Enviro. Justice & Law Page 4
(ECP and CTSP grantees, reports, and other sites of interest for
conservation geography, mapping and GIS. Grantees are coded by
program and year of grant at the end of their name/state, i.e. e91 means
ECP grant in 1991. c=cstp, cm=ctsp-mac, cs=ctsp-software)
The National Association of Environmental Law Societies, Indiana University.
(Environmental Law Society, Indiana University School of Law, 211 South
Indiana Avenue, Bloomington, IN, 47405, Tel: (812) 855-4765, els@indiana.edu.
To "Promote the awareness of environmental issues among the general
public, the law community, and particularly, the law school community,
and to increase involvement in such issues....Foster the study of environmental
law through expanded curricula and materials, and to encourage responsibility
and activism in the public interest by its practitioners." See
Things you can do to save the environment.
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance Ny c98.
(115 West 30th Street, Room 709, New York, NY 10001 Tel:212 239-8882 Fax: 212 239-2838
Email: nyceja@aol.com Gis contact: Leslie Lowe, Dr. Michel Gelobter)
"NYCEJA was organized in 1991 following the First National People of Color Summit.
Its mission is to combat environmental racism through advocacy on behalf of low-income
neighborhoods and communities of color that are disproportionately affected
by adverse environmental and health impacts of public policy and actions.
NYCEJA is a citywide network of 14 community-based organizations active
in all five boroughs of the City." They are part of:
Community University Consortium for Regional Environmental Justice (CUCREJ).
New York Public Interest Research Group,
Community Mapping Assistance Project c98.
(c/o NYPIRG, 9 Murray St., 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10007-2272 Tel: 212-349-6460
FAX: 212-349-1366 email:cmap@nypirg.org. GIS contact: Marty DeBenedictis, mdebened@nypirg.org
and Steven Romalewski, sr218@columbia.edu.)
"The Community Mapping Assistance Project (CMAP) was established in 1997 by the
New York Public Interest Research Group Fund, Inc. (NYPIRG)
to provide customized computer mapping services to nonprofit groups. CMAP's goal
is to enable nonprofits to benefit from geographic information systems
(GIS) technology without being burdened by its prohibitive cost. Now,
through NYPIRG's service, nonprofits can access the power of GIS without
having to spend the time and effort to obtain, understand, and use a GIS
on their own. CMAP maps an organization's data, consults with them about
the geographic analysis they need, and then provides computer-generated
results in the form of maps, graphs, and reports. Our fees are nominal,
in order to be affordable to other nonprofits while also covering our
costs. In some cases, with foundation support, our services are free."
GIS NEWS:
Supporting Community Groups With Computer Mapping (By the Technology Project):
"..Starting in 1994 with one Pentium computer, MapInfo GIS software,
and compatible database and spreadsheet programs, organizer Steve Romalewski
began to integrate mapping into NYPIRG's advocacy on toxics issues....Along
with ongoing support from the Rockefeller Family Fund, a recent grant
of GIS equipment and software — including ArcView GIS software and a new
Hewlett-Packard computer and plotter — from the Conservation Technology
Support Program should allow NYPIRG to conduct even more sophisticated
analyses, and to produce larger, more detailed graphics."
INTERACTIVE IMS MAP SITE:
"One of CMAP's special services for nonprofit organizations is to create interactive
maps that can be accessed via the Internet. We can put your data on the Web, so your
members and others can search by street address, ZIP Code, or other location information.
The maps are created dynamically based on the user's input. (powered by
ArcView Internet Map Server and MapObjects IMS)" See especially:
New York City CouncilFinder: "locate your Council district based
on your address, Council district number, or Council member's name."
also: Playground
safety in New York City: "Locate a playground near you, see how
safe it is, and read our recommendations for improvement." Also:
New
York's 21 Dirtiest Power Plants: "NYPIRG prepared a report in
April 1999, along with several environmental health groups, that highlighted
the air pollution problems from New York State's dirtiest coal and oil
burning power plants. This map shows the locations of each of these plants,
as well as information about the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon
dioxide emissions from each one." Don't miss their
SAMPLE MAP GALLERY.
See: Recent Maps, News and Links.
Pace Virtual Environmental Law Library, Ny.
(by Robert Goldstein, Pace University School of Law, 78 North Broadway, White Plains,
NY 10603 General tel:(914) 422-4128 email contact: Alta Levat - Email: alevat@genesis.law.pace.edu)
"The
Pace Virtual Environmental Law Links provides organized links to primary
legal sources on the "information superhighway." Areas: International
Law Index, General Agreements, Antarctica, Seas Fish and Fisheries, Air
Pollution Control, Climate Change, Hazardous Substances,
Nature and Biodiversity,
Impact Assessment."
People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO), Ca e97.
(132 East 12th Street Oakland CA 94606 tel: 510.452.2010 fax: 510.452.2017
email: peopleunited@igc.org)
"People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO) is a multi-ethnic,
multi-issue community organization with more than six hundred low to middle
income member families from across Oakland. Our mission is to build the
capacity of our members to participate in the economic, social, and civic
decisions which affect our lives. PUEBLO is affiliated with the
Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO). " GIS
PROGRESS: "In the spring of 1997, PUEBLO acquired
ArcView GIS in order to create a set of GIS maps of East Oakland sites
which store, emit, dispose of, or transport toxic or hazardous materials.
