Environmental Performance Measures Report

FHWA Human and Natural Environment Goal: To protect and enhance the natural environment and communities affected by highway transportation. In support of this goal, FHWA is committed to enhancing the community and social benefits of highway transportation, and improving the quality of the natural environment by reducing highway-related pollution and by protecting and enhancing ecosystems.

Two air quality indicators currently measure our performance in meeting this strategic goal and objective: reducing on-road mobile source emission by 20 percent in 10 years, and improving each year the percentage of nonattainment and maintenance areas that are meeting their mobile source emissions budgets.

Providing compensatory mitigation on Federal-aid highway projects that results in a net increase of wetland acreage of at least 50 percent over a 10-year period from 1996 to 2006 is another indicator of meeting the objective of protecting the natural environment. Information compiled from FHWA field offices that allows a comparison of the area of wetlands unavoidably impacted to the area of wetlands provided through compensatory wetland mitigation efforts documents agency performance toward achieving this indicator.