Application of Geospatial Ecological Tools and Data in the Planning and Programming Phases of Delivering New Highway Capacity: Proof of Concept—East-West Gateway Council of Governments (2014)

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CHAPTER 3 Data and Methods of Assessment of Ecological Initiative Tool The biggest hurdle to integrating the Ecological Initiative tool into practice is moving the data to application and testing its acceptability in terms of regulatory decision making. The data have been applied during the development of RTP 2040, but the level of use for corridor review or pre-NEPA analysis is uneven across partners. C40B2 provided an opportunity to put this data into practice to develop a systematic process for streamlining planning and project development in the region. An assessment was conducted on the methods used and data compiled to develop the Ecological Initiative tool. The assessment identified opportunities and bottlenecks from which strategies were identified on how to further the goals of the Ecological Initiative. This effort helped partners and regulatory agencies identify how and where within their respective institutions to incorporate ecological data tools. By going through this exercise, the regulatory acceptability of the data developed was determined. The assessment provided guidance on additional data needs for partners at all levels and helped to identify next steps to accomplishing those goals. Through this effort, the applicability of the Ecological Initiative tool in other geographic areas and at the national level was evaluated. The assessment began with identifying resource agencies engaged in the early stages of the Ecological Initiative. Table 3.1 lists the agencies involved in the assessment. Table 3.1. Agencies Involved in the Assessment Federal Agencies State Agencies Local/Regional/NGOs U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Saint Louis District Kansas City District U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 Region 7 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Illinois Field Office Missouri Field Office U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Illinois Division Missouri Division Illinois Department of Transportation Central Office District Office Illinois Department of Natural Resources Division of Resource Management Missouri Department of Conservation Environmental Compliance Office Regional Office Missouri Department of Natural Resources Division of Environmental Quality Missouri Department of Transportation Central Office District Office Great Rivers Greenway District Heartlands Conservancy Metropolitan Saint Louis Sewer District Middle Mississippi River Partnership 11

Initial Feedback on Ecological Initiative Geospatial Tool The assessment process began soon after the development of the REF in 2011, via key resource agency contacts and at an Earth Day symposium attended by state and local governments, consulting firms, and non-profit participants. Feedback on the data reflected interest and enthusiasm for the existence of such a data source that identifies ecologically significant areas. Challenges were noted by users who had attempted to download the Ecological Initiative tool onto their computers but ran into difficulty due to lack of computing power. The MoDOT Design Bureau reviewed the Ecological Initiative tool in terms of application in the initial planning stages for transportation projects. The agency could see the application of the Ecological Initiative tool in the very early project identification stage. This stage is when the department is learning of transportation needs from local officials for the first time. The Ecological Initiative tool will help the department determine the potential impact of a project early enough in the process to recommend an alternate location or path that would avoid a highly significant area. MDC reviewed the Ecological Initiative tool in terms of its potential to identify greenspace in the City of Saint Louis, primarily in the area from downtown to the northern city limit. Over the past two decades, a significant number of lots have been cleared of structures and are currently vacant. MDC was researching the potential of vacant land in the city to be repurposed or reverted back to the natural system that existed predevelopment and/or converted to greenspace and greenways. Applying the Ecological Initiative tool to a local green infrastructure project in an urbanized area pointed out one of the limitations of the data. Classes of urban land cover recognized at intermediate resolution by previous efforts actually contain green space (e.g., urban parks, narrow river corridors that are not developed, and so on) that was not mapped. Also, impervious surfaces were not separated from lawns and trees at fine resolution in urban areas. Some very large parks and cemeteries were mapped as areas of moderate ecological significance, but for the most part, the City of Saint Louis, Saint Louis County, and developed areas of Saint Charles and Saint Clair County were mapped as being of low ecological significance without distinguishing differences between narrow greenways and parks versus heavily developed areas. Regulatory and Resource Agency Feedback The C40B2 team conducted phone interviews with regulatory and resource agency staff members in February 2013 to determine planning and project review procedures within each agency, with an eye toward how the Ecological Initiative tool could be incorporated. The following is an agency-by-agency summary of phone interviews (Table 3.2). 12

