Energy & Equity Exposures Database for Public Health

Insights from a first-of-its-kind database for healthy and just energy transitions

The Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, in partnership with the School of Public Health, has awarded its first-ever Sustainability Research Grant (SRG) for the 2023–2024 academic year to advance the university’s research at the intersection of climate change, sustainability, public health, and equity.

Energy infrastructure surrounds us — yet communities are often surprised to learn what types of fossil fuel hazards their neighborhoods are exposed to and how their health may be impacted. Some bear the biggest burden as environmental justice hotspots that are disproportionately affected.

Power & People Symposium: Mapping Community Exposure to Energy Infrastructure | May 7, 2024

Launched at the Power & People Symposium, the Energy Infrastructure Exposure Intensity and Equity Indices (EI3) Database for Public Health offers first-time visibility into who’s exposed to what fossil fuel hazards in the United States — across the full supply chain, all in one place — to help identify community hotspots.

This year-long project led by Boston University researchers introduces novel methods used to develop new data on exposure to energy infrastructure, paving the way to look at the associated health impacts with learnings on:

• Climate and health equity co-benefits of clean energy programs and impacts on vulnerable populations
• US hotspots based on infrastructure siting and impacts on environmental justice communities
• How a new energy epidemiology agenda will address the links between hazards and health outcomes and policies

The database promises to be an actionable public tool that supports community groups, environmental justice organizations, and policymakers while advancing interdisciplinary research towards a healthy and just energy transition.

View the symposium presentation slides to learn more about this first-of-its-kind database and the connection between energy systems and health.

Research Overview & Goals :

The year-long SRG project will launch the Energy & Equity Exposures Database for Population Health, a new tool that aims to overcome a key obstacle in further understanding the health and societal implications of a just transition to clean energy in the United States.

To better establish how energy decisions affect population health, especially in environmental justice communities, the research team will build a much-needed harmonized national geospatial database of energy infrastructure in the US. This resource will factor in data from extraction to power plant, such as location, intensity of use, and emissions, providing fundamental information to develop census tract and county indices that consistently assess exposure to energy infrastructure.

This database, in combination with a case study for each of the following three themes, will open new areas of research around energy infrastructure and its relation to environmental justice, climate change, population health, and broader societal concerns for a just energy transition.

The project brings together SPH faculty with a community of BU researchers from across disciplines, including climate and sustainability, public policy and governance, behavioral and cognitive science, and engineering systems.

Research Themes:

Research Team Leaders