SETx-UIFL Research Collaboration Sessions
Research Goals, Timelines & Action Plans
November 13, 2025 Annual Meeting
Session 1A: Air Quality & Youth Engagement
Note-takers: Gianna, Seth
🎯 Research Goals
Youth-Led Environmental Perception Research
Primary Objective: Explore collaboration opportunities in air pollution, risk perception, and youth engagement using participatory GIS and walk-along interviews to understand environmental stressors such as air pollution and heat.
Community Air Quality Monitoring
Primary Objective: Establish protocols for community-engaged air data collection using both stationary and mobile monitoring approaches.
Data Coverage: Spatial resolution at 4-kilometer domain covering SETx and Neches River basin (including Houston & Louisiana border), with focus on fenceline communities and census block-level data (1-kilometer grid cells).
Integrated Air-Health Data Analysis
Primary Objective: Collaborate on spatial and temporal air quality datasets with Equity Theme hospital utilization data to understand acute geographical air information impacts on health outcomes.
Health Focus: Kidney disease, COPD, respiratory conditions, cancer, dementia/autism links (N-hexane neurotoxicity).
📅 Timelines & Action Plans
Immediate Actions
Odor Collaboration: Dongying to send shapefiles and GPS locations from walking tours to Evelyn. Publish PowerPoint content on CCAN to share with Evelyn.
Survey Development: Interview crossover focusing on odor and air behaviors (window opening, etc.). Share survey with Theme 3 and utilize Equity’s reliable survey instruments.
Future Meeting Scheduled
Topic: Collaborate spatial and temporal air data with Equity Theme 3 hospital utilization data to analyze acute geographical air information impacts.
Scope: Integration of air quality metrics with health outcomes data across temporal and spatial dimensions.
Data Collection Specifications
Temporal Coverage: 7-month monitoring period with both 1-kilometer and 4-kilometer resolution
Canister Data: 24-hour sampling, can be downscaled to 1-hour timeframe
Sniffer Data: 2 weeks to 1 month deployment within grid cells to generate averages, with overlap with canister data
Considerations: Seasonal variations, weekends, holidays, and hourly fluctuations
📝 Key Outcomes & Deliverables
Planned Publications
- Source Characteristics Fingerprinting Paper: Pavel, Kerry, Elena
- Odor Paper: Air Theme and Dongying/Hyewon collaboration
Youth-Led Walking Interview Outcomes
Objectives Achieved:
- Educate youth on environmental awareness
- Understand environmental and risk perception of youth
- Align high school perspectives with Air Theme collected datasets
Data Integration: Crossover analysis with Evelyn’s work on “like and dislike” patterns
Enhanced Monitoring Approaches
Wristband Deployment: Wristbands can overlap with walking tour routes to identify exposure hotspots
Indoor/Outdoor Analysis: “Tag along” methodology to understand differences and enhance exposure assessment
Data Visualization & Integration
Compounding Map Development: Creating overlapping visualizations that integrate:
- Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) Dataset (Nathanael)
- Health Data (Dongying)
- Dell Center Data (UT)
- Hotspots of recurring compounds
- Sources and types of exposure (acute vs. direct vs. indirect)
Session 1B: Regional Floodplain Restoration & Water Management
Note-takers: Sean Murphy, Saubhagya Rathore
🎯 Research Goals
Regional Floodplain Restoration Modeling
Primary Objective: Develop draft scenarios for Task Force spring meeting comparing multiple flood mitigation strategies including land conservation, buyout programs, and infrastructure projects.
Scope: Three modeling approaches (ARIMA, Steven’s customized model, Philippe’s Diffusion model) across multiple scenarios at 20-year and 50-year timeframes.
Community-Centered Flood Management
Primary Objective: Integrate community input into water management solutions, specifically exploring the role of wetlands and green infrastructure in community values and decision making.
Engagement Focus: Understanding public perceptions of ecosystem services and Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for flood risk.
Wetland Modeling & Co-Design Integration
Primary Objective: Create comprehensive maps showing full-scale build-out scenarios with estimated costs for comparison with Halbouty build-out alternatives.
Data Needs: Shapefiles of final maps without requiring background data layers for Water Theme integration.
