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Keith Pezzoli,¹ Robert Tukey,^2,3 Hiram Sarabia,¹ Ilya Zaslavsky,⁴ Marie Lynn Miranda,⁵ William A. Suk,⁶ Abel Lin,⁷ and Mark Ellisman⁷

¹Urban Studies and Planning Program, ²Department of Pharmacology, ³Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and ⁴San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA; ⁵Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA; ⁶National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA; ⁷National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, Center for Research in Biological Systems and the Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

Abstract
Background: Two devastating hurricanes ripped across the Gulf Coast of the United States during 2005. The effects of Hurricane Katrina were especially severe: The human and environmental health impacts on New Orleans, Louisiana, and other Gulf Coast communities will be felt for decades to come. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates that Katrina's destruction disrupted the lives of roughly 650,000 Americans. Over 1,300 people died. The projected economic costs for recovery and reconstruction are likely to exceed $125 billion.

Objectives: The NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) Portal aims to provide decision makers with the data, information, and the tools they need to a) monitor human and environmental health impacts of disasters ; b) assess and reduce human exposures to contaminants ; and c) develop science-based remediation, rebuilding, and repopulation strategies.

Methods: The NIEHS Portal combines advances in geographic information systems (GIS) , data mining/integration, and visualization technologies through new forms of grid-based (distributed, web-accessible) cyberinfrastructure.

Results: The scale and complexity of the problems presented by Hurricane Katrina made it evident that no stakeholder alone could tackle them and that there is a need for greater collaboration. The NIEHS Portal provides a collaboration-enabling, information-laden base necessary to respond to environmental health concerns in the Gulf Coast region while advancing integrative multidisciplinary research.

Conclusions: The NIEHS Portal is poised to serve as a national resource to track environmental hazards following natural and man-made disasters, focus medical and environmental response and recovery resources in areas of greatest need, and function as a test bed for technologies that will help advance environmental health sciences research into the modern scientific and computing era.

Key words: community-linked research, cyberinfrastructure, disaster, environmental justice, GIS, grid, health disparities, integrative research, Katrina, telescience. Environ Health Perspect 115:564–571 (2007) . doi:10.1289/ehp.9817 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 22 January 2007]

Address correspondence to K. Pezzoli, Urban Studies and Planning Program, 9500 Gilman Dr., #0517, La Jolla, CA 92093-0517 USA. Telephone: (858) 534-3691. E-mail: kpezzoli@ucsd.edu

Key partners in development of the NIEHS Portal include Columbia University, the University of Kentucky, the Research Triangle Institute, San Diego State University, the University of New Orleans, Tulane University, Louisiana State University, the NIEHS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, and multiple local and state agencies. The director of the NIEHS, David A. Schwartz, provided the leadership necessary to quickly bring these resources together during a time of crisis.

The NIEHS Portal was made possible by a supplemental grant (3 P42 ES010337-07 S1) to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) . UCSD's SBRP is funded by NIEHS grant P42 ES010337. The NIEHS Portal also benefited from a supplemental grant to Duke University's SBRP (5 P42-ES-010356-07 S1) . The Telescience Portal infrastructure adapted for the NIEHS Portal was developed under support from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) to M. Ellisman and P. Arzberger at UCSD (NCRR Award P41 RR004050 and P41 RR008605) .

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 9 October 2006 ; accepted 22 January 2005.