Environmental Consideration PDF

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATION Panti Wahyu Ningsih, S. Ars., M.P.W.K This chapter describes the role of environmental impacts and consequences in the transportation planning process. The intent is to discuss ways to incorporate environmental considerations in the planning process so that decision...

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATION Panti Wahyu Ningsih, S. Ars., M.P.W.K This chapter describes the role of environmental impacts and consequences in the transportation planning process. The intent is to discuss ways to incorporate environmental considerations in the planning process so that decisions made early in the process will remain valid for later environmental regulatory reviews and INTRODUCTION documentation. This chapter also discusses considerations for determining the appropriate level of detail for environmental analysis and documentation during planning.  The following discuss four major concept/linkages that are found inmost current ENVIRONMENTAL practice: CONSIDERATIONS IN sustainability, TRANSPORTATION PLANNING environmental considerations at the systems AND DECISION MAKING level, Linking Environmental Considerations of Systems Planning and Project Development Sustainability, or sustainable development, has received increasing focus as a desirable societal goal since the mid-1980s, when a United Nations commission defined sustainable development as “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.  [United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission), 1987] This Definition was further refined to include the Triple Bottom Line of economic development, social equity, and environmental quality SUSTAINABILITY ECONOMY Support economic vitality while developing infrastructure in a cost-efficient manner. Costs of infrastructure must be within a society’s ability and willingness to pay. User costs, including private costs, need to be within the ability of people and households to pay for success. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2009 SOCIAL Meet social needs by making transportation accessible, safe, and secure; include provision of mobil- ity choices for all people (including people with economic disadvantages); and develop infrastructure that is an asset to communities. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2009 ENVIRONMENT Create solutions that are compatible with and that can be an enhancement to the natural environment, reduce emissions and pollution from the transportation system, and reduce the material resources required to support transportation American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, 2009 an AASHTO report on sustainable transportation identified a range of actions shown in Table that could provide a more sustainable transportation system.  Quality of Service; Connectivity for Daily Life System Preservation and Performance SUSTAINABILITY Safety & Security GOALS Environmental Stewardship (including climate stewardship)  A transportation study should examine an appropriate combination of transportation technologies, capacity enhancements, transportation control measures, optional alignments, and transportation system configurations in a given corridor, region, or sub- area. The study should then evaluate these strategies Environmental Considerations at the in terms of transportation impacts, capital and Systems Level operating costs, a range of environmental impacts (appropriate to the level of detail to which the strategies are defined), cost- effectiveness or cost benefit, and financial feasibility. The study should yield sufficient information for decision makers to determine which transportation strategies or plan alternatives best meet the goals and objectives Table shows possible linkages between environmental considerations and these major steps in a transportation planning process. Table shows possible linkages between environmental considerations and these major steps in a transportation planning process.  Success in linking the environmental considerations of systems and project planning depends on several factors: The extent to which collaboration/involvement among the different transportation and environmental agencies has occurred in systems planning, the degree to which planning leads to early consensus on project purpose and need, the Linking Environmental Considerations of complexity of design concepts and scope, and how Systems Planning and Project planning starts to address environmental regulatory Development requirements The following principles can lead to such success: Environmental considerations should inform the transportation decision-making process, while the transportation planning process should inform the environmental compliance process.  Another important linkage between the planning process and environmental considerations occurs in the development and screening of alternatives and investment strategies. In a typical transportation planning process, a large number of strategies are narrowed to a number of Linking Environmental feasible strategies through the analysis and Considerations of Systems evaluation process. Planning and Project Developmen The criteria for screening and refinement should include environmental (for example, socioeconomic, natural, and cultural) considerations along with mobility and other defined transportation-specific concerns, including engineering and operational feasibility, safety, cost, and affordability. Figure illustrates how one transportation agency envisions the involvement of multiple departments. The following discuss some important issues to consider when establishing the overall approach to environmental assessment for transportation system GENERAL PRINCIPLES and project planning. REGARDING Types of Impacts ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEN Appropriate Level of Detail AND LEVEL OF DETAIL Extent of Impact  Direct impacts are the most obvious and tend to receive the most attention. These occur as the direct result of the construction of the project Example: house or store displacements or loss of habitat) and of facility operation (for example, noise or ground vibration) Types of Impacts Secondary impacts occur as a consequence of a direct impact. The secondary impact of the transportation investment occurs when this development produces its own set of environmental consequences, such as local road congestion, pollutant emissions, or community disruption  combined or cumulative impacts those that result from the incremental consequences of an action when added to past occurrences, other actions, or reasonably foreseeable future actions will generate an overall impact of such magnitude that it should be presented and considered in the evaluation. [CEQ, 1997] Types of Impacts For example, a traffic-generated noise impact on a given neighborhood may not be considered a serious adverse effect by itself, until it is placed in the context of current and expected traffic-related noise generation from other traffic sources. In the larger context, these impacts can have more severe consequences than would appear when they are considered individually. Types of Impacts  The purpose of environmental analysis during the planning process is to identify any major environmental or design concerns that are likely to affect the selection of a preferred investment strategy, or that might relate to environmental regulations (such as for air quality) or permitting requirements (such as for wetland permits). Appropriate Level of Detail This will likely Include, at a minimum, the identification of environmentally-sensitive areas within the study boundaries. An initial scoping process should define the appropriate level of social, economic, and environmental analysis for a planning study, along with the approach toward interagency coordination and public engagement.  Determining the spatial extent of potential impacts, often referred to as the impacted area, is an important part of determining the significance of an impact. For systems planning, the impacted area could be very broad, such as the regional air basin for a metropolitan area; or it might be limited, such as noise impacts to particular land parcels adjacent to busy freeways. Extent of Impact The spatial aspect of environmental impacts is reflected in the types of tools used to analyze them. In the preceding illustrations, for example, analysis of regional air quality impacts usually relies on travel network modeling that estimates the flows of traffic in a region, and thus the concentration of motor vehicle related air pollutants in an air shed that could be hundreds of square miles in area. Noise impacts, on the other hand, can be estimated with facility-specific models that target areas close to high-volume roads.  Community Disruptions (physical construction) Noise and Vibration Neighborhood Quality SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY IMPACTS Access to Community Facilities Public Health/ Historic, Cultural, and Parkland and Services Active Living Resources  Navigable Waterways and Air Quality Energy Coastal Zones NATURAL RESOURCE IMPACTS Climate Change and Impacts on the Natural Endangered and Threatened Extreme Weather Environment Species  https://id.pinterest.com/ Thank You