Since the mid 1990s, the concept of watershed evaluation and assessment has come to the forefront of land use planning and related decision making.  Transportation development in particular has been targeted as a major contributor of impacts to area-wide water quality and supporting ecological resources.  Faced by these issues, the DOTs have identified a need to develop a go-by-type Rapid Assessment Technique for ecological and watershed issues that can be used by transportation planners to better assess impacts and identify possible mitigation. This research should develop a watershed-based assessment technique that could be used in whole or in part by the DOTs for program and project planning purposes. It would be a flexible approach allowing the incorporation of other resource specific assessment methods.  For example, it should accommodate methods, such as a technique currently under development by the Oregon DOT that would rapidly assess ecologically based mitigation needs as related to wetlands.

The effort would also require formulating strategies to integrate watershed partnering and planning programs beyond those related specifically to transportation.  Various states have already made great progress in that regard and the research should recognize and build upon those established programs if they would have application beyond the geographic areas for which they were developed.  An example here would be the approaches similar to what are used to identify green infrastructure resources.  These techniques identify resources and provide a basis for assessing impacts and conservation measures.  They employ rapid assessment techniques and remote sensing of ecological resources.  These applications should be used to the greatest extent possible since they likely would avoid duplicating natural resource field surveys and development of new rapid assessment protocols. 

General Scope

1. Conduct search of existing literature on the rapid assessment of impacts to area-wide natural resources.
2. Conduct search of existing partnering and planning programs.
3. Conduct search of remote sensing technologies appropriate for use during transportation planning and development.
4. Select those methods, programs, and techniques deemed appropriate for assessing the impacts of linear transportation proposals.
5. From those selections, develop possible transportation-specific approaches.
6. Subject possible approaches to a peer review with a select group of transportation and natural resource experts.
7. Based on that review, develop and publish the rapid assessment technique.

Recommended as a new NCHRP study.

TERI Administrator Note (2/18/08): Submitted to NCHRP for FY09 funding consideration