Table 3.2. Agency Feedback on the Ecological Initiative Tool Agency Project Review Process/Feedback on Ecological Initiative Tool Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Public notices are received by and reviewed at the director level, then directed to the appropriate programmatic area, such as water quality, air quality, hazardous waste, parks and trails, etc. The agency is dependent upon in-house data sources and GIS tools. With projects of a significant size, the Missouri Interagency Review Team (IRT) gets involved in the review. The Missouri IRT is composed of representatives from the USACE, DNR, USFWS–MO, MDC, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), and USDA/NRCS. MDNR staff determined that the Ecological Initiative tool has the greatest value for stream and wetland impacts. State and federal agencies are trying to identify new sites for wetland banks, and the tool could help identify those sites. Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) Public notices are issued by USACE about projects that appear to have impacts and MDC provides comments. MDC has Clean Water Act review authority as well as endangered species and wetlands review and uses USFWS Critical Habitat designation data, Heritage (Biological and Conservation Database) information, department- defined Conservation Opportunity Areas, and data sets from a variety of other sources to complete reviews. MDC staff sees value in the Ecological Initiative tool because it is locally and regionally specific. MDC reviews are GIS-based, so the geospatial data tool could be easily incorporated into their review. The Ecological Initiative tool could help guide the IRT Wetland Review and could help guide mitigation to priority areas. Great Rivers Greenway (GRG) GRG sees the Ecological Initiative tool incorporated into the organization’s greenway planning and specifically work related to the Meramec Greenway. Refinements to the tool that better reflect the undeveloped, parkland, and green buffer areas along the routes of existing and proposed greenways in the region would be beneficial to the agency. USFWS–IL The agency reviews projects for impacts on fish and wildlife per the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (FWCA) and associated requirements of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. IDOT sends a Biological Resources Review (BRR) to USFWS in cases of a potential impact. For wetland reviews, USFWS typically uses Google Earth, the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI), and occasionally Middle Mississippi River Partnership wetland mapping data. The Ecological 13

Initiative tool would be a good additional data source for their review. USFWS–MO Project review (exclusive of endangered species review) focus involves projects impacting waters of the United States. The wetland and stream assessment program guides the agency’s review. The Ecological Initiative tool would be a good additional source for project review. The Ecological Initiative tool would be useful in identifying good locations for wetland restoration in the region. U.S. EPA Region 7 The agency enforces the provisions of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and reviews and comments on permit applications. NEPA Assist is used for project review. Given the national scope of NEPA Assist, it is not likely the Ecological Initiative tool could be added to NEPA Assist. The Ecological Initiative tool could be incorporated as one of the commonly used data sets the agency uses in its reviews and project mitigation. Data Assessment Meeting On March 7, 2013, a data assessment meeting was held to discuss the Ecological Initiative tool. The goals were to discuss the usability of the tool and what could be improved. The group discussed data delivery mechanisms, the usability/applicability of the tool, how the data can address environmental issues pre-NEPA, what strategies and data sources should be pursued in the future, and what other geographic areas benefit from the local process. Individuals from federal, state and local resource, regulatory, and planning agencies were in attendance. Many of the individuals were participants in the data sharing and development of the Ecological Initiative tool. Below is a summary of input received from workshop attendees (Table 3.3). Summary of Bottlenecks and Opportunities Data Accessibility The Ecological Initiative tool has established priority ecological areas in the region. Given the methodology that was followed and the data sources used, regulatory and resource agencies recognize the validity of the designations and the ranges of ecological importance. Agencies have, within their organizations, data sets and tools that are used in planning and project reviews. However, these data are typically statewide data sets. Having a data set unique to the Saint Louis region is helpful in identifying priorities in the region. 14

