1. NCRST-E Briefing: Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment Joint Program Oversight Committee Meeting October 25, 2002

2. NCRST-E Research and Directions Mississippi Gulf Coast: Multiple Research and Support Areas Land Use and Land Cover Change: Multi-Scale Research Air Quality Research: New Sensor and Modeling Technologies Wetlands Mapping: Multi-Location Research and Outreach Computational Mapping: IT, CE, and Geospatial Research (as well as important standards-based approach to implement) Corridor Planning: Workshop and Research Formulation NCRST-E Taps – Veridian – Virginia DOT – Washington DOT

3. MS Gulf Coast Research Activities NCRST-E is conducting an assessment of land cover and land use change in the Mississippi coastal corridor with the purpose of identifying changes due to transportation and land development. New techniques for classification and analysis were developed. MS Gulf Coast

4. Mississippi Gulf Coast: Land Use and Land Cover Change MS Gulf Coast

5. Mississippi Gulf Coast: Assessing Urban Growth Within Sensitive Coastal Environmental Systems MS Gulf Coast

6. Mississippi Gulf Coast: Determining Patterns of Growth and Quantifying Change and Development For Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, change is highlighted for the period from 1991 to 2000. MS Gulf Coast

7. Mississippi Gulf Coast: Supporting the CSX Railroad Relocation EIS Study MS Gulf Coast

8. NCRST-E is Studying Land Use and Land Cover Change at Regional, Watershed, and Coastal Levels NCRST-E is investigating land cover and land use change and impacts of change and development at various scales and in multiple settings. The research is providing improved understanding about environmental and hydrologic impacts of transportation development. LULC Change

9. NCRST-E is Studying Transportation Impacts on Air Quality by Using LIDAR Technology The NCRST-E air quality project is focused on the adverse effects of air pollutants. The primary objectives of this project are: (1) developing guidelines on the use of remote sensing Differential Absorption LIDAR (DIAL) for real-time measurement of air pollution resulting from highway traffic and (2) an air quality model for prediction of air pollution considering the impact of highway traffic, land use, terrain type, and climatic factors. Air Quality

10. NCRST-E is Developing New Geospatial Applications and Processing Algorithms for Wetlands Assessment Soils Hydrology Vegetation The assessment of vegetation, soils, and hydrology forms the basis of standard wetlands field assessments. Determining how those assessments are made facilitates the development of surrogate processes using RS and geospatial technologies to produce similar results. Research Results: Pecora Paper Poster Session Workshop Wetlands

11. Hyperspectral Image and LIDAR Data for Wetland Identification, Mapping, and Analysis Randolph County, North Carolina Hyperspectral image data were collected and classified to obtain classes that closely resembled those used in NWI surveys. LIDAR was used for terrain and hydrologic analysis. Wetlands

12. Hyperspectral Image and LIDAR Data for Wetland Mapping and Assessment Eddyville, Iowa For a new bypass project, the Iowa DOT determined that there were landscape features that gave rise to wetlands in an area where they have planned an alignment. With involvement of NCRST-E high spatial resolution hyperspectral image data will be used to identify areas where wetland vegetation occurs. Wetlands

13. Quantitatively assessing the likelihood of wetlands occurrence requires that vegetation classes be stratified and clarified then ranked, combined, and assessed in the context of hydrology and soils for the area. To accomplish the contextual analysis, data analysis steps and products are grouped into vegetation and non- vegetation information groups. Soils and hydrology information products combined to contribute 30 possible points and the vegetation information products combined to contribute 30 possible points. Wetlands Assessment Algorithm Development Wetlands

14. Computational Resources for Geospatial Data and Information Use, Distribution, and Management In a peer review meeting of the TRB statewide GIS committee a consistently echoed theme was the need for improved access and distribution of standard, consistent data sets that are useful for transportation planning and assessment as well as early phases of design. NCRST-E is working to develop technology for Computational Mapping Engines and Distributed Geospatial Data Libraried that will allow agencies to …. View Data in a Map….. Select Areas of Interest.... Refine the Area of Interest.... CME

15. Computational Resources for Geospatial Data and Information Use, Distribution, and Management AND …. Create Consistent CUSTOM Geospatial Image Products that meet the needs of transportation agencies! CME

16. Computational Resources for Geospatial Data and Information Use, Distribution, and Management The CME is a technology that hides the complexity of data storage, management, and processing from the user and provides a web-based method of access to computational resources that replace traditional image processing workflows ….. Web Access to Data and Methods…. AND Computational Workflows! CME

17. NCRST-E Research Formulation: Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment NCRST-E held a workshop (GICAP 2002) to address the challenge of using remote sensing and geospatial technologies for corridor planning and assessment activities. Topics and presentations ranged geographically and by transportation modes including such diverse areas as the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, the Virginia Base Mapping Project, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast CSX Railroad relocation project. GICAP 2002

18. New Technology Application Projects There have been new TAP’s selected, three of which have been associated with the NCRST-E: Veridian Virginia DOT Washington DOT TAPs

19. TAP’s, NCRST-E, and RSPA Contacts Increased Coordination Roles New TAP linked to NCRST-E Virginia DOT; Dan Widner widner_dk@vdot.state.va.us 804 - 786 - 6762 Washington DOT; E. Lanzer LanzerE@WADOT.WA.GOV 360-705-7476 Veridian; John Albasini John.Albasini@veridian.com 228 - 688 - 1504 Designated RSPA contact Aviva Brecher Aviva.Brecher@volpe.dot.gov 617 - 494 - 3470 Chip Wood Chip.Wood@ost.dot.gov 202 - 366 - 5911 TAPs

20. Regional Database Development for Transportation Planning TAPs

21. Proposed Remote Sensing/GIS Solution Paradigm 1. Change detection analysis for updating landcover/ landuse 2. Sharing of data across the Internet via an Internet Map Server (IMS) 3. GIS based planning tool for automatic calculation of environmental impacts, creation of impact matrices and development of alignment mapping. TAPs

22. PROJECT TITLE: Automating Wetlands Identification to meet Federal Reporting Requirements Objective: Integration with existing GIS architecture to streamline the process for planned road construction projects TAPs

23. Remote Sensing and the Planning Process Remotely sensed wetlands data can be introduced early in the planning process Benefits include: – Incorporation with other available GIS data layers – Good preliminary indication of potential impact – Provides an accurate guide to field reconnaissance and survey TAPs

24. Washington DOT The project goal will demonstrate the use of commercial software and remotely sensed data to produce information products that streamline the environmental analysis process for transportation project planning. This project is developing land use land cover data using remote sensing technologies in concert with other digital geospatial resources and methods for the same I-405 corridor, then applying that information to appropriate environmental impact statement topics to determine benefits as compared to traditional environmental assessment methods already performed.