EPA Research Partner Support Story: Interactive story map to provide resources and inform decisions around green infrastructure

Partners: Proctor Creek Watershed (in Atlanta, GA) residents and stakeholders 
Challenge: Develop an easy-to-use resource that addresses community-identified concerns in the watershed
Resource: Interactive, online tool that provides environmental resources and important watershed information
Project Period: 2017 – 2020

Proctor Creek is an impaired waterway in Atlanta that experiences several overlapping environmental issues. The watershed has been troubled by frequent flooding, erosion, stormwater runoff, and pollution from illegal dumping. In addition, sewer overflows from the city’s combined sewer system, which terminates in pipes that mix sewage and rainwater runoff with those from its sewage-only sanitary sewer system, have impacted the creek. 

"For years, Proctor Creek residents have elevated community concerns about environmental and health challenges in the watershed and invested decades of sweat equity to address those concerns. This Story Map helps to tell some of that story by centering both historical and ongoing challenges that have, in the past, and continue to plague the watershed today. Perhaps more importantly, it also offers tools that community members can pursue, in collaboration, with government and other stakeholders to help achieve a swimmable, fishable, playable Proctor Creek and a restored community and people.” – West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Co-Founder and Board Chairperson Na ’Taki Osborne-Jelks

Beginning in 2017, EPA ORD researchers collaborated with EPA Region 4 (Southeast) to engage with residents and stakeholders in Proctor Creek to identify and address community concerns related to the local environment. A major outcome of the collaboration was the development of The Proctor Creek Watershed Story Map—an easy-to-use, interactive online tool that combines maps with narrative text, images, and multimedia content. Users can use the Story Map to explore concerns—such as flooding and water quality, urban heat islands, mosquitoes, and health—in the context of the potential for green infrastructure to provide solutions. Green infrastructure is a practice that uses plants, soils, and other natural features to manage wet weather impacts and reduce and treat stormwater at its source. Using green infrastructure can reduce a community’s exposure to harmful substances and conditions, such as water pollution, flooding, air pollution, and heat. Green infrastructure can also provide opportunity for recreation and physical activity, improve safety, and promote community identity and a sense of well-being.

Since its release in 2020, the Story Map has been used to help community members engage as stewards of their watershed. The tool provides information and resources that the community can use to: 1) gain a better understanding of flooding, urban heat islands, mosquitoes, and green infrastructure and their impacts on health; 2) support efforts to address these issues within the watershed; 3) advocate for green infrastructure and health; and 4) help inform future decisions around green infrastructure, including areas in the Proctor Creek community that may benefit most from green infrastructure practices.

Read the fact sheet and news release on the Proctor Creek Story Map.