Training and Workshops
The training opportunities listed below provide transportation professionals with the background knowledge and practical skills to incorporate environmental streamlining and stewardship in the transportation decisionmaking process.
Conservation and Transportation Planning Workshops
Interested in Hosting a Workshop?
To learn more about how to schedule a Linking Conservation and Transportation Planning workshop in your state, please contact Becky Lupes at 202-366-7808.
The Linking Conservation and Transportation Planning Workshops are designed to assist State DOTs, MPOs and State and Federal resource agencies to better coordinate and integrate transportation and conservation planning data and activities. In particular, the workshops emphasize the sharing of information, tools, and methods among transportation and resource agencies to incorporate conservation strategies earlier in the transportation planning process. The workshops demonstrate how the information and tools presented can save money and time by streamlining transportation projects and planning.
Presentations and other materials from previous Linking Conservation and Transportation Planning workshops are available through the links below:
For more information on the workshops, refer to the January 2007 issue of the Successes in Stewardship newsletter.
Linking Planning and NEPA Workshops
FHWA's Linking Planning and NEPA Workshops were designed to foster fundamental change in the culture that underlies transportation planning and project development – leading to better planning and decisionmaking, improved environmental stewardship, and streamlined delivery of transportation projects. Between 2003 and 2007 FHWA conducted 24 Linking Planning and NEPA Workshops. At this time the workshops are no longer being offered.
The following items provide more information on the results of several of these workshops.
State Action Plans
Participants developed Action Plans as a key workshop product. These Action Plans identify opportunities for better integration within the decisionmaking process and activities that the State DOT and its partners can take to achieve stronger linkages between planning and NEPA. State Action Plans are living documents; many State DOTs have re-evaluated and updated their Action Plans to reflect changing agency needs or requirements.
To view examples of State Actions Plans, click on the states listed below:
- Arkansas – includes strategies to improve planning by developing interdisciplinary planning and environment teams, documenting procedures, training staff, and developing project screening mechanisms.
- Georgia – includes strategies to improve internal state DOT communication, to improve collaboration with resource/regulatory agencies, and to better carry project information throughout the project development process (e.g. developing tools or a project clearinghouse).
- Oregon – includes strategies to inform DOT staff of planning and environment requirements and processes, conduct analyses in planning that can be carried through the NEPA process, and develop an environmental data management system.
- South Carolina – includes strategies to develop a web-based GIS, improve internal state DOT communication, and improve collaboration with resource/regulatory agencies.
- Texas – includes an action plan for each of Texas' four largest MPOs and a discussion on how to improve statewide data use and sharing.
- Utah – includes strategies to enhance analysis in planning, improve intra- and inter-agency coordination, enhance resource agency, MPO, and local government participation in the planning process, and define a long range planning and pre-STIP process that moves NEPA considerations earlier.
- Wisconsin – includes strategies that mostly focus on one large MPO in developing its long range transportation and land use plans, improving internal DOT communication, and enhancing resource agency participation. The MPO effort is considered a pilot for greater interagency involvement in statewide planning.
Workshop Progress Reports
To maintain momentum on Linking Planning and NEPA initiatives and to identify further opportunities for FHWA assistance, the USDOT Volpe Center conducted three interviews with workshop participants. Common themes, innovative initiatives, and state recommendations for FHWA assistance have been summarized in the Progress Reports listed below. Note that some activities may have changed since these reports, so please contact individual states for more information related to their current efforts.
CDOT's Online Linking Planning and NEPA Training
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) offers an online, interactive training entitled "Linking Planning and NEPA". The purpose of this training is to provide CDOT, its regional transportation planning partners, and other states with guidance to integrate useful National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) information into statewide and regional transportation planning processes. In addition to offering basic information on statewide and regional planning and NEPA processes, the training provides an "applied" portion, which takes the participant step by step through the contents of a potential corridor or area plan to illustrate and describe how information typically related to a NEPA process can be effectively incorporated into the planning process. Finally, the course offers case studies of successful examples of Linking Planning and NEPA put into practice in Colorado and other states. For more information, see http://www.dot.state.co.us/environmental/Training/NEPA_index.asp
Additional Training Opportunities
FHWA's GIS for Environmental Streamlining and Stewardship (GIS4EST) Workshop provides an overview of the GIS4EST program, which supports the adoption and development of GIS technologies to promote environmental streamlining and stewardship in transportation decisionmaking. For more information contact Aung Gye at Aung.Gye@dot.gov.
The FHWA's Transportation Planning Capacity Building program helps decision makers, transportation officials, and staff resolve the increasingly complex issues they face when addressing transportation needs in their communities. The program has collected case
studies, primers, and other resources on several important planning topics. The Training and Education page offers a number of related planning courses.
FHWA's Environmental Competency Building program focuses on the current and future multidisciplinary professional development needs of transportation and environmental professionals. The training and tutorials page provides a list of training opportunities currently offered by Federal and state agencies, academic institutions and centers, private firms, and institutions.
The Green Infrastructure approach to conservation provides a way to plan and implementing interconnected green space systems (such as parks, trails, and other green spaces) in conjunction with existing and planned gray infrastructure (such as roads and buildings). The Conservation Fund's Green Infrastructure Course provides participants with a strategic approach for prioritizing conservation opportunities and a planning framework for conservation and development – integrating the green and the grey.
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Training & Workshops