At a glance
The GRASP State and Local Environmental Emergency Resource Center offers geospatial tools and resources for state and local public health partners. These resources aid in planning, response, and recovery during emergencies, enhancing decision-making and resilience through GIS, risk assessments, and collaboration opportunities.
About GRASP
The Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program (GRASP) is a team of public health and geospatial science, technology, visualization, and analysis experts. The GRASP mission is to provide leadership, expertise, and education in the application of geography, geospatial science, and geographic information systems (GIS) to public health research and practice. GRASP is housed within the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). GRASP enthusiastically welcomes collaboration with state, territorial, local and tribal public health partners. Learn about some of the services GRASP has available below and on the Place & Health website.
Contact placeandhealth@cdc.gov to connect with GRASP.
Data resources
available for download or as ESRI Feature Services
Near Real-Time Flooding Data
The Social Vulnerability Index
The Environmental Justice Index
The Heat and Health Index
Public health emergency preparedness, response, and recovery support
Below are key resources to support public health emergency preparedness, response, and recovery efforts, offering guidance and tools to help communities effectively manage and recover from public health emergencies.
Access to CDC OneMap (built on Esri ArcGIS portal)
- Create event-specific data feeds, data collection and analysis tools, workflows and interactive visualizations
- Contact PHOENIX@cdc.gov to get access for your public health team
GIS trainings for your jurisdiction's public health department
- Example training focuses: Field Data Collection, Dashboarding, and WebMaps
- Example training technologies: ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online and Portal, and QGIS
- Contact placeandhealth@cdc.gov to discuss your public health team's training needs
CDART: Comprehensive Disaster Assessment and Readiness Toolkit
CDART is:
- A set of ready to use pre- and post-disaster assessment tools for healthcare facilities (readiness check, rapid assessment, comprehensive assessment)
- A question databank that can be used to build pre- and post-disaster assessments for healthcare facilities, long-term care facilities, schools/daycares/HeadStart facilities; these can be deployed via Survey123 and link to corresponding dashboards as well as a dispatch application to monitor teams in the field
- A deployable ATSDR/CDC team ready to conduct post-disaster assessments in the field or provide technical assistance to state partners
Contact CDART@cdc.gov to request a consultation
EHRAP: Environmental Health Risk Assessment Prioritization Tool
The EHRAP tool was built to aid in identifying and prioritizing sites that may cause environmental health risks due to contaminants after a natural disaster. This tool and the associated workflow can be used to collect and explore data from sites that may experience increased contamination during a natural disaster, such as brownfield, superfund, or land re-use sites
The key components of the EHRAP workflow include:
- A 2-step data collection component with offline capabilities that once submitted is synced with additional site and contextual data.
- A logistics dashboard to manage site visit planning and tasking.
- An analytics dashboard featuring maps, indicators, and other graphics and information about each site, including the collected data to assist in decision-making and prioritization. This dashboard features information such as proximity to nearby sites of interest, a demographic overview of nearby populations, and recent measurements of contaminants alongside related comparison values.
Contact PHOENIX@cdc.gov to request a consultation.
GIS IntroMap series
The purpose of the GRASP GIS IntroMap Series is to enable public health practitioners to explore and understand the complex and interrelated environmental, sociodemographic, topographical, and cultural conditions that are associated with chemical exposure and the development of acute and chronic conditions.
The GIS Introductory Map Series includes 17 automatically generated core and optional maps of the area around a point of interest, and incorporates data such as sensitive population centers, the health & safety infrastructure, satellite imagery, environmental hazards, relevant physical features, day/night population density, social vulnerability, and environmental justice.
Contact placeandhealth@cdc.gov to discuss the GIS IntroMap Series.
Community profile tool
A community profile is a living document that is used to gather, organize, and update essential information related to the community around a hazardous waste site, including population demographics, socioeconomics, vulnerability, environmental burden, and potential exposures.
For more information on preparing a community profile, refer to 'Developing a Community Profile' in ATSDR's online Community Engagement Playbook.
Contact placeandhealth@cdc.gov to discuss how a Community Profile might support your team's work.
Geocoding support
GRASP can support your public health team in transforming geographic coordinates, addresses or names of places to locations on the earth's surface.
Contact placeandhealth@cdc.gov to discuss your public health team's geocoding needs.