Environmental Justice Atlas
Maps environmental conflicts around the world to provide information about who is involved, their impact and other information.
URL
Description
Launched in 2012, the Environmental Justice Atlas (also known as the EJAtlas) is a project based on the work of hundreds of contributors including academics, citizens, informal committees, NGOs and other activist groups. The database is meant to be a resource for teaching, networking and advocacy of social conflicts involving environmental issues around the world. It can also be a helpful resource for open source researchers due to its archive of information that can provide history and context of conflict.
The map covers conflicts across 10 categories including:
Nuclear
Mineral Ores and Building Extractions
Waste Management
Biomass and Land Conflicts
Fossil Fuels
Energy and Climate Justice
Water Management
Infrastructure and Built Environment
Tourism Recreation
Biodiversity Conservation Conflicts
Industrial and Utilities Conflicts
The database contains information on investors, details about deals, conflict impacts, project details, outcomes, references to legislation, academic research, videos and images.
Open source researchers may find the map also useful for finding historical information, links to relevant organizations and source materials, and to get an overview of specific conflicts. The map can be filtered by multiple types of criteria, including region, start/end date, type of conflict and more. A researcher may also perform searches such as entering the word "gas," and the search results will include any entry that uses the word "gas" in the text.
Depending on the entry, information may be available in languages like English, French, Italian, Chinese, Arabic, or Turkish. Not all entries will be available in multiple languages.
Cost
According to the site's FAQ, users are free to use the database for noncommercial purposes, with attribution given to the EJAtlas and a link to their homepage.
Level of difficulty
Requirements
None
Limitations
In its FAQ, EJAtlas specifically acknowledges that there are limitations to the data. For instance, the extent to which conflicts are covered varies and information on changing conflicts might not be kept up to date. In addition, volunteers' interests may shape how conflicts are portrayed and there is uneven global coverage. Some entries may only be available in English.
In the FAQ, the team also addresses issues of data quality, stating that all data that can be found on their site is "based and derived from secondary sources” which they aim to have from “trusted publications”. However, the team behind the site does not verify the information that can be found in those secondary sources.
Ethical Considerations
None.
Guide
While not a guide, the site's FAQ can be helpful for context and background information.
Tool provider
EnvJustice Project (Spain)
Advertising Trackers
Bellingcat volunteer team
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