EPA Indicators of Our Health and Environment Updated and Improved Dr. Brand Niemann Director and Senior Enterprise Architect – Data Scientist Semantic Community AOL Government Blogger October 31,

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? 2

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 3

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) 4

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 5

Knowledge Base 6

EPA Report on the Environment 7

EPA Ontology 8

Air Indicators 9

Indicator Updates 10

Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases 11

Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases 12

Downloads 13

Spreadsheet Inventory 14

Cover Page 15 Knowledge Base, Spreadsheet, Inventory of Indicators, and Faceted Search.

General Mortality, Life Expectancy, and Cancer Incidence 16 General Mortality has decreased, Life Expectancy has increased, but Cancer Incidence has increased slightly.

Birth Defects and Pesticide Residues in Food 17 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

Infectious Diseases Associated with Environmental Exposures or Conditions 18 Infectious Diseases Associated with Environmental Exposures or Conditions have fluctuated considerably with the largest increase being for legionellosis and the largest decrease being for Hepatitis A.

Quantity of RCRA Hazardous Waste Generated and Managed 19 Quantity of RCRA Hazardous Waste Generated and Managed over the course of five reporting cycles ( ) hazardous waste generated and ultimately disposed varied.

Urbanization and Population Change 20 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.

Atmospheric Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases 21 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.

U.S. and Global Mean Temperature and Precipitation 22 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.

Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay 23 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

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. 24