Table 3.3. Summary of Feedback from Assessment Meeting Topic Summary of Input Project Development/Project Review Project sponsors should use the Ecological Initiative tool early in the project development process in order to avoid significant areas. At the NEPA and permit review stage, agencies are asked what impacts there are, not where a project should go. In this sense, environmental review is reactive. Agency staff members are not always involved early enough in the process to have maximum influence. During the permitting process, IDOT uses the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Ecological Compliance Assessment Tool (EcoCat) to determine project impacts. IDOT also uses the IDNR Detailed Impact Review Tool (DIRT) database. Mitigation Banks The Ecological Initiative tool would be useful in identifying potential wetlands banks and should be made available to potential bankers. When a mitigation bank application is made, the location has already been identified and is likely under the banker’s ownership already. Bankers work most closely with USACE. USACE typically uses an ecosystem approach to siting a bank. There are a few active bankers in Missouri and there are banks available in Illinois as a result of the construction of the I-70 Stan Musial Veterans’ Memorial Bridge. MoDOT is not doing a lot of banking right now due to the state’s funding situation. Part of the mitigation permit review in Missouri follows the Missouri Stream Mitigation Method. A banker can build a bank but can’t sell credits until it has been approved. Wetlands Data More extensive mapping of other waterways in the region such as the Meramec River and the Kaskaskia River is desirable, but funding for such work is limited. Lidar is available for most counties in the region. USGS is pushing a 7-year cycle for lidar updates. The USACE sees the potential for the Ecological Initiative tool to be used to prioritize projects on a large scale and could potentially be useful for the regulatory side of the agency, to prioritize locations in watersheds. Local Land-Use Planning While the Ecological Initiative tool was developed at a regional scale, it can be beneficial to local governments in identifying locations for conservation and restoration. The benefit of the data lay in governmental agencies and land conservancies proactively identifying locations and coordinating activities to preserve, mitigate, or restore those areas. Use of the data in the City of Saint 15

Louis and County is hampered by current land cover classification that shows the majority of the area as urban high intensity or urban low intensity. Greater ecological diversity is present but not represented. Local/Regional Agency Needs Heartlands Conservancy has a seven-county region; only three of the seven are in the Saint Louis region. The agency would like to see the Ecological Initiative tool extended to other watersheds in counties outside the Saint Louis region. The agency is conducting a green infrastructure plan for Southern Illinois to address stormwater, nodes, and future green space connectivity. Agency recommends considering future grant opportunities to expand wetlands data. MDC could apply the Ecological Initiative tool in locations such as the Confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The agency is interested in seeing the tool refined to aid in the restoration of green areas in the urbanized area, such as in the City of Saint Louis, where there is a need to rebuild green infrastructure. Accessibility of the Tool Making the Ecological Initiative tool widely available and readily usable by everyone is challenging. Computing capabilities vary from organization to organization. In some organizations, GIS software is not available. ArcView tools such as ArcViewer and ArcReader could be options for agencies without ArcView software. The tool does not have a dedicated online location for easy access. Availability on a web portal or similar site would be beneficial. The Missouri Spatial Data Information Service (MSDIS) is developing “clip and ship” for lidar data hosted on its website. While the Ecological Initiative tool has been distributed widely via flash drive, there are still many potential users who will need access. In order for the tool to be widely used, project developers will need access to the tool for application in the early planning stages. File size, legacy file formats, and software version variations across agencies create some challenges with sharing the data layers. For example, the underlying land cover data layer contains 1.1 million polygons in more than 60 categories. A file of this complexity is better suited to storage in a geodatabase than a shapefile, but several agencies prefer to work with shapefiles to avoid conflicts with geodatabase/software versions. As a zipped shapefile, the land cover layer is 1 gigabyte. Unzipped, it is almost twice that size. The file size creates challenges for agencies to download/upload the data. Clipping the data down to a small study area is the ideal solution for desktop users, but it requires very long processing times and requires significant processing capacity. 16

