Database

This database has been compiled during the winter 2010 by students of the Diploma in Environmental Assessment (Department of Geography, Planning & Environment) at Concordia University (Montreal). The data collection and data analysis was part of a course entitled Geographic Information Systems for Environmental Impact Assessment (ENVS663). The goal of this course was to explore issues related to environmental injustices on the island of Montreal. Data are available for the following topics: Socio demographic profiles, Health, Air Quality.

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• SIMPLIFIED VERSION OF THE DATABASE

This simplified version of the database has been created for people who don’t really know GIS, but who are interested in having some access to some of the data. This simplified version includes some sociodemographic data as well as some health data.

Source of the data: Statistics Canada 2006, 2001 & Carrefour Montréal, Atlas Santé

Analysis: Aggregation of the data the sociodemographic data at the CLSC level (Health sectors)

Data aggregated by: Cristina Romanelli & Roksolana Bobyk

Limits of the analysis: Only contain few criteria at a coarse scale (29 sectors on the island of Montreal)

Download KMZ file (Google Earth)

Download GRAPHIC data – ADOBE EPS

Download Spreadsheet data – EXCEL (derived data);

Download GIS data – SHAPEFILE (derived data)

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• SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC

“Environmental injustice can be defined as the disproportionate exposure of communities of color and the poor to pollution, and its concomitant effects on health and environment…” (Maantay 2002,  p. 161). In this project we do not assume that there is an environmental injustice on the island of Montreal, but we propose to further explore the issue. This first set of data present two major socioeconomic factors: percentage of minorities and average income. These two factors provide a first overview of the socioeconomic geography on the island of Montreal.

References: Maantay 2002, Mapping Environmental Injustices: Pitfalls and Potential of GIS in Assessing Environmental Health and Equity, Environmental Health Perspectives 110(2), pp.161 -171

Source of the data: Statistics Canada 2006

Analysis: Selection of the relevant criteria; aggregation of the data; Classification

Analysis done by: Rajinder Bimrah, Allison Lapierre & Yosef Robinson

Limits of the analysis: More sophisticated statistical analysis could have been done to show trends and correlations.

Download KMZ file (Google Earth)

Download GRAPHIC data – ADOBE EPS

Download spreadsheet data: Socioeconomic (derived data); Visible Minorities (Original data)

Download GIS data (Shapefile): Socioeconomic (derived data)

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• HEALTH

Context: The most accurate and spatially detailed publicly available data regarding health statistics on the island of Montreal were located at the Carrefour Montreal, Atlas Sante website. This database include data regarding mortality, total incidences of cancer, lung cancer, respiratory health, incidence of cardiac disease and infant mortality and health for the 2001 to 2005 period. These data were analyzed using the Environmentally Attributable Fraction of Disease (EAF) rates provided the World Health Organization (2006) and a paper by Boyd & Genius (2008) in order to produce an index score represented on this map.

References: World Health Organization (2006), Preventing Disease through Healthy Environments, WHO press: Geneva, Switzerland – Boyd, D.R. & Genius, S.J. (2008), The environmental buurden of disease in Canada: Respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and congenital affliction, Environmental Research, 240-249.

Source of the data: Centre Local de Services Communautaires (CLSC) 2001-2005 available through Carrefour Montreal, Atlas Sante

Analysis: Environmentally Attributable Fraction of Disease (EAF) rates were applied to 10 diseases in order to create an index score for each disease. This scores were standardized using the standard deviation for each of the diseases. Different analysis were done with the results including a simple sum of these scores which is represented on this map.

Analysis done by: AAron Baxter, Charles Cameron, Patrick Culhane, Liohn Sherer

Limits of the analysis: Data available at scale larger than ideal (CLSC region); Data does not include illnesses that may have been treated outside of hte CLSC institution.

Download KMZ file (Google Earth)

Download GRAPHIC data – ADOBE EPS

Download spreadsheet data: Disease_CLSC (original data); Disease_CLSC_Index (analyzed data)

Download GIS data (Shapefile): Disease_CLSC (original data); Disease_CLSC_Index (analyzed data)

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SOIL TOXICITY (Interpolation of toxic release)

Context: This section of the dataset includes the presence/absence of 40 chemicals for a total amount of 541 contaminated sites. A BTEX index was created to correspond to the summation of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene for each site. The range of this index was from 0 to 4. The same process was used to create an overall toxicity index that corresponds to the summation of every chemical in each site. The results appear on both maps and give a general overview of the concentration of contaminated sites on the island of Montreal (as well as differences between nboth indexes).

