# EJSCREEN **Domain:** Environmental Justice, Policy, Data Science **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Classification:** Infrastructure Concept **Maturity:** Foundational **Related:** [[Environmental Justice Screening Tools]], [[Demographic Screening Layers]], [[Data Platforms]], [[Equity Frameworks]] --- ## Definition The **U.S. EPA's Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool that identifies communities disproportionately burdened by environmental stressors (pollution, waste, industrial zoning, climate impacts) based on demographic and environmental data**. EJSCREEN enables targeting of environmental justice resources and regulations. --- ## General Context EJSCREEN emerged from decades of environmental justice research documenting that marginalized communities face higher pollution exposure. The tool spatially integrates demographic, health, and environmental data to identify communities for priority attention. --- ## Governance Context EJSCREEN was designed to target environmental justice resources to disproportionately burdened communities. See [[articles/climate-justice-meritocracy|Climate Justice and Global Reparative Systems]] on how screening tools become instruments of climate meritocracy. --- ## Ecological Systems Context EJSCREEN reveals inequitable environmental burden distribution. However, identification without resource transfer can simply create more precise targeting of already-marginalized populations. --- ## Key Insight Screening tools legitimize data-driven targeting but can become mechanisms for population categorization and control. A tool designed for resource targeting can be repurposed for surveillance or exclusion. --- ## See Also [[Copenhagen Accord]], [[Environmental Justice]], [[Data Infrastructure]]