The UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit (JEU), with support from Data Friendly Spaces, Joint Initiative partners, and expert reviewers, released the Urban Nexus Environmental Assessment Tool (U-NEAT+) in July 2021. The urban version of the environmental screening tool comes in response to the increasing and complex trend of urban displacement that has been observed over the last decade. Currently, an estimated 60% of refugees and 80% of IDPs reside in urban areas. This phenomenon brings a new set of concerns, challenges and complexities related to the environment.

While urban displacement puts pressure on state infrastructures and services – including waste management, power needs, water and sanitation infrastructure – environmental risks equally increase in town and city areas. Therefore, the U-NEAT+ arms humanitarians with adequate tools to address environmental concerns threatening and/or deriving from their work and the well being of people displaced and seeking refuge.

The U-NEAT+ will be familiar to users of original NEAT+ (now designated as Rural/R-NEAT+), but offers usability and analytics improvements via the use of a custom could-based architecture. The new tool is available at: http://www.neatplus.org and will be undergoing pilot testing for the Summer and Autumn of 2021. Should you or your organization be interested in piloting the U-NEAT+, please reach out to UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit (ochaunep@un.org) or directly to Will Rynearson (william.rynearson@un.org).