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Title:

Challenges to Analysis of Air and Rail Alternatives in Government Environmental Impact Review Processes

Accession Number:

01492867

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

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Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309263344

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States
Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/169442.aspx

Abstract:

The current institutional process for project-level environmental review, the government-required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), requires assessment of the proposed project, the no-build alternative, and alternatives to the proposed project. Despite growing academic research to compare the environmental impacts of air and high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure, there are few instances of multimodal alternatives analysis in airport and HSR EIS documents. In this paper, examples of EISs for air and HSR capacity-enhancement projects are chronicled to identify key challenges to completing modal alternative analysis in the EIS: the spatial heterogeneity of the physical infrastructure for air and HSR, the framing of EIS purpose and need statements, and the complicated interpretations of environmental impact significance thresholds. The paper concludes by proposing strategies to incentivize modal alternative assessments and highlight methods that are needed to perform high-quality comparative analysis to inform decision makers, whether in the context of the EIS or in upstream planning processes.

Monograph Title:

Aviation 2013

Monograph Accession #:

01490595

Report/Paper Numbers:

13-4641

Language:

English

Authors:

Woodburn, Amber
Ryerson, Megan S
Chester, Mikhail

Pagination:

pp 9–17

Publication Date:

2013

Serial:

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

Issue Number: 2336
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISSN: 0361-1981

ISBN:

9780309263344

Media Type:

Print

Features:

Figures (1) ; References (48) ; Tables (2)

Subject Areas:

Aviation; Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Feb 5 2013 12:54PM

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