NCHRP Releases Report on Guidelines for Environmental Performance Measures Transportation agencies increasingly are utilizing performance-based management approaches to guide their planning, design, maintenance, operations, and contracting practices. These include the adoption of goals and objectives, performance standards, and monitoring of actual performance. Typically performance measures have been limited to a set of measures directly under the agency's control, such as capacity and pavement quality. Today's transportation decisions, though, are being made in a much broader and more collaborative context in which water quality, air quality, ecology, economic development, historic preservation, community quality of life, and other environmental considerations are being given increased importance. While transportation may have an important influence on outcomes in these areas, a variety of other factors also affect the degree to which these desired other objectives are achieved. Not only do these outcomes require more complex measures, but they also often overlap with efforts being undertaken by other agencies such as departments of natural resources. Nonetheless, transportation agencies are concluding that it is important to incorporate these broader indicators in their performance-based strategic management processes. This report examines the interface between two important characteristics of DOT professional practice: an increasing attention to environmental stewardship and performance-based strategic management. Although DOTs have been addressing environmental considerations for many years, environmental concerns are taking on even greater importance; the scope of environmental issues considered relevant to transportation is increasing; and the environmental focus is expanding from project-based assessments to the consideration of environmental issues in operations, maintenance, planning, and policy-level decisions.

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More Information: nepa.fhwa.dot.gov/renepa/renepa.nsf/B/KMMM7GT7P5