1 / 11

Application of Travel and Land Use Forecasting in NEPA: Project Overview

Application of Travel and Land Use Forecasting in NEPA: Project Overview. FHWA Environmental Conference June 19, 2008 Michael Culp-FHWA Michael.culp@dot.gov 202-366-9229. Motivation for project. Forecasting is a foundation for many aspects of NEPA analysis Purpose and need

seth-meadows
Download Presentation

Application of Travel and Land Use Forecasting in NEPA: Project Overview

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Application of Travel and Land Use Forecasting in NEPA:Project Overview FHWA Environmental Conference June 19, 2008 Michael Culp-FHWA Michael.culp@dot.gov 202-366-9229

  2. Motivation for project • Forecasting is a foundation for many aspects of NEPA analysis • Purpose and need • Alternatives performance • Air quality and noise impacts • Indirect and cumulative effects • Wide variety of practice • Common forecasting problems on projects • Recent litigation • Emerging issues • Supports broader DOT model improvement initiatives and NAS report

  3. Project purpose • Improve procedures for describing/representing data and analysis results in NEPA documents • Improve the state-of-the-practice in application of forecasting for NEPA

  4. Key project components • Process and procedural, not technical • Flexible and scalable (type of project, available tools) • Project oversight by review panel • Outreach to stakeholders • Address relevant case law • State-of-the-practice review/develop case studies • Products • Case law summary/review • Process and procedural guidance • Case studies/Guidelines Report

  5. Product: Case law summary/review • Summary and review developed by FHWA Counsel • Will inform the project, provide some key elements to address in project

  6. Product: Guidance • FHWA NEPA Guidance • Process and procedural in nature • Not intended to deal with detailed technical issues in forecasting tool development (not prescriptive) • How to put forecasting in the context of NEPA (application orientation) • Will address: • Scoping and documentation issues • Model and data validation and currency • Considerations for alternatives analysis • Use of tools in the context of direct, indirect and cumulative effects analysis

  7. Product: Case Studies/Guidelines • Guidelines will provide more detail • Use Case Law review, guidance and outreach as basis • Will include case studies of noteworthy practices

  8. Product: Training and Outreach • Follow-on project to guidelines and guidance • Create and implement strategy for training and outreach to practitioners • Communicate and educate on major findings, recommendations

  9. Schedule • Draft Guidance out for comment – Sept 2008 • Final Guidance – Winter 2008/09 • Guidelines and Case Studies – Dec 2008 • Training and Outreach – Spring 2009

  10. Need for assistance • Project team needs help in identifying case study projects • Over the next few months, consultants will be assembling prospective case studies to highlight in guidelines document • Please provide suggestions for case studies!

  11. Questions?

More Related