📅 Timelines & Action Plans
November 2025: Maps to Water Team
Delivery of map products including:
- Maps for each of three (or six) scenarios
- Conservation easement maps for each scenario
- 20-year scenarios (assuming half of properties bought or half of CEs acquired)
- 50-year scenarios (assuming all properties bought or all CEs acquired)
December 2025: Land Cover Data Delivery
Primary Data: Land cover projections from three models:
- Steven’s Model: More mechanistic approach (considered “trusted” data)
- ARIMA Model: Bhartendu Pandey (ORNL) – simplest model
- Diffusion Model (Philippe’s): Scalable AI model (30-meter resolution, less validated currently but matches Co-Design wetland data resolution)
January 2026: Scenario Generation
Primary Scenarios:
- Land cover projections – what does new flood look like
- With land protection buyouts (lack of land cover expansion) – multiple sub-scenarios based on buyout scale
- Halbouty as-is
- Halbouty with expansion
Comparison Approach: Use Harvey as baseline and 10-year storm event (RP10) for regular storm comparison
Spring 2026: Risk Analysis & Task Force Meeting
Christa’s Analysis: Risk analysis with flood extents using probability that land floods under different scenarios
April Task Force Meeting: Present complete scenario analysis for Regional Flood Plan inclusion and state/federal funding applications
📝 Key Outcomes & Strategic Considerations
Scenario Complexity & Refinement
Potential for 9 Scenarios: Original three scenarios plus conservation easement variations at ⅔ cost for each
Metrics: Using Christa’s metric of “probability that a particular piece of land floods” in various events (specific event, annual, 1% chance storm)
Measurements: Land flooded, people flooded, vulnerability assessments
Model Selection Criteria
Speed as Major Factor: Model selection will prioritize computational speed for timely scenario generation
SETx-Specific Considerations: Need for predictive capability that accounts for unique conditions including large-scale infrastructure projects
Comparison Baseline: Base model exists for comparison of Steven’s and Philippe’s work
Strategic Applications
Regional Flood Plan Integration: Short summary of scenarios and costs with flood mitigation benefits for use by local staff
Funding Applications: Materials designed to support state and federal funding requests
Stakeholder Communication: Products suitable for Regional Flood Plan inclusion in State Flood Plan
Conservation Easement Considerations
Cost Efficiency: Conservation easements substantially less expensive than land buyouts
Land Use: Land remains available for recreational activities (e.g., hunting) without National Park restrictions
Water Quality Benefits: Big Thicket Reserve (BTR) providing millions of gallons of clean water to downstream industries
Regional Acceptance: Only Hardin County currently open to buyback programs; other counties resistant due to tax revenue concerns
Session 1C: Climate Data Publication & Management
Attendees: Geeta, Ifeanyi, Phong, Will, Suzanne, Chih-shen, Lin, Rishika
Note-taker: Geeta + Additional note-taker in Goals section
🎯 Research Goals
Climate Data Publication Strategy
Primary Objective: Develop publication strategy for climate research outputs with sustainable data infrastructure through multiple platforms.
Publication Pathway:
- ESS-DIVE (Plan A): Primary DOI minting platform, submission upon paper acceptance (Target: December 2025)
- CKAN via Lydia (Plan B): Alternative if ESS-DIVE encounters issues (Decision point: December 1, 2025)
- Corral Storage: Maintain copy regardless of ESS-DIVE hosting
Data Visualization & Accessibility
Primary Objective: Create sustainable data pipelines and accessible visualization tools for high-resolution climate datasets.
Cookbook Development: Design analysis notebooks that translate technical datasets into approachable formats while maintaining rigor.
Target User Groups:
- Planners across Southeast Texas region for quantitative climate change accounting
- Emergency management professionals (technical interface users)
- Decision-makers requiring climate data integration
Grant Proposal Development
Primary Objective: Coordinate funding strategies for climate-data collaborations beyond current project scope.
