Application of Geospatial Ecological Tools and Data in the Planning and Programming Phases of Delivering New Highway Capacity: Proof of Concept—US-101, California (2014) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 32-45
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From page 32... ...
CHAPTER 4 Conclusions and Recommendations Review and Enhancements of RAMP Obstacles of RAMP Transportation Project Data Inventories and Consistency There were a number of obstacles to developing and maintaining an inventory of transportation projects for use in the advance impact scoping phase of advance mitigation planning. One obstacle was the lack of consistency of transportation project data collected from the different Caltrans districts.
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guide the footprint estimate; however, for estimating projects at a regional level, this type of discussion can be time consuming. Related to the question of whether standardized footprints for different types of projects can be developed, and how accurate those footprints might be, is the issue that the same type of project may have a different-sized footprint depending on the context of the surrounding landscape.
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Aquatic Impacts The methods described above for estimating impacts to anadromous fish (salmonids) have several limitations.
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Table 4.1. Total Impacts for All Districts, With and Without Existing Road 2-Mile Buffer 4-Mile Buffer With Road Without Road With Road Without Road Total for All Districts 470.27 316.35 1046.10 803.10 Decrease (%)
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Transferability of Methods The RAMP approach is data driven, and thus transferability is predicated on the availability of similar data sets regardless of location. Although some of the data used in the analysis comprise standardized, national data, other data critical to the process are specific to California (although there may be analogues in other states)
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attainable and how they would be used. CTIS, which is the source of the footprint estimates for transportation projects based on project type that were used in this project, also contains a list of and GIS data for programmed transportation projects in California over the next 20 years.
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submittal can be tracked. There is a national BA template, as well as region-specific information.
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This tool seemed the most promising of the online scoping tools tested. The main drawbacks were not being able to upload GIS files and only being able to look at one project at a time.
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Eco-Plan Advanced Another part of the C40B beta testing component was to compare the RAMP method for calculating initial impact to threatened and endangered species and other habitats from proposed transportation projects with the capabilities of the Eco-Plan web tool. Specifically, the ArcGIS Online (AGO)
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Figure 4.2. Eco-Plan map showing a successful intersection process of California red-legged frog with the uploaded District 4 planned transportation projects.
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Generally, the areas resulting from the intersect tool in AGO were slightly larger than the analysis using ArcGIS Desktop, especially for individual species. For scoping projects, this is a better result than underestimating impacts or not identifying them outright.
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Table 4.3. Overview of National-Level Tools Reviewed for This Project Capabilities Present NEPAssist ESA Webtool IPaC Eco-Plan Import Layers X (did not work for UC Davis testing)
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Geospatial issues include the practice in California of relaying much of the planning phase of projects in post miles. Transitioning these values to most GIS systems requires Caltrans staff.
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Table 4.4. Overview of Bottlenecks and Opportunities Encountered During This Project Type Data Category Issue Bottleneck Transportation Standardization of how to portray projects in a GIS for ease of regional assessment Bottleneck Transportation Developing and maintaining current inventories of transportation projects Bottleneck Transportation Standardizing descriptions of project types Bottleneck Transportation Identifying project delays proactively Bottleneck Biological Quality and accuracy of land cover maps Bottleneck Biological Quality and accuracy of listed species data Bottleneck Biological Assessment of risk of fish kills from stream crossings of various types Opportunity Geospatial tools Ability to track mitigation requirements to better predict future requirements Opportunity Geospatial tools Access to a regional greenprint Opportunity Geospatial tools Using a standardized tool like Marxan to identify suitable mitigation parcels In sum, the methods for impact assessment, which are the first part of an overall drive to achieve Eco-Logical goals of early and regional environmental mitigation, appear to function acceptably well, either via desktop analyses or through the use of a GIS-enabled web interface.
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