The knowledge base

The knowledge base

Every node answers the same nine questions and shows how it connects. Filter by type, search by meaning, or see the whole graph.

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• concept established Behavioral-Health Workforce Shortage A widespread shortfall of psychiatrists, therapists, and other behavioral-health clinicians that is most acute in rural areas. SDG 3SDG 10
• concept established Biosand Filter A household slow-sand filter with a biological layer that removes pathogens and turbidity. SDG 6
• concept established Boiling Water Bringing water to a rolling boil to inactivate pathogens — the oldest household treatment. SDG 6
• concept established Broadband and Education The effect of home internet access on students' ability to learn, do homework, and stay connected. SDG 4SDG 10
• concept emerging Broadband-Enabled Remote Work Reliable broadband lets rural residents access remote jobs and the digital economy without relocating. SDG 8SDG 9
• case study emerging Case Study — Built for Zero A national initiative helping communities reach and sustain "functional zero" homelessness using real-time data. SDG 1SDG 11
• case study emerging Case Study — Community Solar Program An illustrative village program combining solar home systems with local governance and clean-cooking outreach. SDG 7
• case study emerging Case Study — Community Wealth Building An anchor-institution and local-ownership strategy that recirculates spending and assets within a community. SDG 8
• case study emerging Case Study — Cooperative Fiber Build How rural electric and telephone cooperatives have extended fiber where carriers would not. SDG 9SDG 11
• case study established Case Study — Hub-and-Spoke OUD Care (Vermont) Vermont's statewide model linking specialty addiction "hubs" with primary-care "spokes" to expand access to medications for opioid use disorder. SDG 3SDG 10
• case study emerging Case Study — Rural Biosand Filter Program A community program distributing biosand filters, illustrating what sustains or undermines impact. SDG 6
• case study established Case Study — Rural Health Clinics and FQHCs Sustaining Access How Rural Health Clinic and Federally Qualified Health Center models keep primary care available where hospitals are scarce or have closed. SDG 3
• case study emerging Case Study: Mobile Crisis and Co-Responder Teams Community programs that dispatch behavioral-health responders — alone or paired with an officer — to mental-health emergencies instead of a police-only response. SDG 3
• concept established Ceramic Pot Filter A fired-clay pot, often silver-coated, that filters household water by gravity. SDG 6
• concept established Clean Cooking Cooking with fuels and stoves that produce little or no household air pollution. SDG 7SDG 3
• organization established Community Development Financial Institution Mission-driven lenders (CDFIs) that finance small businesses and development in underserved rural areas. SDG 8SDG 1
• community emerging Community Energy Committee A locally elected group that governs shared energy assets like mini-grids and manages tariffs and upkeep. SDG 7
• concept established Community Mini-Grid A localized electricity network serving a community from shared generation, often solar plus storage. SDG 7
• case study emerging Community Naloxone Saturation A strategy that floods a community with naloxone to ensure it is present wherever overdoses occur. SDG 3
• concept emerging Community of Learning A cross-sector practice where communities share what works across energy, water, and health interventions. SDG 4SDG 17
• community established Community Water Committee A local body that governs operation, maintenance, and financing of a community's water system. SDG 6
• concept established Cooperative Business Model Worker-, consumer-, or producer-owned cooperatives that keep ownership and wealth in the community. SDG 8SDG 10
• concept emerging Crisis Response and the 988 Lifeline The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and its someone-to-call, someone-to-respond model for behavioral-health emergencies. SDG 3
• standard established Critical Access Hospital A Medicare designation for small, remote hospitals that provides cost-based reimbursement to help keep essential rural care viable. SDG 3
• concept established Digital Divide The gap between those who have meaningful internet access and skills and those who do not. SDG 10SDG 4
• concept established Fentanyl Overdose Crisis The surge in US overdose deaths driven by illicitly manufactured fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. SDG 3
• concept established Fentanyl Test Strips Low-cost drug-checking strips that let a person detect fentanyl in drugs before use. SDG 3
• concept established Harm Reduction A public-health approach that reduces the harms of drug use without requiring abstinence as a precondition for help. SDG 3SDG 10
• concept established Household Chlorination Disinfecting drinking water at home with a measured dose of chlorine. SDG 6
• concept established Housing First An approach that provides permanent housing without preconditions, then offers voluntary supportive services. SDG 1SDG 3SDG 11
• concept contested Improved Cookstoves Stoves engineered to burn solid fuel more efficiently and vent or reduce smoke. SDG 7SDG 3