Funding Opportunities:
- TWDB Partnership: Use high-resolution climate data for drought and flood planning with potential state-wide scaling
- NSF Babel Project: Climate decision support as use case (workshop proposal encouraged)
- State Government Engagement: Tailored climate projection data for Texas government agencies
📅 Timelines & Action Plans
December 1, 2025: DOI Decision Point
Action: Lydia to determine CKAN-based DOI process feasibility and permissions
Decision: If CKAN DOI not available, proceed with ESS-DIVE as Plan A
Context: Lydia investigating library resources for DOI minting and assessing realistic timeline
December 2025: ESS-DIVE Submission
Action: Submit complete dataset to ESS-DIVE upon paper submission
Responsible: Ifeanyi (in communication with ESS-DIVE; they will design submission process)
Coordination: Keep Will updated on submission process
Note: Corral copy maintained regardless of ESS-DIVE hosting
Early February 2026: Cookbook Development Meeting
Preparation Activities:
- Cedric’s Notes Analysis: Extract objectives and criteria from Climate Task Force Meeting for decision support metrics
- Example Cookbook Development: Create basic analysis tools (multimodel-averaging, scenario range, etc.)
- Metrics Refinement: Add additional metrics based on Task Force input
Meeting Purpose: Present example cookbooks and refine based on Task Force outcomes
End of April 2026: Refined Cookbooks Complete
Deliverable: Finalized analysis cookbooks with Task Force-informed refinements
Technical Support: Jackson School computational geoscientist assisting with rapid code development
User Readiness: TBD what type of technical user will be ready to utilize cookbooks
Ongoing: Grant Development Activities
TWDB – Sam Hermitte Collaboration:
- Training and ETL pipelines for intelligent decision support dashboard
- Potential to scale climate products to entire state of Texas
NSF EAGER – Scott Pekham Collaboration:
- Funded workshop proposal encouraged by NSF
- Suzanne to develop proposal; Climate Theme as participant
State Government Engagement:
- Conversation between Geeta, Suzanne, and John Nielsen-Gammon
- Explore state-level appetite for tailored climate projection data
- Suzanne to facilitate when ready
📝 Key Outcomes & Strategic Decisions
Data Publication Infrastructure
Primary Strategy Shift: ESS-DIVE moved from Plan B to Plan A based on meeting discussion, with CKAN as backup
Redundancy: Maintaining Corral storage copy ensures data persistence regardless of primary hosting platform
Ifeanyi’s Coordination: Direct communication with ESS-DIVE establishes customized submission workflow
Decision Support Research Thread
Core Challenge: Linking technical datasets with decision-maker/planner frameworks
KMP Insight: Many planners (TWDB, flood planning agencies) can utilize data with appropriate training
Cookbook Philosophy: Bridge technical rigor with practical applicability through example-driven notebooks
Cookbook Development Process
Phase 1 – Task Force Analysis: Extract decision-support needs from Cedric’s Climate Task Force Meeting notes
Phase 2 – Example Development: Build basic analysis tools demonstrating likely-needed functionality
Phase 3 – Integration Meeting: Combine Task Force insights with technical examples (early February)
Phase 4 – Refinement: Finalize cookbooks addressing identified needs (end of April)
Technical Support: Jackson School computational geoscientist accelerating development
Future Funding Landscape
State-Level Scaling (TWDB): Potential to expand high-resolution climate products beyond SETx to entire Texas
Methodological Innovation (NSF): Climate decision support as test case for broader computational infrastructure
Government Collaboration: Direct engagement with state climatologist (Nielsen-Gammon) to assess institutional appetite
Session 2A: Water Data Infrastructure & Flux Measurements
Note-taker: TBD
🎯 Research Goals
Flux Tower Data Pipeline Development
Primary Objective: Establish sustainable pipeline for flux data processing and visualization.
Technical Focus: Automated analysis workflows for continuous environmental monitoring data.
Water Data Management Infrastructure
Primary Objective: Develop robust data handling and analysis workflows for water monitoring systems.
Scope: Technical infrastructure supporting long-term water quality and quantity measurements.
