Exploring the San Joaquin Valley:

A Land of Change and Promise

December 4-6, 2013

Jonathan London, Ph.D.

CUMULATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITIES: OPPORTUNITIES INTEGRATING HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND PHILANTHROPY

Sarah Sharpe

Road Map

• Development of a Community –University Partnership: Importance of Relationship-Building and Mutual Learning – Sarah Sharpe

• Methods and Outcomes of a Cumulative Environmental Vulnerability Assessment for the San Joaquin Valley – Jonathan London

• Longer-term impacts of Land of Risk/ Land of Opportunity – Sarah and Jonathan

Cumulative Environmental Vulnerabilities

3

Assets

Hazards

Social Vulnerabilit

ies

Hazards

Hazards

Assets

Assets

InitiationPartnership

Development/ Capacity-Building

Develop/ apply CEVA

Community Mapping

Workshops

Report Production/

Launch

Application

For Action!

SJV CHIP Process

Maps Don’t Just Happen

Key Findings• A region at risk. Nearly 1/3 (1.2 million) of San Joaquin Valley

residents face extreme cumulative environmental and social vulnerability.

•  More environmental hazards exist than are publically documented: Residents identified many more environmental hazards than are documented or addressed by the state and federal regulatory inventories.

• Not all vulnerability is equal: The combination of environmental risk and social vulnerability is not randomly distributed across the region, but rather concentrated within particular communities.

• Collaborative action is needed, focused on the most vulnerable people and places.

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Quick! Where are the EJ Communities?

Cumulative Environmental Hazards

Social Vulnerability

(CEVA)

Health data courtesy of CVHPI

13

West Fresno residents document their local knowledge of hidden environmental hazards

Center for Regional Change creates a digital map documenting local knowledge

Residents use the maps to inform and empower their own advocacy

Community Mapping for Change

Community Knowledge Fills Data Gaps

Action Strategies• State should create its own Cumulative Impacts policies• Implement CEVA across SJV (and CA)• Prioritize investment in CEVA Action Zones

• Special attention to permitting, monitoring, and enforcement

• Improved and targeted public participation• Economic investments (turn the red zones green!)

• CA has created its own CEVA (CalEnviroScreen)• SJV advocates played key roles in development• CalEnviroScreen to be used to direct investments in EJ areas (Cap

and Trade revenues, Strategic Growth Council grants)

• US EPA Region 9 designated the SJV as a priority area for public participation, funding and enforcement

• CEVA elements used in SB 375 implementation• CEVA supported case for development of EJ reporting

platforms (KEEN, FERN etc.)• CalEPA Environmental Justice Working Group pilot project

for joint enforcement• Health funders (TCE, TCWF) have continued to invest in

CEVA across the state

Action IMPACTS

Contacts

530-752-3007

crcinfo@ucdavis.edu

http://regionalchange.ucdavis.edu/

http://mappingregionalchange.ucdavis.edu

Sarah Sharpe

(559)485-1416

sarah@fresnometmin.org

www.fresnometmin.org