PUEBLO has more than 400 member families in the area and we have worked
on several environmental justice projects in this community. Though nearly
100 years of industrial activity has taken a heavy toll on the predominatly
low-income residential communities of East Oakland, little systematic
study of the problem of toxics in this area takes place today. With support
from gradute students at UC Berkeley and a part-time consultant, we created
an initial set of maps by merging 14 public databases of existing regulatory
agencies as well as sites identified through community surveys of more
than 500 households. For the first time, residents, public health officials,
and policy makers have a comprehensive picture of environmental toxins
in the area. No other public, private, or nonprofit agency has compiled
such information. The system can produce detailed maps according to variables
including emission type, potential health risk, and length of potential
exposure. New information will be added continuously to the system. We
plan to distribute these maps to neighborhood residents, community organizations
and other stake holders in the area. The information will assist policy
makers in decisions regarding zoning and development and in the allocation
of public health resources. Direct service providers can use the information
to create new health promotion strategies. Most importantly, residents
themselves will have access to vital information about their community
and environment."
Public Interest Research Group. (PIRG) Dc c98.
(218 D Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 Tel:202-546-9707 - fax: 202-546-2461
email: uspirg@pirg.org)
"PIRG is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to serving as a watchdog
for the nation's citizens and environment. Our campaigns take us wherever
necessary to safeguard the public interest: to Congress, to the courts,
to corporate boardrooms, to government agencies and to the news media.
With hundreds of thousands of members and a staff of policy specialists,
U.S.PIRG combines the expertise of professionals with the power of citizens
in defense of clean air and water, strong safeguards for consumers, a
free and vigorous democracy, and a way of living today that ensures a
better quality of life tomorrow." Don't miss:
Colorado Sprawl Action Center
with results from GIS research into consequences of sprawl. Also
State Map of Dirty Air Days,
from the PIRG Clean Air Campaign.
Rural Ulster Preservation Company, Inc. Ny e98. (289 Fair St, Kingston, NY
12401 tel: (914) 331-2140 fax: (914)331-6217 email:rupco@ulster.net GIS
contact: Christine M. Kelly) "Rural Ulster Preservation Company,
Inc. (RUPCO) was organized in 1981 for the purpose of creating housing
opportunities for low and moderate income households in Ulster County....The
purpose of our GIS program is to graphically document conditions in the
Midtown East neighborhood of the City of Kingston. This is a neighborhood
that was at one time a stable community, with close proximity to commercial
and manufacturing jobs. Kingston, like so many northeastern cities, has
seen a dramatic loss in decent-paying manufacturing jobs which once brought
so much stability to a neighborhood of this type. The neighborhood exhibits
the signs of disinvestment - deteriorated housing, absentee landlords,
poor appearance of properties - which require a concerted, coordinated
effort of bringing financial resources to the neighborhood in order to
preserve it as a healthy and integral section of the city."
Southern
Environmental Law Center Inc.Va c98. (201 W Main St Suite 14, Charlottesville, VA 22902 USA
tel: 804-977-4090 email: safc@safc.org GIS Contact: Hugh Irwin)
"The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) received a Basic
GIS grant from CTSP in 1995. Through its Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition
(SAFC) Project, SELC has implemented a GIS-based conservation planning
program in the Southern Appalachian region. SAFC is working with numerous
grassroots conservation groups to develop conservation plans for core
areas of natural habitat in the region and to push for protection and
recovery of these areas. SELC/SAFC has built on its 1995 CTSP grant to
develop the capabilities and expertise for a strong GIS-based conservation
planning program. SELC/SAFC's long term mission includes the development
of a network of core biological habitat in the Southern Appalachians.
This network of core areas and corridors will support the preservation
and recovery of the region's rich biological diversity. Nineteen potential
landscape-level core areas centered around public lands have been identified
with the aid of grassroots conservation groups throughout the region.
Seventeen of these groups are closely allied with SELC/SAFC, sharing its
mission and goals. A number of other groups are cooperating on specific
conservation projects. The Southern Appalachian Assessment, completed
by federal and state agencies in 1996, provided a wealth of GIS data on
the region. However, because of its size and complexity, these data were
not accessible for most groups. SAFC worked with Dr. Kerry Brooks at Clemson
University to process "clipped" GIS coverages from this assessment to
make them more usable for our conservation planning purposes and for our
grassroots associates. SAFC has produced CD-ROMS containing data sets
for each of our 19 conservation areas. We are using these data sets as
the basis for development of conservation plans. New data has also been
added from ongoing biological inventories, from expert convenings held
by SAFC, from special areas identified by grassroots groups, and from
our own GIS analysis. Most of our grassroots groups do not have GIS capability.
To bring the GIS information to them SAFC has convened numerous individualized
workshops with groups throughout the region. We use maps and GIS sessions
on computer to get input from grassroots activists. These refinements
are incorporated into our conservation planning projects and maps."
South of Market Foundation, Ca e98.
(965 Mission St, Ste 705, San Francisco, CA 94103 tel: 415-512-9676 fax: 415-512-9677
email: SoMaFound@aol.com GIS contact: Cheryl Ann Parker)
"The South of Market Foundation (SOMF)
is a not-for-profit economic development corporation serving San Francisco's
South of Market neighborhood. The Foundation's mission is to deliver services
to San Francisco's small businesses and to South of Market residents by
promoting economic development that creates wealth through long-term and
stable employment. The South of Market Foundation has used Avenue
to develop a GIS-based Affordable
Space Locator Service for assisting small businesses to locate and
re-locate within the neighborhood. The Foundation would also like to develop
a "Neighborhood Buying Cooperative," and a "Neighborhood Job Link," also
based on ArcView. These tools aim to strengthen local links within the
neighborhood and help the local economy become self-sufficient. We would
like to enhance the programs by putting them on the Internet, using the
Internet Map Server." See their
Interactive Neighborhood Map.
All text by the respective organizations/authors
January 2, 1997
Web layout & design: Charles Convis, ESRI Conservation Program
April 2, 1996
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