Eco-Logical

Developing a Regional Decision Support System for the Houston-Galveston Region

State: Texas

Applicant: Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments (HGAC)

Grant Amount: $100,000

Period of Performance: 24 months

Summary: View project summary (PDF)

Project Status: The Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments signed its contract with FHWA and held its official kick off meeting.

As of November 2008, the H-GAC Eco-Logical Advisory Committee has been meeting monthly to fulfill the project goals. This committee achieved the following milestones:

• The committee reached consensus on the ecotypes within the 8-county H-GAC region, their definitions, and the ecological services that they provide.
• The committee also reached consensus on the methodology to be used to prioritize environmental resources: size, shape, adjacency, level of threat, diversity, presence of threatened and endangered species, fragmentation, scarcity, and quality. The metrics were also decided upon and necessary data inputs received.
• H-GAC staff began creation of the GIS model that will analysis the criteria and prioritize the mapped environmental resources.

The next step to be completed is the detailed aerial imagery interpretation that will map remaining environmental resources in the 8-county region.

Contact:

Meredith Dang
Land Use Transportation Coordinator
Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments
(713) 993-2443
meredith.dang@h-gac.com