• concept established Indoor Air Pollution Harmful smoke and particulates inside homes, largely from burning solid fuels for cooking and heating. SDG 3SDG 7
• concept established Integrated Behavioral Health Embedding mental-health and substance-use care within primary-care settings, often via the evidence-based collaborative care model. SDG 3
• concept established Jails as De Facto Mental-Health Providers The pattern in which local jails, by default, hold and manage large numbers of people with serious mental illness for lack of treatment alternatives. SDG 16SDG 3
• lesson established Lesson — Coverage Maps Have Overstated Service Provider-reported broadband maps historically counted areas as served that were not. SDG 9
• lesson emerging Lesson — Encampment Sweeps Rarely Resolve Homelessness Clearing encampments without offering housing tends to displace people and disrupt care rather than end homelessness. SDG 1SDG 16
• lesson established Lesson — Hospital Closure Triggers a Care and Economic Cascade A rural hospital closure sets off a cascade of longer travel, worse outcomes, and local economic decline that extends far beyond the lost beds. SDG 3
• lesson established Lesson — Limits of Abstinence-Only Care for OUD For opioid use disorder, abstinence-only and detox-alone approaches show high relapse and elevated overdose risk compared with medication treatment. SDG 3
• lesson established Lesson — The Extractive Economy Trap Communities dependent on a single extractive employer are left vulnerable when it declines or leaves. SDG 8SDG 10
• lesson established Lesson — Why Cookstove Programs Fail to Stick Cookstove projects often falter not on technology but on sustained adoption, exclusive use, and local fit. SDG 7SDG 3
• lesson established Lesson — Why Household Filters Get Abandoned Filters commonly fall out of use within months without follow-up, training, and local ownership. SDG 6
• lesson established Lesson: Police as Default Mental-Health First Responders Relying on police as the default responders to behavioral-health crises produces poor outcomes and avoidable harm compared with health-led response. SDG 16SDG 3
• concept established Maternity Care Deserts Counties with no hospital or birth center offering obstetric care and no obstetric providers, leaving pregnant people without local maternity services. SDG 3SDG 5
• concept established Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT / MOUD) FDA-approved medications — buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone — that treat opioid use disorder, usually alongside counseling. SDG 3
• metric established Mental-Health Provider-to-Population Ratio The number of residents per mental-health provider in an area, a standard indicator of behavioral-health workforce supply. SDG 3
• metric emerging Metric — Broadband Coverage and Adoption Gap The measured share of locations lacking broadband service or subscription, by area. SDG 9
• metric emerging Metric — Diarrhoeal Disease Reduction The change in diarrhoeal-illness incidence attributable to a water intervention. SDG 3SDG 6
• metric emerging Metric — Household Air Pollution Reduction The measured decline in indoor PM2.5 and carbon monoxide exposure after a cleaner-cooking intervention. SDG 3SDG 7
• metric established Metric — Rural Employment Rural employment, prime-age employment, and poverty measures used to gauge local economic health. SDG 8
• metric established Metric — Rural Hospital Closures and At-Risk Facilities The count of rural hospitals that have closed and the number identified as at financial risk of closure. SDG 3
• concept emerging Municipal Broadband Publicly owned or operated broadband networks built where private carriers will not serve. SDG 9SDG 11
• concept established Naloxone Distribution Getting the opioid-overdose reversal medication naloxone into the hands of people likely to witness an overdose. SDG 3
• policy established Overdose Good Samaritan Laws Laws that provide limited legal protection to people who call for help during an overdose. SDG 16SDG 3
• metric established Overdose Mortality The rate and count of deaths from drug overdose, tracked to measure the scale of the crisis. SDG 3
• concept established Permanent Supportive Housing Long-term affordable housing paired with voluntary, on-site or linked supportive services for people with complex needs. SDG 1SDG 3
• metric established Point-in-Time Count HUD's annual one-night census of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness. SDG 1SDG 11
• concept established Point-of-Use Water Filtration Treating water in the home at the point of consumption, rather than at a central plant. SDG 6SDG 3
• research emerging Randomised Trial — Household Filters and Diarrhoea A field RCT reporting reduced childhood diarrhoea among households using point-of-use filters. SDG 6SDG 3
• research contested Randomized Trials of Cookstoves and Health Randomized studies testing whether improved or cleaner cookstoves actually reduce illness show mixed results. SDG 3SDG 7
• community emerging Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) Peer-led nonprofits that provide recovery support, advocacy, and connection to people affected by addiction. SDG 3
• concept established Rural Broadband Access The persistent gap in high-speed internet availability and use between rural and urban America. SDG 9SDG 10
• concept emerging Rural Economic Opportunity Building genuine, locally-rooted economic opportunity in impoverished rural Washington communities. SDG 8SDG 1
