Transportation projects will have impact on the environment. The general environmental pollution and damage caused by roads is closely associated with the level of economic activity. Although Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are dependent on geo-spatial information in order to make an assessment, there are no rules per se how to conduct an environmental assessment. Also, the particular objective of each assessment is dictated case-by-case, based on what information and analyses are required. The conventional way of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study is a time consuming process because it has large number of dependent and independent variables which have to be taken into account, which also have different consequences. With the emergence of satellite remote sensing technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this research presents a new framework for the analysis phase of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for transportation projects based on the integration between remote sensing technology, geographic information systems, and spatial modeling. By integrating the merits of the map overlay method and the matrix method, the framework analyzes comprehensively the environmental vulnerability around the road and its impact on the environment. This framework is expected to:1) improve the quality of the decision making process, 2) be applied both to urban and inter-urban projects, regardless of transport mode, and 3) present the data and make the appropriate analysis to support the decision of the decision-makers and allow them to present these data to the public hearings in a simple manner. Case studies, transportation projects in the State of Florida, were analyzed to illustrate the use of the decision support framework and demonstrate its capabilities. This cohesive and integrated system will facilitate rational decisions through costeffective coordination of environmental information and data management that can be tailored to specific projects. The framework would facilitate collecting, organizing, analyzing, archiving, and coordinating the information and data necessary to support technical and policy transportation decisions. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: March 25, 2005. / Environment, Transportation, GIS, Remote Sensing / Includes bibliographical references. / Yassir A. AbdelRazig, Professor Directing Dissertation; Douglas A. Zahn, Outside Committee Member; John O. Sobanjo, Committee Member; Renatus N. Mussa, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168726 |
| Contributors | El-Gafy, Mohamed Anwar (authoraut), AbdelRazig, Yassir A. (professor directing dissertation), Zahn, Douglas A. (outside committee member), Sobanjo, John O. (committee member), Mussa, Renatus N. (committee member), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
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