Narragansett Bay Mapping Project Details Big Picture of Region’s Health Equity - ecoRI article

For Julia Twichell, the Narragansett Bay is more than just a waterbody.

She is used to thinking about the big picture, used to conceptualizing bay health as something that extends beyond its shores and into the surrounding watershed. As something that weaves inland along the Blackstone, the Taunton and the Pawtuxet rivers upstream to Worcester and Brockton, Mass., and the Connecticut border.

And as a geographic information system (GIS) and watershed specialist with the Providence-based Narragansett Bay Estuary Program (NBEP), she is used to using data analysis to dig below the surface of the 1.3-million-acre watershed to uncover trends in environmental health.

Last year, Twichell brought this familiar approach to a new set of data, looking further into how the lives of 2 million people are interwoven with the landscape and water of the Narragansett Bay region.

The result is a collection of 12 interactive, zoomable “storymaps” on all aspects of Environmental Justice in the Narragansett Bay Region. Map after map shows clear disparities in public access, open space and public transportation for many bay watershed communities.

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