A new computational tool developed by researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change finds specific counties in the United States that are particularly vulnerable to economic distress resulting from a transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sources.
By combining county-level data on employment in fossil fuel (natural gas, oil and coal) industries with data on populations below the poverty level, the tool pinpoints locations with high risks for transition-driven economic pain.
The tool, called the System for the Triage of Risks from Environmental and Socio-economic Stressors (STRESS) platform, almost instantly displays these risk combinations on an easy-to-read visual map, revealing those counties that stand to gain the most from targeted green jobs retraining programs.
Using data that characterize land, water, and energy systems; biodiversity; demographics; environmental equity; and transportation networks, the STRESS platform lets users assess multiple, co-evolving, comounding hazards within a U.S. geographical region from the national to the county level. Because of its effectivenes, this screening-level visualization tool can pinpoint risk “hotspots” that can then be investigated in greater detail. Policy makers can then plan targeted interventions to boost resilience to location-specific physical and economic risks.
Present STRESS platform data includes more than 100 risk metrics at the county-level scale but data collection is ongoing. MIT Joint Program researchers are continuing to improve the STRESS platform as an “open-science tool” that welcomes input from adademics, reserchers, inusutry and the general public.
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-tool-hot-compounding-environmental-economic.html