📅 Timelines & Action Plans
Automation Infrastructure
Cron Job Implementation: Monthly compute node execution for automated data processing
Data Storage Strategy:
- Corral Storage: CSV output files
- Raw Data: Large-scale storage for unprocessed measurements
Session 2B: Climate Data Communication & Community Deliverables
Attendees: Sean, Cedric, Gianna, Noel, Adaeze, Lidia, Seth, Krista, Tasnim, Jaimie, JP, Suzanne, Lin, Chih-Shen, Dongying, Galen, Khristian, Hyewon (Yuna)
Note-taker: Sean Murphy
🎯 Research Goals
Climate Data Community Translation
Primary Objective: Discuss proposal opportunities and priorities to pursue Task Force requests that were outside original SETX-UIFL scope, particularly education, advocacy, and communication deliverables.
Context: Climate Task Force Meeting revealed needs beyond dataset provision – specifically understanding best ways to share data with larger public audiences in useful formats.
Deliverable Prioritization for Multiple Audiences
Primary Objective: Determine priorities for climate deliverables targeting distinct stakeholder groups.
Audience Segmentation:
- Public: General community members
- Decision Makers: Emergency management, planners, policy makers
- Technical Users: Researchers, analysts using cookbook interfaces
One-Pager Development Strategy
Primary Objective: Create example one-page summaries of research findings for decision makers and community stakeholders.
Purpose:
- Communicate with Task Force about research value
- Help identify organizations to expand and improve communication products
- Integrate with Flood Coordination Study and existing networks
- Add to project website for broader dissemination
📅 Timelines & Action Plans
February 2026: Cookbook Example Completion
Deliverable: Example cookbook demonstrating technical data translation
User Level: Still for technical users but more approachable than raw datasets
Applications: Could be used by emergency management with fairly technical interface
Parallel Development: One-Pager Examples (Non-Climate Topics)
Strategy: Create one-pager examples from non-climate research areas to establish format and approach
Ambitious Target: JP recommends targeting 3 example one-pagers across project themes
Foundation: DOE highlights could serve as starting point for such documents
April 2026: Task Force Presentation & Feedback
Deliverables:
- One-pager examples for Task Force review
- Cookbook demonstration
- Request Task Force input to improve cookbook design
Goal: Frame ideas for how project can help Task Force find resources for next-stage communication products
Ongoing: Paper-Connected One-Pagers
Process: As Climate wraps papers, reach out to Texas Task Force Coordinators (TTC) to assess decision-maker interest
Collaboration: If topic is of interest, Climate Theme and TTC jointly create one-pager roll-up of results
Distribution: Use through Flood Coordination Study and existing networks; add to project website
📝 Key Outcomes & Strategic Considerations
Learning from Task Force Meeting
Key Insight: Task Force requested products not in original proposal (education, communication) indicating gap between academic deliverables and stakeholder needs
Past Context: Previous proposal for this work did not receive funding
Current Approach: Pragmatic strategy balancing project timeline constraints with community needs
Current Scope of Climate Deliverables
Cookbook Design: Translates climate dataset into approachable format while maintaining technical rigor
Suzanne’s TTC Outreach: May consult Task Force on cookbook content decisions
Heat Dashboard: Working with Equity theme on small slice (heat-related) of climate data for community dashboards
Communication Product Development Challenges
Timeline Constraints: Creating final, polished public-facing products may not be realistic within project timeline
Draft-Level Strategy: Could draft-level communication be developed alongside technical papers even if not final?
Partnership Model: Better to find next organization to build communication products rather than project team creating them
Local Non-Profit Potential: Exploring local organizations to complete translation and communication steps (ideas being discussed on Slack channel regarding financing)
Hazard Mitigation Planning Context
Current Requirement: Climate change inclusion in hazard mitigation planning not required but can be included
Opportunity: Climate data products could support voluntary climate integration in planning documents
TTC Interest: Versions of results that could be taken to decision makers more valuable than purely academic outputs
State-Level Engagement
Interest Level: Some climate data may be of interest at state level
Suzanne’s Role: Having discussions to gauge state government appetite for tailored climate products
Strategic Value: State engagement could provide sustainability pathway beyond project conclusion
Task Force Role in Next Steps
Communication Capacity: Task Force has members who can help with next stage of communication regarding public-facing documents
Resource Identification: Can Task Force help identify funding sources/organizations to create communication products?
