NEPA Mapping

Information about locations that includes addresses, latitudes and longitudes, or other geospatial coordinates, can be visualized on a map. There are many interactive mapping platforms on federal, state, county and municipal websites that will allow you to turn on and turn off layers for environmental data (for example, locations of Superfund sites or flood risk), add layers for jurisdictional boundaries (for example, tribal reservation boundaries, census tracts), and even import data files that you have created yourself. Most of these platforms will allow you to export  PDFs or JPG image files for use in your reports. Some will allow you to export spreadsheets and map files (typically SHP or KMZ/KML). 

In today's activities we will use data exported from government websites to construct and share maps we create using Google Earth Pro, Google My Maps, and a number of federal agencies (EJScreen, NEPAssist, etc). 

Google Earth Pro is a desktop application that you must download to your computer; you may have to have your IT office download it for you if you are on a work computer. My Maps is a cloud based mapping platform that is password protected as part of a Google Account using Google Drive; you will need to be able to access Google Drive on your computer, which may require getting permission from your IT department for use on a work computer. Note: If you cannot access these platforms that is alright, you will be given alternatives that you can use to follow along with today's activities.

The maps we will use to obtain data are provided by federal agencies (EPA, FEMA), and are built on the ESRI platform. All of the EPA tools will pull data from the same public databases (for example, all of the Brownfields sites will be mapped from data accessed from the ACRES database). This means that if there is a data layer you want to use, find the platform (e.g. EnviroMapper, Cleanups In My Community, EJScreen, EnviroAtlas, NEPAssist, FEMA Flood Hazard Layer Map, etc.) that most easily allows you to view, analyze, and download the data in a user friendly format. 

The best format for mapping point locations is a CSV file. The CSV file format is a universal spreadsheet format type that you can also open in Excel or Google Sheets. It has the advantage that when you open it as a spreadsheet you can edit and add to it using all of the tools available in Excel or Google Sheets (things like autofill and sort to help with quality control). Once you edit it you can import it into Google My Maps, Google Earth Pro, and EnviroAtlas. Various of the mapping platforms also use file formats such as SHP (used for ESRI ArcGIS, Google Earth Pro, EnviroAtlas, EJScreen) and KML/KMZ (used for Google My Maps, Google Earth Pro, EnviroAtlas). While CSV spreadsheet files can be used for point data, SHP and KML/KMZ file formats can be used for polygons and lines (shapes) as well as points. In addition, KMZ files will be used in our activities for adding image layers to Google Earth Pro. The disadvantage is that you can't open SHP, KML or KMZ files in spreadsheet programs, so you can't edit them without coding. 

You will find a series of step-by-step instructions for a wide variety of mapping platforms in the case studies; look over both of the case studies since there are different approaches illustrated in each and you can pick and choose what you wish to use for your own work.