The First Environmental Justice Workshop, entitled “Generating a Discussion Between Communities and Industries: Data Collection, Analytics, Policy, and Tools” was held at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory's Continuum environment on March 15, 2023. In many cities across the United States, many communities are located close to an excessive number of environmentally polluting industrial facilities. From an environmental justice viewpoint, the fact that the environmental burden is not shared across all populations living in a city is unfair. The aim of the environmental justice workshop is to bring together different stakeholders such as industries and southwest Chicago communities to get their perspective, identify and discuss pressing environmental justice challenges across Chicago, share current work across disciplines, and brainstorm solutions.

Among topics for discussion were posing questions to participants such as - What are the fundamental concepts of environmental justice? How do environmental issues disproportionately impact certain communities? What environmental injustices exist in different communities? Are there any organizations working to create awareness about environmental justice? How can we use interactive visualization to access environmental justice issues?

Workshop organizers include:
Apostolis Sambanis, Health Policy and Administration, University of Illinois, Chicago
Fabio Miranda, Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago
Federica Fusi, Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois, Chicago
Marisol Becerra, Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois, Chicago
Michael Cailas, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago
Michael D Siciliano, Public Policy, Management, and Analytics, University of Illinois, Chicago
Phillip A. Boda, Special Education, University of Illinois, Chicago
Sanjana Srabanti, Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago
Sybil Derrible, Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois, Chicago

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