Environmental Impact Statements

Study Goals

Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) are used by federal agencies when it is determined that new construction will be impacting the local human environment as defined by the National Enviromental Policy Act (NEPA). We aim to review several EIS from highway expansions to determine if these expansions have lead to disproportionately high levels of respiratory diseases, as well as assessing both modern day and historical injustices. Northwestern University’s Transportation Library has an extensive collection of transportation-related EIS dating back to the early 1970s. We will use this data source to find EIS in five cities: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, and Miami.

Study Impact

Highway expansions have typically occurred in communities that don't have the ability to fight it. These are most often dominated by people of color as well as homeless individuals. Reviewing these impact statements will allow the EPA and other federal or state organizations to develop stronger guidance around EIS and to support communities in community-led litigation.

Opportunities for Engagement

 Beginning in January of 2026, we will be recruiting students who are interested in diving deep in highway expansion EIS documents in these five cities. Tasks will include: geocoding highway expansion areas and identifying impacted census tracts; extracting information from EIS about community engagement, air pollution predictions, and noise impacts; building a database for future analysis; identifying key measures of engagement, noise, and pollution; conducting descriptive analysis of key EIS variables.