Modernizing Data Systems in Environmental Public Health

Modernizing Data Systems in Environmental Public Health: A Blueprint for Action

Section 5: Lessons From the Field— Case Studies and Strategic Insights As EPH departments across the U.S. face increasingly complex public health challenges, the need for modern, agile data systems has become crucial. Data modern- ization integrates advanced tools, digital platforms, and enhanced infrastructure to enable agencies to manage information better, in - crease transparency, and improve their capacity to respond to en - vironmental and public health threats. This section presents case studies from various jurisdictions that have successfully implement - ed data modernization initiatives in EPH. Each case study highlights real-world applications, outcomes, and lessons learned.

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JURISDICTION AND PROJECT California: Traffic Exposure Map - ping

MAIN GOAL

KEY CHALLENGES SOLUTIONS IMPLEMENTED

OUTCOMES AND BENEFITS Improved public and researcher access to traffic exposure data; supports health risk evaluation; enables equitable urban planning Increased inspec - tion efficiency; real-time tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs); over 20 operational and public dash - boards; improved workload equity Reduced man - ual work by approximately 35%; improved decision-making; supported pre - dictive modeling; secure external researcher access Faster, more con - sistent updates; improved risk identification; transparent public reporting

TRANSFERABLE LESSONS Standardize data - sets early; invest in sustainable, user-friendly tools; prioritize partner engagement

Replace the out - dated 2007 Traffic Tool with a mod - ern, public-access platform for traffic exposure data

No single, con - sistent traffic dataset; data scattered across multiple Caltrans sources; interop- erability issues

Harmonized two major Caltrans datasets; stan- dardized road segments; inter- polated missing values; calculated daily vehicle miles traveled (DVMT); built a responsive, cloud-based tool Mobile GIS apps with offline capa- bility; automated data pipelines; bal- anced inspection zones; integrated EnvisionConnect with dashboards Built Snow - flake-based ware- house; automated ETL pipelines; inte- grated cross-pro- gram datasets; compatible with SAS, Tableau, Power BI, R Studio Centralized spatial database; auto- mated delinea - tion, scoring, and reporting; resilient to missing data; incorporated cross-state sources

San Bernardino County, Cali - fornia: Environ - mental Health Services Mod - ernization

Modernize inspec - tion, permitting, and service track - ing using GIS tools

Vast geography with poor con - nectivity; siloed, paper-based processes; work- load imbalance

Start small and iterate; refine tools with user feed - back; build strong interdepartmental partnerships

Texas: SHARP Platform

Create a unified, cloud-native health data warehouse

Manual, time-con- suming data extraction; dispa- rate program-spe- cific systems

Automate inges - tion to free staff time; standardize formats; integrate familiar analytics tools to encour - age adoption Uses standard - ized data models; leverages open- source tools; designs resilient workflows; fosters

Tennessee: Source Water Assessment Modernization

Automate and standardize risk assessment for public drinking water systems

Outdated (>20 years) manual

assessments; scat- tered data in incon - sistent formats

cross-agency collaboration.