Research Guides: Troubled Waters: Tracing Waste in the Delaware River: An Interdisciplinary Documentary Project: Data Resources

Data Resources on the Delaware River

Chemical Map: Industries, Environmental Clean-up Sites, and Brownfields on the Shores of the Delaware Estuary and Nearby Low-Lying Lands
In this project by Roderick Coover "the Chemical Map depicts over 200 industrial and petro-chemical sites as well as cleanup sites and brownfields along the shores of the Delaware River and in adjacent low-lying areas. It is one of a series of works imagining what might happen to urban lands in an age of climate change." For information on other projects by Coover, see his website.
Contaminants of Emerging Concern in the Tidal Delaware River Pilot Monitoring Survey, 2007-2009
This report prepared in 2012 includes tables of data and maps. It is on the Delaware Riverkeeper Network site.
Delaware River and Bay Water Quality Assessment Reports
Biannual reports done by the Delaware River Basin Commission drawing on data gathered by a variety of regional organizations.
Map Gallery of the Delaware River Basin
Note in particular the map for interstate water quality zones.

Data & Literature Resources on Pollutants

Search broadly for contaminants using keywords such as pharmaceuticals, emerging organic contaminants, personal care products, persistent organic pollutants. Aspects of these chemicals can be described by using keywords: occurrence, transport, fate, behavior, removal. Combine with the keyword "water" will capture the broadest possibilities, but also consider including groundwater, wastewater, effluent, surface water, fresh water, streams, rivers. (See "Contaminants") tab in this guide for information on specific classes of chemicals.

PubChem Compound Search
Simple keyword search retrieves a list of relevant compounds. Each record links to data pulled from HSDB (Hazardous Substances Database) which contains info on manufacture and use, environmental fate, toxicity, exposure, analytical methods and pharmacologic and pharmacokinetic information.
GREENR - an interdisciplinary environmental database
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A great resources for getting statistical, scientific, social and business data from multiple sources and formats. This is currently on trial until April 28, 2014. Please give this a try and let us know if you find it useful or not.
TOXNET (Toxicologic Data Network)
One search taps into the integrated database system of hazardous chemicals, toxic releases and environmental health. Factsheets on the component databases are here.
HSDB is the most recommended database to get a complete profile of environmental fate, manufacture and use of chemical environmental pollutants.

Scifinder
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A core research tool for the chemical literature, indexing journal articles and patent records, as well as chemical substances and reactions. You can search by topic, author, and substances by name or CAS Registry Number, OR use the editor to draw chemical structures, substructures, or reactions.
Use of this database is restricted to the TriCollege community. You must set up a user name & password the first time you use this database.
PubMed
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Pubmed is the largest biomedical database in the world indexing more 5,000 journals. You will find articles of environmental and public health concern here. The search engine employs an algorithm to fetch related articles on the same topic.

Household Products Database
Consumer-friendly starting point for potential health effects of chemicals contained in common products used inside and around the home. Search by product type (e.g. pesticide), brand name, manufacturer, ingredients and get linked to more technical information.
National Service Center for Environmental Publications (U.S. EPA)

Data Resources on Countries

Gapminder
Global development presented graphically with your choice of countries, time period, and indicators.
International Country Risk Guide
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The ICRG (International Country Risk Guide) Researcher's Dataset from the PRS Group comprises 22 variables in three subcategories of risk (political, financial, and economic), for 146 countries, over the period 1984 to the previous year. Data are annual averages of components published in the International Country Risk Guide.
OffStats
"The OFFSTATS database provides access to free statistics from official sources on the web. Some specialised databases are only available to the University of Auckland staff and students. Web links are arranged by country, region or subject." -- website.
UNData
Includes a section for data by individual countries.

World Development Indicators (WDI) Online This link opens in a new window
World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized international sources. It includes more than 1100 indicators on population, income, social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environment, covering 210 countries and 18 regional and income groups. Also includes the International Debt Statistics (IDS) database. Data ranges from 1960-present.