John Ripy

Planning, Technology, and Legitimacy: Structured Public Involvement in Integrated Transportation and Land-Use Planning in the United States

The authors have measured an Arnstein gap, that is, a significant difference between desired and actual levels of citizen participation in planning processes. This Arnstein gap exists because even well-intentioned professionals have an unrealistic expectation of achieving consensus across large planning scales. Further, it is often hoped or believed that technologies of representation will somehow accomplish consensus. The authors argue this is not possible without developing a stronger theoretical framework for their deployment in planning in democratic societies. The purpose of this research is to move the public closer to the center of the public infrastructure planning and design process in a productive, efficient, and more satisfactory manner, that is, to close the Arnstein gap. The authors adapt a participatory framework, called structured public involvement (SPI), for integrating visualization and geospatial technologies into large-scale public involvement in planning domains. The authors discuss how SPI using the casewise visual evaluation method is applied in collaboration with planners. A case study is presented of integrated transportation and land-use planning for an Indiana city. The results demonstrate that SPI achieves high levels of stakeholder satisfaction in addition to providing high-quality planning and design guidance for professionals.

Structured Public Involvement in Context-Sensitive Large Bridge Design Using Casewise Visual Evaluation: Case Study of Section 2 of Ohio River Bridges Project

Subject to engineering constraints, bridges should present a pleasing visual aspect to their user communities. The research team extended its structured public involvement (SPI) protocol using casewise visual evaluation (CAVE) to the field of context-sensitive large-scale bridge design. The context-sensitive design process was used for Section 2 of the Louisville Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges project. Key design parameters including bridge type, height, symmetry, complexity, and tunnel effect (superstructure shape) were identified by bridge designers. During a 3-month period, an SPI protocol was used to determine community preferences from Kentucky and Indiana participants. Group preferences were gathered rapidly, anonymously, and fairly from a focus group by using electronic polling technology to evaluate potential designs. A preference model was built by using CAVE, and a range of nonlinear preference variations relative to the design parameters was investigated. The favorable public evaluation results of the SPI process using CAVE are presented, and the reasons for its high performance are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the need for a close collaboration between bridge designers and public involvement specialists. The project demonstrates how an analytic approach to public involvement that integrates technology into the dialogic relationship between designers and the public allows for the achievement of inclusive, successful context-sensitive design even for large, complex infrastructure projects.

Evaluation of Highway Design Parameters on Influencing Operator Speeds Through Casewise Visual Evaluation

Designing highways to influence driver operating speed effectively through environmental feedback is a key research field requiring special attention. Virtual reality video simulations were used to record the influence of environmental elements on driver judgments about the appropriate driving speed. This study evaluated the use of various means that could affect operating speeds and affect driver behavior without compromising safety. Data were analyzed through the fuzzy set nonlinear modeling system of Casewise Visual Evaluation methodology to identify design factors that most strongly influenced perceived operator discomfort. The findings indicated that vegetation type and density and barrier type have a significant effect on driver discomfort and thus have the potential to influence operating speeds. Roadway width has a similar effect where narrower roadways increase driver discomfort. The results indicate that roadside features and certain road design elements can be used to affect driver operating speeds.

Toward Environmental Justice in Transportation Decision Making with Structured Public Involvement

Environmental justice (EJ), in the form of distributional justice, is mandated by a 1994 Executive Order. However, EJ is not easily achieved. EJ research can be divided into identification and mitigation strategies. EJ mitigation strategies intersect with public involvement, which in transportation has a long, and often controversial, history. This paper examines how a philosophy based on John Rawls’ theories of procedural justice and access to justice can address the need to achieve distributional justice. To improve procedural justice, the authors examine how effective large-group processes can deliver high-performance public involvement. Methodological barriers and the role of technologies such as electronic polling and visualization are discussed. The authors propose four process metrics for public involvement. On the basis of data on structured public involvement projects, the authors argue that such processes enhance procedural justice and thereby address specific EJ aims. These data illustrate that realizing this potential improvement will require a philosophical shift to a higher Arnstein ladder level, the identification and use of appropriate methodologies for involving large groups, and the integration of their valuations into effective decision support systems.

Use of Structured Public Involvement to Identify Community Preferences for a Superfund Site End State Vision

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is a uranium enrichment facility built in the mid-1950’s in western Kentucky. Many thousands of people over several generations have been employed at, or in activities devoted to, the PGDP. Over the years, the plant has also generated significant nuclear and industrial contamination. This contamination is composed of various surface disposal activities such as burial grounds, which has resulted in multiple potential sites across the plant grounds, and surface and subsurface water contamination, the extent and full nature of which is still subject to ongoing research and monitoring. Because of this, the PGDP retains a joint legacy as a regional economic engine and a major source of environmental contamination and worker exposure.

Casewise Visual Evaluation for High-Performance Collaborative Visioning of PGDP Nuclear Enrichment Plant End State

This article describes the adaptation of the authors’ Structured Public Involvement, or SPI, framework for community involvement in the end-state visioning process for the PGDP facility. The SPI framework is designed to elicit community values and provide access to these as a decision support system for the development of feasible, legitimate, and durable end-state management plans. This SPI protocol is designed around community evaluation of visualizations. Key properties of visual evaluation methods for large group visualization are discussed and the Casewise Visual Evaluation method is outlined. CAVE uses a fuzzy logic based neural network modeling approach to build a knowledge base for community preferences across all feasible end-state scenarios. The potential PDGP end-state land-use properties developed from focus group work are integrated into a sample range of dynamic visualizations and the sampling protocol is described. Preliminary results will be presented at the conference.

