347-8524,
slimak.michael(S?epa.gov
July 2012

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