March, 2010

NEPA News / Planning Data — 2 Comments
31
Mar 10

Indirect Impacts in Recent Transportation EISs and EAs

While uploading documents to the Cubit NEPA Library, I researched 30 transportation EIS and EAs from various states that were published in 2009 or early 2010, focusing on the indirect impact section of the documents. The chart below shows what types of indirect impacts the documents discussed.

What I learned from my unscientific Indirect Impacts survey:

  • Almost 100% of documents noted that the proposed project would indirectly impact land usage. Since the documents I studied were all transportation projects, this is not surprising.
  • Traffic indirect impacts encompassed almost 70% of the researched documents. Again, the documents I studied were infrastructure projects so long-term traffic effects should be prevalent, but did not necessarily need mitigation.
  • 47% of the documents addressed socioeconomic indirect effects. Perhaps the number of documents that were concerned with this issue wasn’t higher, because some proposed projects were in rural locations and not near existing residents.
  • Water Resources, Wetlands, and Biological indirect impacts were prevalent in about the same percentage of documents. Maybe the percentages aren’t higher because some agencies encompassed these effects within the broader category of land use.
  • A mere 13% of the documents addressed air quality as an indirect impact.

A Closer Look at the Indirect Impact Section:

The most ambiguous part of exploring possible indirect impacts is the requirement for the effects to be “reasonably foreseeable.” Even the guidelines for analyzing potential indirect impacts aren’t very clear. What if an area’s population grows dramatically within the next ten years, regardless of whether or not an improvement is made to an existing roadway? NEPA documents are supposed to address indirect impacts of all of the proposed alternatives, including the no-build alternative where no changes would be made. But after doing my research, I’ve discovered that some documents don’t separate the analysis of indirect and direct effects, or they just analyze direct and cumulative impacts without delving into studying indirect impacts separately. Perhaps because indirect impacts are very difficult to distinguish from direct impacts or already existing or future conditions, agencies don’t spend as much time analyzing them. In conclusion, indirect impacts are difficult to predict but must be addressed.

Cubit News — No Comments
29
Mar 10

How to Redeem a Cubit Coupon

If you’ve got a Cubit coupon for a report and you’re ready to redeem it, here’s how.

1. Login to your Cubit account.  Or get a free account in less than 30 seconds if you don’t already have an account.

2. Create your project.  If you’re not sure how to do this, you can watch the quick video below.

3. When you are happy with your project, click on Create a Report, and then select the report type below.  For this example, we will use a Housing and Regional Economic Report.

Coupon1

4. Take a look at your report.  If you’re happy with it, click on the Buy this Report button.

Coupon2

5. You can enter your contact information and your Coupon Code. Do NOT enter your credit card number. Then, click the Purchase button.

Coupon3

6. Give Cubit a few seconds to pull your data, do calculations and produce a preview map. When the application is finished, you should see the following report + map + shapefile + Word document in your project.

Coupon4

Planning Data — 2 Comments
23
Mar 10

But Is It Healthy? (Part 1) – Health Impact Assessment and NEPA

Alaskan North Slope Oil Production

Alaskan North Slope Oil Production

You’ve never heard of Nuiqsut, Alaska, but this small Inupiat community located 7 miles from a large oil development is changing how NEPA documents are written.  According to a former mayor, the health impacts of oil development show “up in our health statistics, alcohol treatment programs, emergency service needs, police responses – you name it.”

While preparing an EIS for an oil and gas lease of the National Petroleum Reserve, the Bureau of Land Management conducted the first-ever joint federal Health Impact Assessment/Environmental Impact Statement (HIA/EIS) to address the community’s health concerns. You can read the innovative Northeast NPR-A EIS and learn more in the PowerPoint presentation “Integrating Health and Environmental Impact Assessment”.

The idea of including health in an EIS document is covered by NEPA (Sec 1508.27 (b)(2), Sec. 2 [42 USC §4321]), which encourages agencies to include HIAs in their NEPA documents.  According to Aaron Wernham, Director of the Health Impact Project, 4 other HIA/EIS have begun and the EPA in California is calling for an HIA on large highway project and port expansion.  It seems that new environmental analysis requirements start in California before trickling across the rest of the nation, so agencies in your backyard may require HIAs in your NEPA documents in the near future.

What is an HIA?

Essentially, an HIA is a tool to measure potential health impacts of policies or projects, in an attempt to avoid “unintended health consequences and unexpected costs,” according to the Health Impact Project.  They combine qualitative and quantitative methods, and can vary in scope and complexity, depending on the project and funding.

How does the HIA work?

