[Environmental justice-challenges for spatial analysis and monitoring]

Spatiotemporal analysis and monitoring of socially unequally distributed environmental hazards and resources as well as their effects on health provide an important basis for political decisions under environmental justice aspects. Appropriate analysis and monitoring approaches are accompanied by diverse conceptual and methodological challenges, which are described and discussed in this paper.A major challenge lies in the comprehensive modeling of environmental exposures, as measurement data are often only selectively available, requiring complex interpolation methods. Further challenges lie in quantifying inequalities in environmental exposures, as environmental and social data are usually only available in aggregate form at the level of administrative spatial units, and in the lack of data on subjective assessment of the quality of environmental exposures. Specific challenges to large-scale, Europe-wide monitoring of health-relevant environmental inequalities by the World Health Organization (WHO) arise from a lack of information on relevant environmental exposures or inequality dimensions, different types of data, and a lack of quantification of social differences in vulnerability. This currently limits the ability to make statements about the social distribution of environmental exposures in the European Region and their health effects.In order to make informed political decisions and reduce socially unequally distributed environmental burdens and resources as well as their health effects in an evidence-based manner, a substantial improvement regarding data availability is necessary as a prerequisite for a comprehensive, standardized monitoring.