Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
This executive summary plus thousands more available at http://www.nap.edu
Assessing and Managing the Ecological Impacts of Paved Roads
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11535.html
10
Assessing and Managing the Impacts of Paved Roads
roads. In some cases, the appropriate spatial scale for the assessment
will cross state boundaries, and especially in those cases, collaboration
and cooperation among state agencies would be helpful.
CONCLUSION: The methods and data used for environmental
assessment are insufficient to meet the objectives of rapid assessment,
and there are no national standards for data collection. However, tools
for in situ monitoring, remotely sensed monitoring, data compilation,
analysis, and modeling are continually being improved, and because of
advances in computer technology, practitioners have quick access to the
tools. The new and improved tools now allow for substantial improvements in environmental assessment.
Recommendation: Improvements are needed in assessment methods and data, including spatially explicit models. A checklist addressing
potential impacts should be adapted that can be used for rapid assessment. Such a checklist would focus attention on places and issues of
greatest concern. A national effort is needed to develop standards for
data collection. A set of rapid screening and assessment methods for
environmental impacts of transportation and a national ecological database based on the geographic information system (GIS) and supported
by multiple agencies should be developed and maintained for ecological
effects assessment and ecological system management across all local,
state, and national transportation, regulatory, and resource agencies.
Standard GIS data on road networks (for example, TIGER) could be interfaced with data models (for example, UNETRANS) to further advance
the assessment of ecological impacts of roads.
Recommendation: The committee recommends a new conceptual
framework for improving integration of ecological considerations into
transportation planning. A key element of this framework is the integration of ecological goals and performance indicators with transportation
goals and performance indicators.
Recommendation: Improved models and modeling approaches
should be developed not only to predict how roads will affect environmental conditions but also to improve communication in the technical
community, to resolve alternative hypotheses, to highlight and evaluate
data and environmental monitoring, and to provide guidance for future
environmental management.
This executive summary plus thousands more available at http://www.nap.edu
Assessing and Managing the Ecological Impacts of Paved Roads
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11535.html
10
Assessing and Managing the Impacts of Paved Roads
roads. In some cases, the appropriate spatial scale for the assessment
will cross state boundaries, and especially in those cases, collaboration
and cooperation among state agencies would be helpful.
CONCLUSION: The methods and data used for environmental
assessment are insufficient to meet the objectives of rapid assessment,
and there are no national standards for data collection. However, tools
for in situ monitoring, remotely sensed monitoring, data compilation,
analysis, and modeling are continually being improved, and because of
advances in computer technology, practitioners have quick access to the
tools. The new and improved tools now allow for substantial improvements in environmental assessment.
Recommendation: Improvements are needed in assessment methods and data, including spatially explicit models. A checklist addressing
potential impacts should be adapted that can be used for rapid assessment. Such a checklist would focus attention on places and issues of
greatest concern. A national effort is needed to develop standards for
data collection. A set of rapid screening and assessment methods for
environmental impacts of transportation and a national ecological database based on the geographic information system (GIS) and supported
by multiple agencies should be developed and maintained for ecological
effects assessment and ecological system management across all local,
state, and national transportation, regulatory, and resource agencies.
Standard GIS data on road networks (for example, TIGER) could be interfaced with data models (for example, UNETRANS) to further advance
the assessment of ecological impacts of roads.
Recommendation: The committee recommends a new conceptual
framework for improving integration of ecological considerations into
transportation planning. A key element of this framework is the integration of ecological goals and performance indicators with transportation
goals and performance indicators.
Recommendation: Improved models and modeling approaches
should be developed not only to predict how roads will affect environmental conditions but also to improve communication in the technical
community, to resolve alternative hypotheses, to highlight and evaluate
data and environmental monitoring, and to provide guidance for future
environmental management.