Material Research Atlas Turns New Page
Experience the New, Improved Material Research World Atlas
Material Research has relaunched its World Atlas of toxic facilities with new features for users to explore. The Atlas web application assists facility-based research on toxic chemical use, production, and disposal.
An overview of the Atlas explains the latest interactive tools and features. These include schools located near these facilities, the U.S. representatives for communities in which these plants are located, and waterbodies.
The Material Research World Atlas was built on ArcGIS Experience Builder by Selena Sillari, Hira Ozair, and Red Delelegne of Material Research, with the expert assistance of Gordon Longsworth, Director of the Geographic Information Systems Laboratory at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Other Material Research staff assisted with facilities data, including Jill Weber, Kam Rasheed, Connie Murtagh, Verónica Odriozola and Jim Vallette. Our original research includes summarizing what each facility does, visually confirming facility locations using satellite imagery and other references, and associating each location with various agency records.
The Atlas also feeds information and ideas into the FencelineData system which is being developed by our partners at DataKind, Until Justice Data Partners, and Public Health Watch. FencelineData’s launch is expected by the end of this year. One of our major goals is to harmonize facility information with a single identifier. The Material Research Atlas is a prototype of such a system. FencelineData, powered by collaborative community science, will accelerate data harmonization.
The Material Research Atlas focuses on more than 600 facilities around the globe that we have investigated for various clients. (See our Resources page for examples of our research in action over the past five years.)
The Atlas is an ongoing work-in-progress. It is a platform for us to explore methods of preserving, organizing, and presenting essential information. We offer this as open access public domain material, free to use with attribution.
We welcome your feedback and ideas. Please use the "Contact Us" feature on our materialresearch.world website or email us, admin@materialresearch.net.