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Useful Online Publications and Websites
For Community Impact Assessment

(This listing does not constitute endorsement.) Updated: May 9, 2007

Websites Online Publications and Presentations Data Resources Legislation—Regulations—Guidance Other Resources NOT Online
   

Websites

USDOT Agency Web Sites

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Other Federal Agency Websites

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Partner/Stakeholder Websites

Online Publications and Presentations

CIA Related —Workshop & Conference Reports

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CIA Related — Publications

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Public Involvement Related

Public Involvement Websites

  • The mission of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Public Involvement website is to enhance the understanding, acceptance, and practice of public involvement as an art and science in transportation planning and project development activities by fostering research, identifying best practices, promoting use of new technologies, promulgating standards, and upgrading public involvement skills of transportation professionals.
  • The International Association for Public Participation website working through its members, helps organizations and communities around the world improve their decisions by involving those people who are affected by those decisions.
  • The Environmental Protection Agency Public Involvement website will help people understand how different types of public involvement relate to EPA programs; how public input can be used in EPA decision-making; and how to use tools to support effective public involvement.

FHWA Public Involvement Resources

  • Air Quality Planning for Transportation Officials, Interagency Consultation and Public Involvement
  • The South Carolina DOT Route 72 Environmental Assessment illustrates how important it is to adapt public involvement to the unique conditions and characteristics of a particular community. The case study highlights the essential connection between responsive public involvement and effective community impact assessment as well as the role that community impact assessment can play in meaningful alternatives analyses and the selection of alternatives to avoid significant social impacts and cumulative impacts.
  • The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission efforts are noteworthy both in terms of use of analytical techniques and public involvement. The agency undertook significant steps to publicize its efforts and involve the public, including hosting an open house to provide opportunities for public comments on the draft Environmental Justice Report.
  • FHWA and FTA 2004 Transportation Planning Excellence Awards for Public Involvement, Education, and Outreach:
    • Award Winner — Sacramento Region Blueprint,
      Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Sacramento, California
    • Award Winner — Transportation Plan 2030 Phase I Public Outreach and Involvement Program
      Metropolitan Transportation Commission, San Francisco Bay Area, California
    • Award Winner — Villages of Taft and Oceanlake District Redevelopment Plans,
      Lincoln City Urban Renewal Agency, Lincoln City, Oregon
    • Honorable Mention — 2003 Transportation Summit: Michigan Partnerships
      Michigan Department of Transportation, Lansing, Michigan
  • Indiana's Historic Bridge Program Public Involvement Plan, identifies four objectives: Provide opportunities for public participation that will effectively incorporate community concerns into the decision-making process; provide consistent, regular and timely information about the Section 106 programmatic agreement for bridges and the historic bridge survey; meet statutory requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 regarding public notice and opportunities for public involvement; and evaluate the effectiveness of this community involvement plan and make changes accordingly.
  • The FHWA Transportation and Community and System Preservation Pilot Program (TCSP) Public Involvement, Public Involvement Strategies for Shaping Communities includes four successful public involvement examples that included innovative public involvement techniques that seek to involve citizens in a meaningful way in shaping the future of their communities. These projects are taking the term "public involvement" far beyond the traditional public hearing format. Through hands-on techniques such as charrettes, design workshops, facilitated discussions, and preference surveys, members of the general public, government staff and elected officials, and developers engage in a dialogue over how the design of their communities and transportation systems could be improved.

Other Public Involvement Resources

State DOT and MPO Public Involvement Documents

Related Websites and Resources

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Title VI/EJ-Related

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Planning

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Data Resources

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Legislation — Regulations — Guidance

Laws

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U.S. Code — Codified Laws

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Environmental Regulations and Guidance

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Executive Orders

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Legislative Web sites

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Other Resources NOT Online

  1. A COMMUNITY GUIDE TO SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT, Rabel J. Burdge. 2004. 3rd Edition. Middleton, Wisconsin: Social Ecology Press, 192 pp, spiral bound. $18.95 ISBN: 0-941042-35-9. The Guide is a tool for practitioners at all levels-social scientist, agency employees, community leaders, volunteers-to complete social impact assessments (SIAs) efficiently and effectively. The Guide is a how-to manual that provides the user with a step-by-step process easily followed by persons with minimal social science training. 'The Guide is organized in three sections. Chapters 1-6 provide the background, a short history, the conceptual model, the SIA scooping process and an explanation as to how to obtain data to measure SIA variables. Chapters 7-11 correspond to the five categories of SIA variables-population change, community and institutional arrangements, communities in transition, individual and family impacts and community infrastructure needs. Chapters 12-13 provide worksheets for summarizing the results of the analysis and how the resulting data may be used in the SIA mitigation/ enhancement/ monitoring process.
  2. THE CONCEPTS, PROCESS AND METHODS of SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT, Rabel J. Burdge and Colleagues. 2004, Middleton, Wisconsin: Social Ecology Press, 320 pp. $19.95 ISBN: 0-941042-17-0. The Concepts, Process & Methods of SIA chronicles the conceptual and theoretical development of SIA by one of the founders and his colleagues. The 24 chapters are organized around the following topics: 1. Developing the concept of social impact assessment; 2.The process and methods of social impact assessment; 3.Case studies in social impact assessment; 4.Social impact assessment and the public involvement process; and 5.Social impact assessment in an international context.
  3. SOCIAL ASSESSMENT: THEORY, PROCESS AND TECHNIQUES, 3RD EDITION. C. Nicholas Taylor, Hobson Bryan and Colin Goodrich. 2004. Middleton, Wisconsin: Social Ecology Press, 220 pp. $16.95 ISBN: 0-941042-36-7. Social Assessment provides a process for research, planning and management of change arising from projects, programs, and policies. Applied to the design and implementation of changes causing social effects, the process is established internationally as an integral component of EIAs and decisionmaking. Application to projects ranges from community level to large infrastructure and industrial development. Strategic application of social assessment also occurs in the development of programs and policies.
  4. Social Impact Assessment Documents: A Manuel of Supporting Documents for SIA Courses. Rabel J. Burdge. 2003. Approximately 400 pp (mimeo) $22.00. This spiral bound mimeographed manual includes 22 sections of supporting information for practitioners actually involved in doing SIAs. Table of contents distributed as requested.
  5. The Practice of Social Impact Assessment: Part I. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, Rabel J. Burdge. Guest Editor. 2003. 21(2): pp. 81-160. $10.00. The first of two special issues includes eight case studies where an SIA was actually completed. Settings include among others; mining in Aboriginal areas of Australia, Oil drilling in Canada, Salmon recovery in the US Pacific Northwest, Out of centre shopping malls and water projects in developing countries. View the table of contents on-line.
  6. The Practice of Social Impact Assessment: Part II. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, Rabel J. Burdge. Guest Editor. 2003. 21(3): pp. 166-250. $10.00. The second of two special issues includes eight case studies focusing on, for example, highway and road developments, restarting nuclear power plants, siting coal fired generators, siting waste disposal facilities and the impacts of reservoir development.
    View the table of contents on-line.
These six books may be purchased directly from Rabel by a check drawn on a U.S. bank, Western Union, or international money order (no credit cards) made out and sent to:

Rabel J. Burdge, PO Box 4056, Bellingham, WA 98227-4056
Phone 360-676-9892; FAX: 360-715-0985

He will send an invoice that includes the cost of shipping The first three books may be ordered directly from: Social Ecology Press — Toll Free 1-888-364-3277. Postage and handling is extra.

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