Areas of Expertise
THE VOLPE CENTER'S ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERIENCE encompasses a wide variety of environmental issues and areas of expertise. The primary focus of the environmental work at the Volpe Center is on the impacts of transportation systems on the natural environment. In addition, the Volpe Center has also been long involved with analysis of the transportation of hazardous materials (hazmat). The following is a brief sampling of some of the types of environmental work in which the Volpe Center has recently been engaged:
- Ecosystems analysis
- Noise and vibration
- Fate and transport of pollutants
- Air quality
- Environmental compliance
- Energy analysis and audits
- Policy analysis
- Climate variability analysis
- Transportation greenhouse gas emissions
THE VOLPE CENTER'S MULTIDISCIPLINARY TECHNICAL STAFF has a broad range of skills and expertise to address complex issues and to devise practical responses to real-world problems. The Center's staff has the expertise to successfully tackle problems that encompass the full spectrum of transportation and environmental issues, from measurement, modeling and analysis of air and water quality and noise, to monitoring and compliance assessment, remediation and restoration, information systems to manage environmental data, and to "green" transportation solutions to prevent or reduce pollution. Increasingly, the Center has provided environmental policy and regulatory development support to DOT, ensured NEPA products and process compliance for complex transportation planning and development projects, and provided technical analyses to enable informed decision making on difficult issues including contributions to climate change.