Integrated Transportation and Land Use Scenario Modeling by Visual Evaluation of Examples: Case Study of Jeffersonville, Indiana

Transportation and land use planning are generally poorly coordinated, and the preferences of the general public are not well integrated into either activity. Appropriate land use patterns that meet the needs and desires of the public and the public sector are difficult to develop because of their extreme complexity and potential for disproportionate impacts on citizens. A structured public involvement protocol was developed to allow large groups of citizens to participate efficiently and effectively in the comprehensive planning process for a moderate-sized town in Indiana and to help in partially overcoming this problem. CommunityViz was used as the visualization tool to help residents understand better the differences between potential land development patterns. Fuzzy set modeling was used to derive the complex interplay of development pattern properties that were most and least preferred by citizens. The development patterns varied by percentage mixture of housing types, percentage mixture of land use types, percentage given over to greenspace, ratio of sidewalk to total paved area, and connectivity of the road network. These five parameters were chosen as the most useful and fundamental measures of differences between development patterns. Citizens’ preferences were derived on that basis. Public input for this town was successfully modeled. Resulting preference patterns were made available to city planners for use in updating their comprehensive plan. This research demonstrates a practical way to involve citizens in an orderly, useful manner in questions of joint transportation and land use planning.

Expert Systems Archeological Predictive Model

This paper reports on the deployment of a predictive model that combines spatial analysis and fuzzy logic modeling to translate expert archeological knowledge into predictive surfaces. Analytic predictive archeological models have great utility for state departments of transportation, and some states have invested millions of dollars in such models. However, classic statistical modeling approaches often require too much data and create questions about whether areas are categorized as low probability because (a) there are no sites or (b) no surveys have been conducted there. However, this process can build robust models around typically sparse archeological data and is not subject to spatial bias. These models are intended to lower overall project costs by identifying corridors with a lower probability of having archeological sites, not to supplant field surveys once a corridor has been chosen. Five influencing factors were defined by archeologists and were calculated with the ArcGIS platform. The archeologists then informed a fuzzy logic induction process that was mapped to output probability functions. These data were geocoded into ArcGIS output surfaces that showed the probability of encountering artifacts. The predictive results were tested through a blind control protocol against cleansed archeological data. These models were shown to perform as well as or better than traditional statistical models and required much less data. The Kentucky implementation includes the superior predictive coverage and, more important, a suite of tools to allow the ArcGIS-competent archeologist to design and execute new modeling routines or to build new models. The availability of higher-quality geographic information systems data will also allow archeologists to update the model.

High-Performance Public Involvement: Frameworks, Performance Measures, and Data

In the light of social and political currents calling for increased accountability for public processes and discussions between federal officials about the performance of the public involvement process, this paper examines public involvement in transportation and develops frameworks for identifying suitable approaches and evaluating outcomes. The aims of this paper are to (a) foster analytic, evidence-driven discussion between public involvement professionals, project managers, consultants, and other members of the transportation community about process quality metrics and (b) propose strategies for increasing performance of such processes by developing multidimensional process evaluation frameworks for public involvement design and outcomes. A significant Arnstein gap is identified in the quality of public involvement in transportation. A critical overview of current practice that draws on the literature on public involvement and participation is presented. Using a soft systems approach, the authors frame participation methods in distributive domain and define outcome performance criteria. The authors examine the literature on process performance in environmental management and other participation research and propose four process performance metrics for public involvement: quality, inclusion, clarity, and efficiency. Objective data from projects in structured public involvement are presented. These data illustrate that processes that satisfy these metrics will help to close the Arnstein gap by identifying stronger methodologies for involving large groups of citizens with diverse values, delivering objectively high stakeholder-evaluated process quality, and integrating these valuations into effective decision support systems for project managers and engineers. However, this improvement will require a philosophical shift to a higher level on the Arnstein ladder.

An Intermodal Network Model of Coal Distribution in the United States and Its Economic Implications for the Inland Waterway System

This paper describes a geographic information system (GIS)-based intermodal network model for the shipment of coal in the United States. The purpose of this research was to investigate the role played by railways, waterways, and highways in the movement of coal from its source area to point of use, and to highlight the implications these movements have for the U.S. economy. The project team modeled coal movements across the U.S. intermodal transportation network using the Energy Information Administration’s 2010 data, which provided detailed origin, destination, primary mode, and volume information for coal shipments. The model identifies the optimum routes for coal shipments based on a rate structure that accounts for the relative costs of shipping by each of the modes. The model, as well as available statistics, reveals the dominance of coal mined from the Powder River Basin. Compared to other sources— principally, the Appalachian Basin — coal from Mountain West is significantly less expensive, thus giving it a significant comparative advantage. Both Texas and Illinois, the two largest coal consumers by state, obtain virtually all of their coal from the West or from within state. Appalachian Basin coal serves domestic and export markets primarily in the East and Southeastern U.S. Only the Ohio River provides significant movement of Central Appalachian Basin coal to the west and south. Although this modeling relies on 2010 data, a look at more recent trends in coal prices and mining indicate that the Powder River Basin continues to dominate, while production and industry employment have steadily declined in the Appalachian Basin. The shift away from coal and toward natural gas as a primary energy source argues for the region’s coal extraction industries remaining in a depressed state, which could produce negative economic consequences for transportation industries. Carrier and port facilities will need to adopt a more diversified shipping portfolio to accommodate for these losses. It is possible that the loss of coal will open up opportunities for other commodity shipments on the inland waterways. This modeling demonstrates the potential for such integrated models to accommodate energy-related or similar data, and serves as a tool for freight planners in identifying energy transportation corridors of significance. It could potentially be used to analyze the movement of other commodities, which could let industry stakeholders identify new markets to tap into. Further, the model and analysis can help inform Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) related efforts to develop a National Freight Network and National Freight Strategic Plan.