Here are the major HIA steps, (according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention):

  • Screening – Identify if the project would benefit from an HIA.
  • Scoping – Identify which health effects to consider.
  • Assessment – Identify risks and benefits, and which people will be affected.
  • Recommendation – Suggest changes/alternatives to proposals to mitigate adverse health effects.
  • Reporting – Present the results.
  • Evaluation and Monitoring – Identify indicators and track the outcomes of the Recommendation.

Where can I learn more?

  • The Health Impact Project is calling for proposals for demonstrations of HIA projects. Grant money is awarded, and the website provides a wealth of helpful info regarding the process, and the future of HIAs.
  • The American Planning Association offers a free in-depth online workshop (requires realplayer) on HIAs, complete with a quiz, an evaluation, interactive tools, and tons of helpful resources.

Speaking of helpful resources:

Incorporating Health Impact Assessment into Community Design and Transportation Decisions.  A video presentation from February 23, 2010.

Integrating Health into Environmental Impact Reports.  The San Francisco Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Planning Department are leading the way with this process. On this page, you can go to their Eastern Neighborhoods Community HIA (pdf).

So, what do YOU think – is the HIA a valuable tool or more paperwork? Have you worked on a project that required an HIA? Share your opinion in the comments below.

Cubit News — 1 Comment
18
Mar 10

New Feature: Upload A Project Shapefile to Cubit

Picassos-in-Training

Picassos-in-Training

In the past, Cubit users drew their project areas on the interactive map by hand with either line and polygon tools. Well, some of you guys are Piscassos-in-training, and there were some pretty weird shaped project areas out there. Instead of continuing your modern art training via Cubit, you can now email us a shapefile of your project, and we will upload the shapefile to your Cubit account.

You’ll want to Upload a Shapefile for Projects that have:

  • Large, complex project areas,
  • Many alternatives, or
  • Have natural boundary buffers.

And you can give us about a day to upload the shapefile to your account.

You’ll want to Draw Projects that have:

  • Simple project areas,
  • 1 or 2 alternatives, and
  • Straightforward buffers (i.e. 500 feet from the center line).

You’ll want to draw projects when you want to get your data in seconds and not have to wait for us to upload a shapefile.  And you’ll want to draw projects when you want to check out the free data like the LEP report or the EJ Estimator, but you’re not ready to buy a paid report like the Socio-Ec Report or the Housing & Regional Economic Report.

Shapefile Upload Requirements
So you’ve got a complex project, and you want to send us a shapefile.  Here’s what you do.

  1. Login to your Cubit account.  If you don’t have an account, sign up for a free account in 30 seconds.
  2. In the My Projects screen, click on Upload a Shapefile.
  3. Attach a SINGLE shapefile of your project area to the email.
    • The shapefile must have a projection (.prj file).
    • The shapefile can either be a center line of the project, an outline of your project or a buffered project area. It’s up to you.
    • If your shapefile is over 10 MB, give us a call or send us an email. We’ll provide alternate upload instructions for a large file that might not make it through via email.
  4. Send us the email.  In 24 hours, your shapefile will be uploaded to your Cubit account.  And then you can set a buffer, edit your project area or just get your cut-and-paste ready data in seconds.

UploadShape

Let me know if you have any questions.

Planning Data — No Comments
15
Mar 10

American Community Survey Sumlevel

I needed to know the sumlevels for the American Community Survey today. I couldn’t find this data anywhere online. Finally, I googled “Geographic Summary Level Census” and found the information that I needed.

Here’s the information for anyone googling “American Community Survey sumlevel.”

Sumlev

Sumlevel Codes
010 Nation

020 Region – Four groupings of states established by the Census Bureau in 1942 for the presentation of census data.

030 Division – A grouping of States within a census geographic region, established by the Census Bureau for the presentation of census data.

040 State – the primary legal subdivision of the United States

050 County – the primary legal subdivision of every state except Alaska and Louisiana

061 Minor Civil Division – the Census Bureau produces estimates for MCDs in 20 states. These legally defined county subdivisions are known by various descriptions, including towns (in New England, New York and Wisconsin), townships, and districts.

071 MCD Place Part – incorporated places can cross MCD boundaries, therefore a place name (with the pt. following it) can appear in more than one MCD. The 071 code designates that part of a place that is within one MCD.

157 County Place Part – incorporated places can cross county boundaries, therefore a place name (with the pt. following it) can appear in more than one county. The 157 code designates that part of a place that is within one county.

162 Incorporated Place total

170 Consolidated City – An incorporated place that has combined its governmental functions with a county or subcounty entity but contains one or more incorporated places that continue to function as local governments within the consolidated government.

172 Consolidated City-Place within Consolidated City – An incorporated place or consolidated city “balance” within a consolidated city

The source of the above information is: http://www.census.gov/popest/geographic/

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