Browsing by Subject "Assessments"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Iron Range Community Profile: Community Assessment - Things to Consider
    (2007) St. Louis County Planning Department
    This is essentially a checklist of questions suggested for discussion during the comprehensive land use planning process. Several of the questions relate to water resources, septic and sewage systems, wetlands, tourism, parks, trails and recreation.
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    The Use of Driving Simulation for the Assessment, Training and Testing of Older Drivers
    (1990-01) Hancock, Peter A.; Caird, J. K.; White, H. G.
    With the lowering of the birth rate over the last decade and a half, and the increased life expectancy associated with improving health care, the United States is undergoing a radical aging of its populace. This change in demographic structure is embedded in a society experiencing clear and rapid advances in its technological capability (Abend & Chen, 1985; U.S. Congress, 1985; Tobias, 1987). One ramification of these combined developments is that expectations of activity and lifestyle change rapidly across successive cohorts. Typically, each sequential cohort expects to retain access to progressively wider ranges of activity which have become characteristic of their respective lifestyles. Contemporary and future cohorts will expect continued access to the privilege of autonomous mobility, typically through the use of the automobile (Wachs, 1988; Waller, 1972). This aspiration generates a conflict between two powerful and somewhat antagonistic societal forces. On one side is the traditional and expected freedom that emanates from owning and operating a personal automobile. On the other is the potential and actual safety hazards associated with the actions of an aging central nervous system having to cope with progressively more complex and demanding driving environments (Federal Highway Administration, 1986). The potential resolution of this conflict lies in the use of a systems approach as a framework to apply Human Factors principles to improve the driving environment, the vehicle, and facilitate the capabilities of the driver. Unfortunately, there is little research available that is specifically directed at the Human Factors problems faced by aging drivers with regard to design of automobiles, roadways, and roadway communication symbols (Forbes, 1985; Staplin, Breton, Haimo, Farber, & Byrnes, 1986; Yanik, 1989). Consequently, there is a fundamental need for research efforts in this area. It is one facet of this systems-based strategy (Doebelin, 1980), namely the use of simulation in training, testing, and evaluating the older driver, that is the focus of the present report.
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    Validation of Wetland Mitigation in Abandoned Borrow Areas – Phase II
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2016-03) Johnson, Kurt W.
    Road construction in northeast Minnesota often causes wetland impacts that require compensatory mitigation. Borrow areas excavated for road construction material can be developed into wetland mitigation sites if hydric vegetation, hydric soils and adequate hydrology are provided. Fourteen wetland mitigation sites were constructed north of Virginia, Minnesota along the U.S. Trunk Highway 53 reconstruction project corridor. The sites were established with the goal of mitigating for project impacts to seasonally flooded basin, fresh meadow, shallow marsh, shrub swamp, wooded swamp, and bog wetlands. Monitoring results indicate that the 14 mitigation sites range in their potential to receive wetland mitigation credit. All but one of the sites consistently meet wetland hydrology criteria. The sites contain a variety of plant communities dominated by wet meadow, sedge meadow, and shallow marsh. Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) condition categories for the sites range from "Poor" to "Exceptional." Invasive plant species, particularly reed canary grass and narrow leaf cattail, are present on a number of sites and should be controlled. Tamarack and black spruce plantings have been successful on some of the drier areas and should be expanded to increase the quality and potential mitigation credit for other sites. These sites have shown the potential for creating mitigation wetlands in abandoned borrow pits in conjunction with highway construction. Adaptive management, particularly water level regulation, early invasive species control, tree planting, and continued long-term annual monitoring can make mitigation sites like these successful options for wetland mitigation credit. Continued site monitoring to determine potential for mitigation credit is recommended.