Environmental Justice: Co-Designing Data Tools for Health and Trust in Rainham
The SHAPE Health team
Project team
Prof Arunthathi Mahendran (IHSE) – Founding Director, SHAPE Institute for Health
Prof Francesca Cornaglia (SEF) – Deputy Director, SHAPE Institute for Health
Ms Laura Debricant – Manager, SHAPE Institute for Health
Ms Katy Robinson (School of Law) – Supervising Solicitor, Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre
Dr Lesley Perkins (NHS North East London) – GP and Community Health Lead, SHAPE Health
Dr Jonathan Filippon (WIPH) – Policy Lead, SHAPE Health
Dr Miriam Fine – Community Empowerment Lead, SHAPE Health
SHAPE Health Interns (QMUL students cross-faculty): Jeni Tanushi (FMD), Aiman Durrani (FMD), Narjis Al-Ghraibawi (FMD), Muhammad Xasan (HSS)
Project description
The Rainham landfill fires have produced a persistent environmental-health crisis defined by toxic exposure, fragmented data, and low institutional trust. This project brings together residents, researchers, and community participation approaches to data, lived experience, and environmental monitoring can support more responsive and accountable health systems. Through a series of co-design workshops and interdisciplinary collaborations, the project will gather community perspectives, identify local priorities, and develop the conceptual foundations for the “Rainham Observatory” — a future community co-designed platform intended to connect resident observations and lived experience with environmental and institutional data. The project also creates a space for dialogue across social science, computing, geography, and public health, helping to shape new approaches to trust, environmental accountability, and community-centred evidence generation.
How did the team come together?
This project is part of SHAPE Health toxic legacies theme. Around the time SHAPE Health was established, the local MP approached Queen Mary to discuss the environmental and health concerns linked to the Rainham landfill fires. The issue was subsequently explored through one of SHAPE Health’s transdisciplinary workshops, which brought together researchers and partners from different disciplines and generated strong interest in developing a collaborative response.
How did you decide on this question/topic?
Early scoping conversations with residents and community partners in Rainham directed the shape of the project, alongside a broader interest in how participatory and digital approaches might support communities facing complex environmental-health challenges. The topic aligns closely with SHAPE Health’s mission to firmly ground lived experience as the foundation from which the needs of the community are identified, understood and advocated. The idea of the Rainham Observatory emerged from these discussions as a possible future platform for bringing together local observations, concerns, and environmental information in an accessible and coordinated way.
What activities will you undertake as part of this project?
A series of community co-design workshops will be held to explore residents’ priorities, experiences, and perspectives on environmental health and to help shape the future direction of the Rainham Observatory concept. These workshops have already begun in earnest and inform early work on participatory data mapping and identify what kinds of information, reporting mechanisms, and digital tools may be most useful and accessible to the community. The SHAPE Health team will meet regularly throughout the project, with input from local resident groups, council, MP, NHS, and community partners as the work develops.