Background - PART 2

Application of Geographic Information Systems Online Course
Section: Multi-Scale GIS Data-Driven Method for Early Assessment of Wetlands Impacted by Transportation Corridors
Lesson: Background - PART 2
Application of Geographic Information Systems.
Introduction
The correlation between transportation systems and adverse impacts on the natural environment have been investigated at different scales of observation (Kuitunen et al., 1998; Bouman et al., 1999; Corrales et al., 2000; Formann et al., 2003, Wheeler et al., 2005, Fletcher and Hutto, 2008). There is a growing body of literature reporting and quantifying the effects caused by transportation infrastructure on the proximate biophysical setting as shown in (Keller & Largiardèr, 2003) as well as on the socio-economic setting as shown in (Boarnet & Chalermpong, 2001). The environmental consequences of landscape fragmentation in different phases of transportation project development have been investigated and tabulated by (Corrales et al., 2000). However, the disparity of definitions for the biophysical landscape can make it difficult to communicate clearly and even more difficulty to establish consistent management policies. Landscape invariably comprises an area of land containing a mosaic of patches or land elements (McGarigal & Marks, 1995; Hilty et al., 2006). The overall knowledge-base of transportation systems and methods to consider, minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts on natural systems and biophysical settings have gradually been absorbed and adopted by transportation and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practitioners to design balanced engineering solutions and deliver transportation infrastructure in an environmentally responsible manner. The body of science and knowledge supporting practitioners has grown through in-depth reviews about transportation and ecological effects (Spellerberg, 1998; and Formann et al., 2003) Similarly, the knowledge base concerning the impacts of land use on travel behaviour is also being investigated and developed from the transportation perspective (Mokhtarian & Cao, 2008; Litman, 2008).
Road development is a primary mechanism responsible for habitat, ecosystem, and overall biophysical fragmentation, replacing or modifying pre-existing land cover such as wetlands, creating edge habitat and altering landscape structure and function (Saunders et al., 2002). While conserving the remaining natural environment as well as restoring environmentally impacted areas is vital for natural sustainability, transportation corridor development is required by society and results in our modern transportation infrastructure and travel patterns.
Previous lessons learned show that environmental issues should be considered early the transportation planning process in order to balance economic, engineering and natural sustainability perspectives (Amekudzi & Meyer, 2006). A highway design that meets the transportation corridor needs, while minimizing environmental impacts, requires cooperation and compromise among different parties. It is a pressing challenge for researchers and practitioners to develop and validate novel methods for transportation planning that deliver streamlined planning approaches and improved environmental benefits beyond those possible through traditional approaches (Spellerberg, 1998; Stefanakis & Kavouras, 2002; Mongkut & Saengkhao, 2003; Huang et al., 2003; Gregory et al., 2005). The integration of transportation demand, current and long term development plans, and economic and ecological impacts in time-series scenarios by using land cover and land use analysis is a good way to provide promising results (Saunders et al. 2002; Forman & Alexander, 1998). The use of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) as a decision-making framework for transportation infrastructure planning, which can accommodate, model, and combine varying stakeholder values and help to resolve conflicting opinions, is an area that has only been recently explored. Initial results offer significant promise to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
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