SEMSWA Environmental and Social Equity Mapping SE Denver Metro, Colorado

As part of planning efforts for the Denver metro area, the Southeast Metro Stormwater Authority (SEMSWA) aimed to map disproportionately impacted communities as part of meeting a task order to develop an environmental justice technical presentation. Otak harnessed ArcPro’s spatial analysis tools to map overlays of identified communities (low income, minority communities, and housing cost burdened communities) throughout the SEMSWA service area with Colorado’s EnviroScreen data to show where impacted communities overlap.

Utilizing GIS Mapping to Improve Stormwater Service to Disproportionately Impacted Communities

In producing the “SEMSWA Service Area Environmental Justice: Disproportionately Impacted Communities” presentation, SEMSWA planned to pursue voluntary inclusion of environmental justice considerations in providing services, and prepare for possible inclusion of environmental justice requirements in future permitting. The intent of the map is to identify areas with environmental inequities, pinpoint areas that have disproportionately impacted communities (communities with greater health burden and/or face more environmental risks), and geographically identify disproportionately impacted communities (DICs) based on the definition in Colorado’s Environmental Justice Act. A geographic union was created in GIS to graphically show where multiple DIC communities overlap. The effort intersected SEMSWA’s maintenance areas with the DIC analysis results. By overlaying EnviroScreen data they could better identify areas of interest where SEMSWA provides services that appear to meet the definition of disproportionately impacted communities under the state law.