Summary: This project will develop a GIS-based environmental resource identification map to assess critical conservation areas, integrate resource and conservation planning through a regional decision support system, and identify high priority mitigation locations. Data from the existing Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) will be shared among the participating agencies.

Using the ecosystem approach established by the EAC, critical environmental resources within the 8-county H-GAC region will be delineated through the creation of vector data through imagery analysis at a one-foot resolution. This effort will represent the first regional, systematic identification of critical environmental resources at the scale necessary for transportation planning and conservation planning.

The regional decision support system will identify priority mitigation areas as well as establish an evaluation system for transportation projects. This will provide transportation planning agencies the ability to assess the impact of specific transportation projects on critical environmental areas. The results of these tasks will be synthesized by the workgroup into a report detailing how the proposed evaluation system will be integrated into transportation planning efforts.

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

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