Climate Contribution: What can Climate Theme provide to facilitate finding those opportunities?
Not “Finishing” the Project: Not asking Task Force to complete the project, but to help frame ideas for finding resources for next steps
KMP Communication Options
Beyond Cookbook: Suzanne indicated KMP has additional communication options
Reference: More details provided in afternoon training session (outside scope of this meeting)
One-Pager Development Approach
TTC Language Input: Task Force could provide audience-appropriate language on front end
Connection to Papers: Highlights are connected to research papers but may be broader than single paper
Cookbook Content: Will contain elements beyond papers, so communication strategy TBD
Cross-Theme Approach: JP recommended project be ambitious about creating 3+ examples across themes (extending beyond Climate)
Starting Point: Christa noted DOE highlights could serve as foundation
Session 2C: Community Air Quality Interventions
Additional Leads: Anna Neville, Noel Estwick, Kasey Faust, Sam Lin/I/O team
Note-taker: TBD
🎯 Research Goals
Community Air Quality Interventions (CR Boxes)
Primary Objective: Design and implement community-based air quality solutions through deployment of Corsi-Rosenthal (CR) boxes and other interventions.
Community Engagement Methods for Air Quality
Primary Objective: Learn collaborative approaches for community-facilitated air quality research across diverse communities in the SETx region.
Focus: Developing engagement methods that respect community knowledge and priorities while advancing scientific understanding.
Session 3A: Participatory GIS Integration with Scientific Data
Attendees: PVAMU students (Gianna), Lidia, Water team representatives, Air team representatives
🎯 Research Goals
PGIS-Scientific Data Integration
Primary Objective: Compare community-identified locations from Participatory GIS results with water and air modeling results to validate and contextualize scientific findings.
Current Status: Beginning of coding phase for 22 PGIS interviews (both technical and community members). Six interviews coded so far with 15 codes identified.
Key Community Insights: “Bowl” effect of Beaumont and Port Arthur geography; community reports of flares, smut, and smog on cars; industry timing strategies to minimize community impact.
Multi-Risk Visualization via Dashboard
Primary Objective: Develop dashboard-based visualization showing PGIS outputs at appropriate GIS scale for overlapping risk factors (flooding, poor air quality).
Challenges Identified:
- Event-driven data requires flood inundation maps
- Historic flooding comparison with PGIS locations
- Model limitations must be communicated to Task Force
Temporal Information Enhancement
Priority Need: Additional temporal information in interviews to capture short-term flooding events that current approach may miss.
Context: PGIS interview data needs temporal dimension to align with water modeling timeframes and event-based flooding patterns.
Air Quality Characterization
Current Focus: Chemical pollutants (not particulates like dust and smog)
Community Perception Gap: Task Force participants described air quality issues as “pollen,” indicating potential disconnect between scientific characterization and community experience of air pollution.
Hotspot Validation through Co-Design
Primary Objective: Validate 13 identified environmental hotspots through additional co-design interviews.
Purpose: Ensure PGIS-identified locations align with community knowledge across broader stakeholder groups.
🎯 Research Goals – Topic 2: Integrated Monitoring
Coordinated Water and Air Quality Monitoring
Leads: Clayton, Ethan, Kerry
Primary Objective: Develop coordinated water and air quality monitoring strategies that connect flood modeling with water contamination analysis.
Integration Approach: Establish protocols for linking flooding events with water quality changes and potential air quality impacts.
