EPA Indicators of Our Health and Environment Updated and Improved

1. EPA Indicators of Our Health and Environment Updated and Improved Dr. Brand Niemann Director and Senior Enterprise Architect – Data Scientist Semantic Community http://semanticommunity.info/ AOL Government Blogger http://gov.aol.com/bloggers/brand-niemann/ October 31, 2012 http://semanticommunity.info/EPA_ROE_Indicator_Updates

2. Start by Asking Questions • What is the State of the Environment? • What can the US Environmental Protection Agency tell me about that? • What are “environmental indicators” and what do they tell me? • Can the US EPA Report on the Environment be improved? • What are the key results and visualizations?

3. Then Look for the Evidence • Brainstorm: • What Have I Done Before? • EPA Wiki: • EPA's ROE Highlights of National Trends (PDF) (40 pp. , 2.9 MB) (plus dozens of EPA documents and data sets) • EPA Ontology: • EPA's 2008 Report on the Environment (PDF) (366 pp., 30 MB) • Conferences: • National Academy of Sciences State of the Nation • Seminars: • EPA’s Statistics Group Guide to Environmental Statistics

4. Begin With the End In Mind(Stephen Covey) • Story (publicity and money) • Research Notes (document what I did and learned) • Conditioned Data Sets (added value) • Spotfire Dashboard (cool visualizations) • Lecture to Students at George Mason University (help them learn what a data scientist/data journalist does)

5. My 5-Step Method • So what I like to do to illustrate (data science) and explain (data journalism) in the following (like a recipe): • Put the Best Content into a Knowledge Base (e.g. MindTouch) • EPA's 2008 Report on the Environment , Trends Highlights, etc. • Put the Knowledge Base into a Spreadsheet (Excel) • Linked Data to Subparts of the Knowledge Base • Put the Spreadsheet into a Dashboard (Spotfire) • Data Integration and Interoperability Interface • Put the Dashboard into a Semantic Model (Excel) • Data Dictionaries and Models • Put the Semantic Model into Dynamic Case Management (Be Informed) • Structured Process for Updating Data in the Dashboard

6. Knowledge Base http://semanticommunity.info/EPA_ROE_Indicator_Updates

7. EPA Report on the Environment http://www.epa.gov/ncea/roe/index.htm

8. EPA Ontology http://semanticommunity.info/EPA/EPA_Ontology#Ontology

9. Air Indicators http://semanticommunity.info/EPA/EPA_Ontology/2_Air

10. Indicator Updates http://cfpub.epa.gov/eroe/index.cfm?fuseaction=list.listByNewest

11. Atmospheric Concentrationsof Greenhouse Gases http://cfpub.epa.gov/eroe/index.cfm?fuseaction=detail.viewInd&lv=list.listByNewest&r=239797&subtop=342

12. Atmospheric Concentrationsof Greenhouse Gases http://semanticommunity.info/EPA_ROE_Indicator_Updates#Atmospheric_Concentrations_of_Greenhouse_Gases_(N)

13. Downloads http://semanticommunity.info/EPA_ROE_Indicator_Updates#Downloads_12

14. Spreadsheet Inventory http://semanticommunity.info/@api/deki/files/19716/EPAIndicatorUpdates.xls

15. Cover Page Knowledge Base, Spreadsheet, Inventory of Indicators, and Faceted Search. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

16. General Mortality, Life Expectancy, and Cancer Incidence General Mortality has decreased, Life Expectancy has increased, but Cancer Incidence has increased slightly. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

17. Birth Defects and Pesticide Residues in Food Birth Defects have increased and decreased slighly for five different types & Pesticide Residues in Food expressed as the percentage of samples exceeding EPA tolerance values increased from 0.05 percent in 1994, peaked at 0.50 percent in 2008, and decreased to 0.39 percent in 2009. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

18. Infectious Diseases Associated with Environmental Exposures or Conditions Infectious Diseases Associated with Environmental Exposures or Conditions have fluctuated considerably with the largest increase being forlegionellosis and the largest decrease being for Hepatitis A. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

19. Quantity of RCRA Hazardous Waste Generated and Managed Quantity of RCRA Hazardous Waste Generated and Managed over the course of five reporting cycles (2001-2009) hazardous waste generated and ultimately disposed varied. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

20. Urbanization and Population Change Urbanization is estimated to have grown a thousand-fold between 1950 and 2000 and Population Change nearly doubled over that period. There are substantial variations in population and development trends in different parts of the U.S. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

21. Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases show patterns of large cycles of concentrations over geological time, and they also depict increases in concentrations in the industrial era (post-1780) that exceed concentrations over the past hundreds of thousands of years. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

22. U.S. and Global Mean Temperature and Precipitation As global mean temperatures have risen, global mean precipitation also has increased. During the last three decades, however, the U.S. warmed at nearly twice the global rate. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

23. Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay increased from 41,000 acres in 1978 to a peak of 90,000 acres in 2002, and has fluctuated since 2002. https://silverspotfire.tibco.com/us/library#/users/bniemann/Public?EPAIndicatorUpdates-Spotfire.dxp

24. Conclusions and Suggestions • The Report on the Environment has 85 indicators, organized by five topics (Air, Water, Land, Human Exposure and Health, and Ecological Condition) and 23 questions and sub-topics. • On December 27, 2011, EPA announced the release of new data points and associated text to 12 ROE Indicators. • Each indicator has seven parts making it the most completely standardized and scientific data and metadata I have found in the US Federal Government. • I have integrated all of that from multiple US EPA Web pages into one Wiki page and dashboard elsewhere so it can all be searched, viewed, and understood more easily. • I have provided better visualizations and simpler explanations for these indicators as one can see from the original EPA Web pages and graphics.