Green Transportation Infrastructures in Desert Cities
The research team proposes to use the semi-arid urban environment of the City of El Paso to explore the transportation-ecologic-environment-community nexus of distributed, multi-objective Green Transportation Infrastructure Initiative (GTI). The overarching objective of the project will be to develop a framework for southwestern urban areas to identify locations for green infrastructure and rank them based on a series of criteria corresponding to the myriad benefits that can be taken from GTI. These benefits include, but are not limited to stormwater management, groundwater recharge, traffic calming, pavement protection, reduction in heat island effects, and community stakeholder engagement, all while incorporating southwestern design elements and addressing the unique challenges of the region (e.g., flash floods surface drainage). The team will implement the framework for El Paso as a demonstration case, identifying and ranking locations for GTI implementation. The team will quantify the potential benefits for the city and the community, and the team will conduct outreach activities focused on fostering community investment and excitement about GTI. The work will be scalable and transferrable to other southwestern urban areas, and transformable to other regions of the United States. The following tasks will be undertaken in working toward this objective, with the overall goal of establishing a bottom-up, distributed approach to improving quality of life that cuts across domains and stakeholders: Task 1 - Literature review and data collection (Month 1-3); Task 2 - Advisory committee formation (Month 1-3); Task 3 - Develop a framework for GTI site selection and ranking (Months 3-8); Task 4 - Scalability and feasibility assessment (Months 8-10); and Task 5 - Dissemination and stakeholder engagement (Months 10-12). The team will produce a framework for GTI site selection and ranking for use on existing infrastructure networks that utilizes a quantitative decision-making approach to accommodate a multi-objective approach. This project will increase the understanding about the transportation/GI intersection. It will also help to increase adoption of new practices and techniques in practice. The team expects this project to garner interest both at the neighborhood level, but also the district (city council) level, and throughout certain departments at the city (e.g., streets and maintenance, planning and construction, capital improvement department). This could lead to pilot studies and demonstrated successes that will contribute to the state of the art in GTI in the southwest and beyond. The team will seek partnerships locally to continue this work, both with nonprofit organizations to find new and creative ways to continue to implement (i.e., finance) these projects throughout the city.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $128147
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Contract Numbers:
69A3551747119
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Project Managers:
Kline, Robin
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Performing Organizations:
The University of Texas at El Paso
500 W University Ave
El Paso, TX United States 79902 -
Principal Investigators:
Weidner, Jeffrey
- Start Date: 20210301
- Expected Completion Date: 20220831
- Actual Completion Date: 20220831
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Benefits; Cities; Decision making; Deserts; Infrastructure; Location; Outreach; Ranking (Statistics); Sustainable development; Sustainable transportation
- Geographic Terms: El Paso (Texas)
- Subject Areas: Environment; Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General);
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01766434
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Center for Transportation, Environment, and Community Health
- Contract Numbers: 69A3551747119
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Mar 3 2021 7:38PM