📅 Timelines & Action Plans
Current Status: Interview Coding Phase
Progress: 6 of 22 interviews coded (27% complete)
Codes Identified: 15 codes including geographic effects (bowl effect), industrial impacts (flares, smut), and timing strategies
Next Steps: Continue coding remaining 16 interviews to build comprehensive code set
April 2026: Task Force Meeting Deliverable
Target Deliverable: Model run overlaying PGIS mapping (not “groundbreaking science” but rapid overlay for stakeholder discussion)
Dashboard Integration: Work toward getting PGIS outputs on dashboard visualization
Critical Communication: Must communicate model limitations to Task Force when presenting results
Immediate Action: Temporal Data Collection
Priority: Identified as “biggest priority” in meeting
Action: Enhance interview protocols to capture more temporal information about flooding frequency and duration
Purpose: Enable comparison with Water Theme event-based modeling
Flood Model Dashboard Integration
Action: Get flood models on dashboard with caveat about limitations
Content: Show historic flooding and compare PGIS locations with modeled flood extents
Transparency Requirement: Clearly communicate where models work well and where they have limitations
📝 Key Outcomes & Insights
Community Knowledge Themes Emerging
“Bowl Effect”: Community members identify geographic containment of air pollution in Beaumont and Port Arthur
Industrial Timing: Community awareness that industries attempt to time emissions to minimize perceived impact (“when it impacts people the least”)
Normalization: Quote from community member “Liv”: “Happens all the time, no real impact” – indicating potential habituation to environmental stressors
Visualization Strategy Decisions
Dashboard Approach: Using GIS-scale dashboard to show PGIS outputs alongside scientific modeling
Event-Based Display: Flood inundation maps for specific events rather than only aggregate risk
Historic Comparison: Overlaying PGIS community-identified locations with historic flooding data
Methodological Challenges Identified
Temporal Mismatch: Interview data may not capture short-term flooding events that models identify
Pollutant Type Disconnect: Scientific focus on chemical pollutants vs. community perception of particulates
Language Gap: Task Force using terms like “pollen” for what scientists characterize as industrial air toxics
Integration Pathways
Water-Flood Connection: Linking flood modeling with water contamination patterns during and after flood events
Air-Community Perception: Two different kinds of pollutants identified: those community is aware of and those that may be less visible
Validation Loop: Using additional co-design interviews to validate 13 hotspots identified through PGIS
Session 3B: Population-Environmental Data Integration
Attendees: Christa, Elena, Geeta Persad, Ifeanyi, Kerry Kinney, Sean Murphy, Will Mobley, Yosuke Kimura, Lin, Lidia Mezei, Evelyn Devereaux, Khristian, Sergio, Chih-Shen
Note-taker: Lidia Mezei
🎯 Research Goals
Housing Unit Allocation Integration Workflow
Primary Objective: Using Nathanael’s Housing Unit Allocation (HUA) data, create workflow to integrate Theme 1 data (Water, Air, Climate) with population characteristics.
Platform: Available on PTdataX portal (Applications > SETx-UIFL > Integrate People Theme 1)
Purpose: Enable population-level analysis of environmental exposure and vulnerability by connecting physical environmental data with demographic distributions.
Data Structure: Each point represents one housing unit with details on:
- Number of people (vacant or occupied, 0-7+ persons)
- Tenure status (owner or renter)
- Race and ethnicity
- Income levels
- Group quarters (e.g., prisons, dorms)
- Available for both 2010 and 2020
Air Quality-Population Integration (Benzene Example)
Demonstration Dataset: Benzene concentrations from Air Theme (GeoTIFF format on CKAN)
Integration Method: Air data spatially joined to housing unit population data
Outputs:
- Quick summary statistics on air raster cells overlapping with study sites
- West Port Arthur – Foley Watershed: 1,200 housing units, 10 valid cells, benzene range 0.246-0.829 ppb (mean 0.419 ppb)
- Southeast Beaumont: 8,400 housing units, 25 valid cells, benzene range 0.221-0.425 ppb (mean 0.279 ppb)
- Key Finding: West Port Arthur’s relative exposure almost double that of the region
Differential Exposure Analysis by Demographics
Primary Objective: Analyze environmental exposure differences across population characteristics using statistical tests (e.g., one-way ANOVA).
Analysis Dimensions:
- Ownership status (owner vs. renter)
- Income (socioeconomic status)
- Age categories
- Race and ethnicity
- Intersections of characteristics (e.g., race × tenure)
Example Finding: Strong correlation between race/ethnicity and tenure status in SETx: 60% of renters in Beaumont and 85% of renters in Port Arthur are Black.
Future Heat Stress with Current Population
Climate Integration Objective: Show longitudinal and future heat stress patterns using population distributions across time.