An option to improve the availability of the Ecological Initiative tool is to post the tool on the Missouri Spatial Data Information Service (MSDIS) website. MSDIS is housed within the Geographic Resources Center at the University of Missouri–Columbia and maintains a data portal and provides access to vast amounts of GIS data. A variety of GIS data is available on the publicly accessible site for free, but a fee is charged for some web services. MSDIS is developing and testing an automated “clip and download” technology. If the developers of the MSDIS site are successful with their prototype, the possibility exists that the same technology could be applied to the Ecological Initiative tool in the event it is made available on the site. Existing Land Cover Classification Currently the vast majority of Saint Louis City, Saint Louis County, and portions of Saint Charles County and Saint Clair County are classified as urban low intensity/urban high intensity. The maps do not segment out urban greenspace versus impervious cover. Hence, the ecological impact of a vast majority of projects appears identical (i.e., all occur in urban land cover) and low (i.e., no ecologically significant areas are impacted). A large number of federally funded transportation projects occur within the urbanized area of the region. When the Ecological Initiative tool was developed, the intention was for use at the regional scale. Users in urban areas need finer-resolution information. This challenge becomes evident when attempting to apply the data within the urbanized area of the region. While some greenspace is mapped in the urbanized matrix area portion of the Ecological Initiative tool, such as Forest Park and Calvary Cemetery, other existing greenspace could be depicted better. For example, greenways and green infrastructure are being actively promoted and developed in the region to address stormwater needs and to enhance greenspace connectivity. Greenway planning that seeks to promote healthy, active lifestyles contributes to the overall health of the region; the preservation and linking of these corridors could facilitate the restoration of waterways and related wetland environments they typically follow. Greenway planning, watershed planning, and stormwater Phase II planning would benefit significantly from data tools that identify viable areas for conservation or restoration. Proposed Enhancement of Ecological Initiative Geospatial Tool Of the issues identified in the assessment, the improvement in land cover mapping resolution proved to be the primary concern and was therefore addressed by the C40B2 team. Fine- resolution data were acquired and analyzed to address needs. This method involved acquisition of the fourth band of the Council’s 2012 orthoimagery imagery. Orthoimagery typically has four spectral bands: red, green, blue, and infrared. The Council currently has three spectral bands (red, green, blue) that were processed from the raw data flown in 2012. Three-band imagery gives the appearance of natural color, which is sufficient for uses that do not require the differentiation of vegetated versus un-vegetated surfaces. Color-infrared (CIR) orthoimagery facilitates the identification of impervious features by showing the difference in spectral 17

reflectance between natural vegetation and un-vegetated surfaces. The fourth band, the near- infrared portion of the raw data, is needed (together with lidar data) to develop fine-resolution maps of urban areas. Transferability of the Ecological Initiative Geospatial Tool There are three key areas of application of the Ecological Initiative tool: project planning and pre-NEPA analysis, wetland mitigation and restoration, and local and regional planning. The insights obtained through this analysis highlight lessons learned that are transferable to other geographic areas developing and implementing ecological geospatial tools (Table 3.4). Table 3.4. Lessons Learned and Insights in Transferability Key Applications of the Ecological Initiative Tool Lessons Learned/Insights into Transferability Project Planning/Pre- NEPA State DOTs and local project sponsors need to have access to the Ecological Initiative tool early in the planning process at the initial decision-making stage. Being able to plan around ecologically significant areas will go a long way toward protecting key areas. The intent of the tool is to enhance conservation while improving project delivery and reducing cost. If the project sponsor has to go back and adjust the project design, that will add time and cost to the project. Data availability and accessibility are critical. Access to the tool via a publicly accessible website for a wide range of users will address this significant access issue. Wetland Mitigation and Restoration The Ecological Initiative tool is instrumental in the identification of future wetland mitigation and restoration areas in the region. The tool provides regulatory agencies the data needed to proactively identify mitigation sites. The tool, when made available to wetland bankers, will guide future locations. Regulatory agencies cannot dictate the location of wetlands banks, but the marketplace that guides the siting of banks can be informed by the tool. Local/Regional Planning Agencies with small staffs and limited resources and capacity in the areas of GIS skill levels and computer technology may encounter difficulty accessing the Ecological Initiative tool. Lack of ArcGIS and other GIS viewing software as well as hard drive, RAM, and server space can be a constraint. Once the data are downloaded, the user has to be able to manipulate the data and load additional shapefiles related to the project area being reviewed. 18

The assessment of the Ecological Initiative tool provided the C40B2 team with feedback from key individuals from regulatory and resource agencies that will help advance the tool’s application in pre-NEPA planning, wetlands planning, and local and regional planning. 19