Reference:

Source of the data: National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) 2008

Analysis done by: Jean-Francois Marsan-Paquin

Analysis: Development of an index based on the presence / absence of 40 chemicals; aggregation of the data by census tract; Results divided by the surface of each census tracks (density)

Limits of the analysis: In the index every chemical is considered as similar in terms of impact which is much more complex in reality; Elements such as slopes and geology have not been taken into account;  Data have been aggregated at the census level

Download KMZ file (Google Earth) BTEX index

Download GRAPHIC data – ADOBE EPS

Download spreadsheet data: Contaminated Sites (Original Data); Contaminated sites by Census Tract (aggregated)

Download GIS data (Shapefile): Contaminated Sites (Original points, but data synthesized: 1. Presence, 0.Absence); Contaminated sites by Census Tract (aggregated & synthesized: # represents the number of occurences of each specific pollutant for each CT)

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AIR QUALITY (Interpolation of toxic release)

Context: Many toxic chemical are released in the air by industries. In Montreal, the main source of industry related air polution comes from two refineries of Crude oil products located on the North-East part of the island (actually one of  them Shell Montreal just shut down in January 2010). According to Gower (2007)  the most importanmt toxins released into the local environment by these refineries are BTEX, Sulphuric Acid, Nickel and Vanadium

Reference: Gowe, S. (2007), A computer-based Decision Tool for Prioritizing the Reduction of Airborne Chemical Emissions from Canadian Oil Refineries Using Estimated Health Impacts, Waterloo: University of Waterloo.

Source of the data: National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) 2008

Analysis done by: Andrew Sanford, Ashvin Ramasamy, Jean-Francois Marsan-Paquin & Undine Thompson

Analysis: Spatial interoplation using geostatistical analysis (Kriging) and including wind patterns

Limits of the analysis: Only data for 2008 were taken into account; Does not account for cumulative or synergistic chemical effects; Does not include non-point-source data or non-reporting facilities.

Download KMZ file (Google Earth) BTEX index

Download GRAPHIC data – ADOBE EPS

Download spreadsheet data: NPRI Betex (Original data)

Download GIS data (Shapefile): NPRI Facilities (Original data: Location of the facilities)

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AIR QUALITY (Interpolation of measurements)

Context: Measurement of air quality is quite expensive and requires some specific skills and equipements. Daniel Crouse and colleagues have recorded concentrations of NO2 at 133
locations in Montreal in three seasons during 2005 and 2006. ”This study was designed to provide estimates of intra-urban concentrations of ambient
nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in Montreal, Canada, that would be used subsequently in health studies of chronic diseases and long-termexposures to traffic-related air pollution” (Crouse et al. 2009, p.1). Since we did not have access to the original data we have decided to use the map published by Crouse and colleagues in order to derive a VERY GENERAL ESTIMATE OF THE CONCENTRATION OF NO2.

Reference: Crouse, D. L., Goldberg M. S., Ross N. A., Prediction-based approach to modelling temporal and spatial variability of traffic-related air pollution in Montreal, Canada, Atmospheric Environment (2009), doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.06.040

Source of the data: Original data appear in Crouse et al. (2009) as an interpolated map

Analysis done by: Cristina Romanelli

Analysis: Sampling points from the map that appeared in Crouse et al. (2009); Spatial interoplation of these sample points using geostatistical analysis (Kriging)

Limits of the analysis: Data produced based on already interpolated data; Values are not reliable but the overall trend is very similar (more general) to the one appearing in the map published by Crouse et al. (2009)

Download KMZ file (Google Earth)

Download GRAPHIC data – ADOBE EPS

Download spreadsheet data: Air Quality NO2 (Samples from original data already interpolated and classified: The real value is somewhere between the min. and the max.)

Download GIS data (Shapefile): Air Quality NO2 (Samples of original data already interpolated and classified: The real value is somewhere between the min. and the max.); Air Quality NO2 (Grid interpolated)

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