Proposed Analysis:
- 2010 heat stress with 2010 population distribution
- 2020 heat stress with 2020 population distribution
- 2050 heat stress with 2020 population distribution
Research Question: Did heat go up equally across all areas? Who is most affected by projected climate change?
Metric: Number of days above 90°F heat index threshold
📅 Timelines & Action Plans
Short-Term Actions
Access and Infrastructure:
- Ensure all team members have access to PTdataX platform
- Water team: Confirm Halbouty vector file availability and format
- Climate team: Decide how to share three files (2010, 2020, 2050) on CKAN
- Air team: Finalize datasets with proper metadata
Data Preparation:
- Yosuke (Air Theme): Add metadata to benzene concentration data explaining variable definitions
- All themes: Put data on CKAN with good tags for discoverability
Medium-Term: Publication Planning
Action: Discuss different overlay approaches for journal articles across themes
Considerations: Authorship frameworks that honor cross-theme collaboration and data integration work
April 2026: Task Force Presentation Development
Geeta’s Question to Group: “What is your ideal scenario to show to Task Force in April?”
Climate Example Response: “Days above heat tolerance threshold” as accessible metric
Preparation: Develop audience-appropriate visualizations and summary statistics for Task Force understanding
📝 Key Outcomes & Strategic Insights
CKAN Platform Strategy
Data Sharing Advantage: When sharing on CKAN publicly, get a direct link to data → easy to use in Python environment
Documentation Requirements: Include metadata, background information, and codebook for each dataset
Discoverability: Use good tags to ensure datasets are findable by other researchers and stakeholders
Cookbook vs. Dashboard Relationship
Christa’s Question: How is this different from Galen’s dashboard?
Nathanael’s Answer: Cookbook actually integrates the data, whereas Galen’s dashboard shows one to two datasets side-by-side
Will’s Addition: Cookbook outputs can become datasets to put into Galen’s dashboards
Implication: Cookbook creates new integrated datasets that feed visualization tools
Resolution and Scale Considerations
Elena’s Question: Currently joined to 1 km grid. Would joining to 4 km resolution be a problem?
Nathanael’s Response: No problem technically, only with regard to communicating difference to community members
Key Insight: Different scales across and within themes acceptable; can combine at point-level using population data
Kerry’s Question: How to match up with Sniffer data?
Answer: Can do overlay regardless of initial data resolution
Environmental Justice Findings
Exposure Disparities: West Port Arthur exposure almost double that of Southeast Beaumont
Demographic Correlations: Strong links between race/ethnicity and housing tenure in region
Age Vulnerability: Kerry noted older populations can’t afford to move (Habitat for Humanity Beaumont observation)
Residential Stability: Khristian asked about length of residence; while specific data unavailable, 2010 and 2020 comparison shows demographic shifts over time
Enhanced Mapping Recommendations
Kerry and Ifeanyi: When mapping, add industrial facilities + more context
Rationale: Can see location of industry in blank areas among housing units
Kerry’s Interest: Intersection between Ifeanyi’s heat map + air/HUA maps
Takeaway: Maps need multiple data layers for community comprehension
Communication Strategy Insights
Nathanael’s Emphasis: Important to communicate in a way that makes sense to community members
Example: Community members know neighborhoods more than census tracts
Implication: Data presentation must align with community mental models and geographic familiarity
Collective Air Toxics Effects
Elena’s Observation: Tend to discuss different health effects of each air toxic separately
Research Opportunity: Ways to sum collective effects of multiple air toxics (comprehensive index?)
Progression: Integration with one compound (benzene example), then eventually collective air toxics effects
Community Awareness Gap
Kerry’s Insight: Two different kinds of pollutants – only one of which the community is aware of
Implication: Integration of HUA with air data can reveal exposures that community members may not perceive or recognize
Overall Integration Outcomes Planned
Better Maps: Including industrial facilities and multi-layer context
Heat-Air Integration: Intersection between Ifeanyi’s heat map + air/HUA maps
Air Progression: Integration with one compound (benzene), then collective air toxics effects
Water Integration: HUA with Halbouty modeling
Climate Longitudinal Analysis: Heat stress patterns across 2010, 2020, 2050 with corresponding and projected population distributions
📝 Session 3C: Not Yet Documented
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