NC ENVIROSCAN was developed to provide a user-friendly tool that increases North Carolina communities’ awareness of key environmental indicators of concern, key social stressors of concern and health outcome information, such as that related to COVID-19 cases. It is also designed to be a tool for NC public health researchers to identify communities at greatest public health risk to inform research to action. This project will help researchers understand environmental contributions to COVID-19 and other health outcomes.

Background

NC ENVIROSCAN is a project of the UNC Superfund Research Program (UNC SRP) and UNC Institute of Environmental Health Solutions (UNC IEHS) in partnership with the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).

The idea for NC ENVIROSCAN was born out of a creativity hub brainstorming session by a team of researchers from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC School of Medicine, Carolina Consortium on Human Development, UNC Institute for the Environment, UNC School of Social Work, and UNC Health.

Initial funding to support NC ENVIROSCAN was provided in the form of an administrative supplement from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to UNC SRP’s Data Management & Analysis Core (DMAC) (#P42 ES031007).

The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), directed by DMAC Leader Stan Ahalt, developed the mapping tool and user interface. RENCI is a multidisciplinary data science research institute at UNC-Chapel Hill, whose Earth Data Science Group uses leading edge cyberinfrastructure and advanced environmental modeling to enable research discovery and practical applications.

The development team is particularly grateful for the review and feedback provided by our external advisors and their constituents, including the NC Department of Health & Human Services’ Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, and UNC SRP Public Health Action Committee (PHAC) community partners Clean Water for North Carolina, Winyah Rivers Alliance, & the Lumber Riverkeeper, and other SRP PHAC members.

We would like to acknowledge the hard work of individuals on the initial development team including:

UNC SRP

• Rebecca Fry, Center Director
• Andrew George, Community Engagement Coordinator
• Kathleen Gray, Community Engagement Core Leader
• Lauren Eaves, SRP Trainee
• Julia Rager, Data Management & Analysis Core Leader
• Megan Rodgers, Research Translation Assistant
• Sarah Yelton, Research Translation Coordinator

RENCI

• Chris Lenhardt, Domain Scientist
• Marcus Anderson, Visual Arts Specialist
• Jim McManus, Research Software Developer
• Matt Watson, Web Architect

External Advisors

• Jefferson Currie, Winyah Rivers Alliance
• Kim Gaetz, NC Department of Health & Human Services
• Virginia Guidry, NC Department of Health & Human Services
• Crystal Lee Pow Jackson, NC Department of Health & Human Services
• Amanda Strawderman: Clean Water for North Carolina
• Rachel Velez, Clean Water for North Carolina