Unveiling environmental justice through open government data: Work in progress for most US states
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| Author | Federica Fusi,Fengxiu Zhang,Jiaqi Liang |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12847 |
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Unveiling environmental justice through open
government data: Work in progress for most
US states
Federica Fusi
1
| Fengxiu Zhang
2
| Jiaqi Liang
1
1
Department of Public Administration,
University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, USA
2
Schar School of Policy and Government,
Center for Resilient and Sustainable
Communities, George Mason University,
Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Correspondence
Federica Fusi, Department of Public
Administration, University of Illinois Chicago,
400 S. Peoria Street, 2100 AEH (MC 278),
Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
Email: ffusi@uic.edu
Abstract
Open government data (OGD) are critical for environmental
justice (EJ) policymaking, which is characterized by power
and information asymmetries across government agencies,
affected populations, and advocacy groups. We contend
that not only should state governments provide OGD but
also they should remove the burden associated with data
access and use it to address the data divide and facilitate
the participation of vulnerable populations in policymaking.
Applying a user-oriented approach, this article evaluates the
completeness, usability, and accessibility of EJ-OGD initia-
tives across the 50 US states. Results show that only one
out of five states achieves at least half points on our EJ-
OGD Implementation Score, suggesting that most states do
not provide OGD to answer two core EJ questions: “To
what extent is my community exposed to environmental
harm and health hazards? Is the exposure disproportion-
ately high given my community's socioeconomic character-
istics?”We discuss implications for equity and next steps
for the government.
Il rilascio di dati governativi in formato aperto (open data) è
essenziale per l'adozione di politiche di giustizia ambientale.
Queste ultime sono spesso influenzate dalle asimmetrie
informative e dai rapporti di forza in essere tra enti
Received: 26 March 2021 Revised: 25 March 2022 Accepted: 29 March 2022
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12847
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which
permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no
modifications or adaptations are made.
© 2022 The Authors. Public Administration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
1088 Public Admin. 2023;101:1088–1114.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm
governativi, gruppi di interesse e società civile. Il presente
articolo asserisce che per favorire la partecipazione delle
popolazioni più vulnerabili al processo legislativo, i governi
non solo dovrebbero rilasciare i loro dati in formato aperto
ma dovrebbero rimuovere le barriere che ne ostacolano
l'accesso e fruibilità. A tal scopo, gli autori presentano un
indice volto a misurare la completezza, fruibilità, e
accessibilità delle iniziative di open data per la giustizia
ambientale nei 50 stati americani (USA). I risultati mostrano
che solo un quinto degli stati ottiene almeno metà dei punti
possibili e che un cittadino medio sarebbe raramente in
grado di usare gli open data per rispondere a due domande
critiche per avanzare politiche di giustizia ambientale:
“Quanto è esposta la mia communita’al rischio di danno
ambientale e sanitario? Tale esposizione è proporzionata
alle caratteristiche socioeconomiche della mia comunità?”
L'articolo si conclude discutendo le implicazioni dei risultati
ottenuti e proponendo alcuni primi passi che le agenzie
governative potrebbero intraprendere per migliorare i loro
open data. 开放政府数据对于环境正义的政策制定十分重
要。环境正义政策制定的过程反映了政府机构、受影响人群
和利益集团之间的权力差异与信息不对称。本文论辩美国州
政府不仅应该提供开放政府数据，而且它们应该移除与数据
的可及和使用相关的障碍，从而解决数据鸿沟的问题和协助
弱势群体参与政策制定。从数据使用者的角度出发，本文
评估了美国50个州关于环境正义开放政府数据举措的完整
性、适用性与可及性程度。分析结果显示只有五分之一的
州份达到环境正义开放政府数据执行指数的至少一半分
值。此项结果指出大多数州份未能提供有效的开放政府数
据来回答围绕环境正义的两个核心问题:“在多大程度上我
的社区暴露于环境危害和健康伤害的因素?基于我的社区的
社会经济特征，这种暴露的程度是否不成比例?”本文最后
讨论了分析结果对平等问题的意义及政府可做的进一步
举措。.
1|INTRODUCTION
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines environmental justice (EJ) as “the fair treatment and mean-
ingful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development,
implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”
1
In policy terms, it means that
FUSI ET AL. 1089
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