• concept established Rural Healthcare Access The persistent gap in availability, proximity, and affordability of health care for people living in rural areas. SDG 3SDG 10
• concept established Rural Hospital Closures The ongoing wave of rural hospital closures and service reductions that removes local inpatient and emergency care from communities. SDG 3SDG 10
• concept established Rural Mental-Health Access The persistent gap between the behavioral-health care rural residents need and what is available and reachable near them. SDG 3SDG 10
• concept established Rural Poverty Persistent, geographically concentrated poverty that disproportionately affects rural US communities. SDG 1SDG 10
• concept established Rural Provider Shortage The chronic undersupply of physicians, nurses, and other clinicians in rural areas, formalized in federal Health Professional Shortage Area designations. SDG 3SDG 10
• concept established Rural Substance Use Disorder Substance use disorder in rural America, where overdose and treatment-gap patterns differ from urban areas. SDG 3SDG 10
• concept established Rural Treatment Access Barriers The distance, workforce, cost, stigma, and historical regulatory obstacles that limit addiction treatment in rural areas. SDG 3SDG 10
• concept emerging Rural Workforce Development Skills training, apprenticeships, and community-college pathways that connect rural residents to good jobs. SDG 8SDG 4
• concept contested Safe Consumption Sites (Contested) Supervised venues where people use pre-obtained drugs under trained observation, with genuine evidence and genuine objections on both sides. SDG 3SDG 16
• concept established Safe Drinking Water Water free enough of pathogens and contaminants to drink without appreciable health risk. SDG 6SDG 3
• policy established SDG 1 — No Poverty The UN goal to end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030. SDG 1
• policy established SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities The UN goal to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. SDG 11
• policy established SDG 3 — Good Health and Well-Being The UN goal to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, including a target on substance use. SDG 3
• policy established SDG 6 — Clean Water and Sanitation The UN goal to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. SDG 6
• policy established SDG 7 — Affordable and Clean Energy The UN goal to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. SDG 7
• policy established SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth The UN goal to promote sustained, inclusive economic growth and decent work for all. SDG 8
• policy established SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure The UN Sustainable Development Goal to build resilient infrastructure and expand connectivity. SDG 9
• concept established Social Determinants of Health The non-medical conditions — income, education, housing, food, and environment — that shape most of a population's health outcomes. SDG 3SDG 10SDG 1
• concept emerging Solar Disinfection (SODIS) Disinfecting water by filling clear bottles and exposing them to sunlight for hours. SDG 6
• concept established Solar Home Systems Small standalone solar-panel-and-battery kits that power individual off-grid households. SDG 7
• lesson established Supply-Side Enforcement Alone Is Not Enough Interdiction and arrests targeting drug supply, on their own, have not reduced overdose deaths. SDG 16SDG 3
• concept established Syringe Services Programs Community programs providing sterile injection supplies plus overdose, testing, and treatment services. SDG 3
• research contested Systematic Review — Water Quality Interventions A systematic review pooling water-treatment trials, tempering effect sizes for bias and adherence. SDG 6SDG 3
• concept emerging Telehealth Addiction Treatment (Tele-MOUD) Delivering medications for opioid use disorder and counseling by video or phone to reach patients far from a clinic. SDG 3SDG 9
• concept established Telehealth Infrastructure The broadband and connectivity that make remote clinical care possible in underserved areas. SDG 9SDG 3
• research established Trial Evidence — Buprenorphine and Treatment Retention Randomized-trial and review evidence that buprenorphine keeps more people in treatment and reduces opioid use versus placebo or no medication. SDG 3
• concept established Unsheltered Homelessness Living in places not meant for human habitation — streets, vehicles, or encampments — rather than in shelter. SDG 1SDG 11
• concept established Waterborne Disease Illness caused by pathogenic microorganisms transmitted through contaminated drinking water. SDG 3SDG 6
• concept established West Coast Homelessness The concentrated crisis of homelessness — much of it unsheltered — across California, Oregon, and Washington. SDG 1SDG 11
• standard established WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality The international reference standard for drinking-water safety and risk management. SDG 6
• standard established WHO Indoor Air Quality Guidelines WHO emission and fuel guidelines defining what counts as clean household energy for cooking, heating, and lighting. SDG 3SDG 7
• organization established World Health Organization (WHO) The UN specialized agency for international public health, author of the water guidelines. SDG 3