Lesson 4 ODOT Best Practices

Best Practices Our Challenge: Best Practices for Action-Focused and Resource-Focused analyses are distinct Distinct best practices are not readily complimentary

Best Practices Sources: Legal Decisions –key standards of judicial review Communities of Practice –handbooks –reports FHWA and IDT

Best Practices More Reading! Fritiofson v. Alexander

Best Practices Resource-Focused The Fritiofson v. Alexander Five Part Test: 1.What is the geographic area affected by the project? 2.What are the resources affected by the project? 3.What are the other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable actions that have impacted these resources? 4.What were those impacts? 5.What is the overall impact on these various resources from the accumulation of the actions? Fritiofson v. Alexander

Decision Induced Growth Affected Resources Stressors and Limiting Factors Sustainability of Resource in Space and Time Mitigation, Monitoring, Adaptive Management Best Practices Resource-Focused

The Sierra Club v. Marsh Three Part Test: 1.Confident that impacts are likely to occur? 2.Can impacts be sufficiently described and specified now to allow for useful evaluation? 3.If impacts are not evaluated now, will future evaluation of impacts be irrelevant? Sierra Club v. Marsh Best Practices Action-Focused

Sierra Club v. Marsh Decisions Reasonably Foreseeable Future Actions Induced Growth Affected Resources Overlap of Decisions and Resources Resource Effects in Space and Time Best Practices Action-Focused

NCHRP Report No. 403 NCHRP Report No categories of Indirect effects: –Encroachment-Alteration –Induced Growth and Related

Best Practices Resource-Focused

“Considering Cumulative Effects” Table 1-5, page 10; “EIA Components” blocks can and do match more than the “CEA Steps” listed in each row.

Best Practices Resource-Focused

Resource-Focused Community of Practice CEQ’s 8 Principles: “Considering Cumulative Effects” Table 1-2, page 8 “Each affected resource, ecosystem, and human community must be analyzed in terms of its capacity to accommodate additional effects, based on its own time and space parameters” (item #8)

Best Practices FHWA Checklists

Best Practices FHWA Technical Memos

Best Practices State Guidance: –IDT –CalTrans –MD SHA –NC DOT –TX DOT –Wisconsin

Best Practices Key Points: Communities of Practice have published best practices Less than ideal word choices, some author confusion still exist Consistent theme … action-focus is part of input to resource-focused (risk to sustainability)

Best Practices Scoping Key Points: Scoping is the collaborative process of identifying and prioritizing information that will be useful to the decision-maker and publics Focus in on possible impacts to resources for that may influence the decision Establish REC model, spatial, temporal parameters Investment in long range transport and resource management plans pay off here

Best Practices Scoping For All Steps, Define and Reach Consensus on… Study Approach or Methodology Sources of Data For Field Work, Allow for Murphy’s Law Level of Effort Work Product Results Must Be of Use to Decision-Makers

Scoping Identifies Useful Information Exposure – Response Profile ↓ Stressors and Limiting Factors Resilience and Thresholds Adjustments and Feedbacks Dynamic Equilibrium ↓ Risk to Sustainability

Scoping Identifies Useful Information Exposure – Response Profile ↓ Stressors and Limiting Factors Resilience and Thresholds Adjustments and Feedbacks Dynamic Equilibrium ↓ Risk to Sustainability

Thinking About … How should we conduct EIA when the Resource is unstable or in a transition phase?

Thinking About … Is there a reason they call it Baseline and not Basepoint? Can a snapshot in time provide useful information?

Best Practices Analysis Key Points: Determining the consequences is the two- part analysis of effects Action-focused analyses is input to resource-focused analyses, target is sustainability

Best Practices Analytic Principles Sustainability – Dynamic Equilibrium Additive, Countervailing, and Synergistic Responses Look Beyond the Life of the Action

Best Practices Forecast and Comparison ►Base line (no-action) forecast … … future conditions in the absence of the project ►With Project forecast … … conditions in future following implementation of the alternative ►Often called “but for …” effects ►Two Categories of action-focused exposure- response

Induced Development Forecasting Qualitative methods … … evaluate context or overall situation where little data exist or existing data is questionable or inconsistent Quantitative methods … … model/search for causal factors Utilize forecasts by regional planning and transportation agencies

Best Practices Methodologies Literature review/comparative case analysis Scenario writing Trend extrapolation Expert panel surveys or Delphi technique Build-out or carrying capacity analysis Regression/econometric techniques Gravity models

Best Practices Key Points: Communities of Practice have published best practices Less than ideal word choices, some author confusion still exist Consistent theme … action-focus is input to resource-focused look at sustainability

Best Practices Documentation Key Points: Narrative sequence describes assessment and analysis, and discusses … –what we know –what we don’t know –the relative importance of what we don’t know –mitigation and monitoring opportunities

Assessment Framework Identify and model the REC f(x) = y Identify the Decision and Action(s) Draw Conclusions and Disclose Implications Assess Exposure (project – REC interaction) Deconstruct the Action Incorporate Feedbacks and adjustments Evaluate Risk to Sustainability (thresholds, resilience) Consider Mitigation, Monitoring, and Adaptive Management Predict the REC’s Response

Best Practices Documentation Evaluation Issues –Communicating judgments, uncertainty, assumptions Basic technique –Uncertainty and Assumptions –Sensitivity analysis

Best Practices Which Fritiofson v Alexander criteria are best fit the scoping process? A. 1, 2, and 3 B. 1 and 2 C. 3 only D. All criteria