Environmental justice – the concept that environmental amenities and burdens should be shared equitably among all races and socioeconomic classes – has gained diplomatic traction internationally, and political traction domestically in the United States, in recent years. In this paper, we focus on developing federal policy relevant to transportation project planning and operation in the U.S.; however, these developments reflect international issues of inequity associated with climate change and environmental burdens. First, we provide an overview of federal policy initiatives related to environmental justice, including President Biden’s Justice40 initiative. Then, we examine the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as a potential avenue for mandating environmental justice assessment in the transportation industry, through the lenses of both procedural and distributive justice. Finally, we review several publicly available online Geographical Information System (GIS) tools that were recently developed for purposes of expanding public and governmental understanding of environmental justice challenges, and provide decision support for users to incorporate these tools into the environmental impact assessment process for transportation projects.

中文翻译：

---

基于网络的 GIS 工具对交通项目环境正义评估的功能分析

近年来，环境正义——环境便利设施和负担应在所有种族和社会经济阶层之间公平分担的概念——在国际上获得了外交关注，在美国国内也获得了政治关注。在本文中，我们重点关注制定与美国交通项目规划和运营相关的联邦政策；然而，这些事态发展反映了与气候变化和环境负担相关的国际不平等问题。首先，我们概述与环境正义相关的联邦政策举措，包括拜登总统的“Justice40”倡议。然后，我们从程序正义和分配正义的角度审视美国国家环境政策法案（NEPA），将其作为强制运输行业进行环境正义评估的潜在途径。最后，我们回顾了最近开发的几个公开的在线地理信息系统（GIS）工具，这些工具的目的是扩大公众和政府对环境正义挑战的理解，并为用户将这些工具纳入交通环境影响评估流程提供决策支持项目。