BACKGROUND: Analyzing and visualizing disparities in environmental risks can help in assessing place-based vulnerabilities and provide civic leaders and community members with essential data about promoting health equity and inform public health strategies. However, there is a lack of effective and integrative tools for evaluating census tract vulnerabilities. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the adaption of a previously developed environmental vulnerability index to evaluate cumulative impacts of diverse stressors in Louisville Metro-Jefferson County, KY, with the goal of supporting multi-faceted targeted public health interventions at the census tract-level. METHODS: We assessed countywide variability in vulnerability using Toxicological Prioritization Index interface across five domains with 32 indicators and modeled the effects of theoretical public health interventions. RESULTS: Our findings suggest similarly vulnerable areas are not always geographically clustered. Higher vulnerability scores are observed along the western and central areas of the county with lower vulnerability scores in the central urban core and eastern regions. The index enabled the selection of the most at-risk census tracts for modeling targeted public health interventions to reduce cumulative environmental vulnerability. SIGNIFICANCE: Environmental vulnerabilities are not invariant features of urban environments, rather the knowledge of these risks can guide the development and implementation of targeted solutions. IMPACT STATEMENT: Targeted interventions to modify environmental conditions that are supportive of health can be developed and implemented locally with greater precision at the census tract level, yielding impactful outcomes.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This work was supported in part by the Owsley Brown II Family foundation, NIEHS (P42 ES023716 to the University of Louisville; and the P30 ES029067 and P42 ES027704 to Texas A&M University) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Grant #: 80565).

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