What is the Environmental Vulnerability Index?

Environmental and public health risks are unevenly distributed across cities. Data visualization and modeling tools can help communities understand risk factors, identify and prioritize places for interventions, and develop environmental justice action plans.

The Environmental Vulnerability Index is a place-based screening tool that can identify vulnerabilities across space, model potential outcomes of interventions, and guide civic investment for resiliency and health.

Our Work

Measuring differences in environmental vulnerability can provide investigators, civic leaders, and community members with important data around health equity and help to develop targeted public health interventions. However, accounting for the unequal distribution of vulnerability and risk across different geographic domains is complex. Communities have specific vulnerabilities that reflect regional differences that are interlinked with unique demographic and geographical characteristics. To improve urban health, cities should consider which specific vulnerabilities can be modified with interventions, calculate what level of modification is necessary, achievable, and likely to contribute to overall health improvements and reduction in risk.

We developed an environmental vulnerability index (EVI) for the Louisville Metro area to prioritize census tracts and recommend potential interventions that could impact area vulnerability and health outcomes. Through an analysis of 32 environmental variables from administrative datasets using the Toxicological Prioritization Index (ToxPi) software we assigned vulnerability scores and ranks to Louisville’s 190 census tracts. We found that environmental vulnerabilities and health risks are not distributed equally across Jefferson County and mirror the geography of health inequities in Jefferson County. We modeled three distinct interventions that led to statistically significant changes in area vulnerability.

Our findings underscore the need to shift focus from county-level to neighborhood-level assessment for public health interventions. Inclusion of structural environmental variables highlights the inadequacy of clinical data-focused approaches. It emphasizes the importance of tailored, geographically guided interventions over one-size-fits-all strategies. By recognizing the unique vulnerabilities of each neighborhood, we can better inform implementation science and address health disparities effectively.