Challenges to Analysis of Air and Rail Alternatives in Government Environmental Impact Review Processes
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.
- Record URL:
- Summary URL:
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309263344
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Authors:
- Woodburn, Amber
- Ryerson, Megan S
- Chester, Mikhail
- Publication Date: 2013
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Print
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: pp 9–17
- Monograph Title: Aviation 2013
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Serial:
- Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
- Issue Number: 2336
- Publisher: Transportation Research Board
- ISSN: 0361-1981
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Airports; Alternatives analysis; Construction projects; Environmental impact analysis; Environmental impact statements; Environmental impacts; High speed rail; Infrastructure
- Subject Areas: Aviation; Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01492867
- Record Type: Publication
- ISBN: 9780309263344
- Report/Paper Numbers: 13-4641
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Sep 13 2013 3:11PM