EPA/600/R-17/169 | April 2016 | www.epa.gov/reseaixh
OfcrM
United States
Environmental Protection
Aqencv
Sustainability Tools Inventory
Initial Gap Analysis
Office of Research and Development
National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory / Western Ecology Division

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EPA/600/R-17/169
April 2016
Sustainability Tools Inventory
Initial Gap Analysis
by
Oneida Total Integrated Enterprises
Milwaukee, WI 53226
and
RTI International
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
EP-D-11-060 (Task 4, Work Assignment 037)
Project Officer
Allen Brookes
Western Ecology Division
National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory
Corvallis, OR 97333

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Notice/Disclaimer Statement
This document has been reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research
and Development, and approved for publication. The views expressed in this report are those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.
Data Quality Statement: Every attempt was made to gather information on all relevant tools, but it is
possible the sources were not comprehensive and some relevant tools were missed.
Abstract
This report identifies a suite of tools that address a comprehensive set of community sustainability
concerns. The objective is to discover whether "gaps" exist in the tool suite's analytic capabilities. These
tools address activities that significantly influence resource consumption, waste generation, and hazard
generation including air pollution and greenhouse gases. In addition, the tools have been evaluated using
four screening criteria: relevance to community decision making, tools in an appropriate developmental
stage, tools that may be transferrable to situations useful for communities, and tools with requiring skill
levels appropriate to communities.
This report was submitted in fulfillment of EP-D-11-060 by Oneida Total Integrated Enterprises and
RTI International under the sponsorship of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

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F oreword
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged by Congress with protecting the Nation's
land, air, and water resources. Under a mandate of national environmental laws, the Agency strives to
formulate and implement actions leading to a compatible balance between human activities and the
ability of natural systems to support and nurture life. To meet this mandate, EPA's research program is
providing data and technical support for solving environmental problems today and building a science
knowledge base necessary to manage our ecological resources wisely, understand how pollutants affect
our health, and prevent or reduce environmental risks in the future.
The National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) within the Office of
Research and Development (ORD) conducts systems-based, effects research needed to achieve
sustainable health and wellbeing. Research encompasses both human and ecosystem health, in that they
are inextricably linked.
This document provides an initial gap analysis in the area of community sustainability decision support
tools. It provides a reference to communities for existing decision support tools, and a set of gaps for
those wishing to develop additional needed tools to help communities to achieve sustainability.
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Table of Contents
Notice/Disclaimer Statement	iii
Table of Contents	v
Acknowledgments	viii
1.	Introduction	1
1.1	Tool Identification and Screening	1
1.2	Screening Criteria for Inclusion in Inventory	1
1.3	Inventory Descriptive Fields	2
1.4	STAR Community Rating System	4
1.5	Gaps Identified	5
2.	Buildings & Infrastructure Tools	8
2.1	Potential Uses of Building Tools	8
2.2	Tool Usability	8
2.3	Comprehensiveness of Analysis Capabilities	11
2.4	Tools Analysis	13
2.4.1	Energy and Buildings Tools	13
2.4.2	Energy Use Tools	13
2.4.3	Roofs Impact on Energy Use Tools	14
2.5	Renewable Energy Tools	14
2.5.1	Renewable Energy Tools	14
2.5.2	Storm water Management Tools	15
2.5.3	Building & Site Material Use - Tools	17
2.5.4	Whole Buildings & Site Tools	17
2.5.5	Buildings & Site as Part of the Community Tools	18
2.6	Gaps Analysis	19
2.7	Conclusions	22
3.	Land Use Tools	23
3.1	Potential Uses of Land Use Tools	23
3.2	Tool Usability	23
3.3	Comprehensiveness of Analysis Capabilities	26
3.4	Tool Analysis	28
3.5	Land Use Scenario Tools	28
3.6	Scenario Impact Tools	28
3.7	Gaps Analysis	31
3.8	Conclusions	32
4.	Transportation Tools	33
4.1	Potential Uses of Transportation Tools	33
4.2	Tool Usability	34
4.3	Comprehensiveness of Analysis Capabilities	37
4.4	Tools Analysis	39
4.5	Gaps Analysis	42
4.6	Conclusions	43
5.	Waste Management Tools	44
5.1	Potential Uses of Waste Management Tools	44
5.2	Tool Usability	45
5.3	Comprehensiveness of Analysis Capabilities	48
5.4	Tools Analysis	50
5.5	Integrated/LCA-Based Waste System Tools	50
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5.5.1 Targeted Waste Tools	52
5.6	Gaps Analysis	52
5.7	Conclusions	53
6. References	54
Appendix A: Tools Screen	55
Table of Figures
Figure 1-1. Venn diagram of the intersection of four sustainability sectors and 72 sustainability tools.... 6
Figure 1:2- Heat map of 68 sustainablity tools (4 tools were not evaluated) showing the number of
STAR keywords (Goals and Objectives) for each tool	7
Figure 1:3- Bubble chart of the STAR Goals and number of STAR Objectives for 72 sustainability
tools	7
Tables
Table 1.1. Four screening criteria for tool exclusion	1
Table 1.2. Database fields containing information collected for 72 sustainability tools	2
Table 1.3. STAR Community Rating System framework of goals and objectives	4
Table 2.1 .Existing READ Fields - Buildings & Infrastructure	9
Table 2.2. Evaluation Metrics Developed by OTIE - Buildings & Infrastructure	10
Table 2.3 Desirable Tool Analysis Capabilities by STAR Categories - Buildings & Infrastructure	12
Table 3.1 Existing READ Fields - Land Use	24
Table 3.2. Evaluation Metrics Developed by OTIE - Land Use	25
Table 3.3. Desirable Tool Analysis Capabilities by STAR Categories - Land Use	27
Table 4.1. Existing READ Fields - Transportation	35
Table 4.2. Evaluation Metrics Developed by OTIE - Transportation	36
Table 4.3. Desirable Tool Analysis Capabilities by STAR Categories - Transportation	38
Table 5.1. Existing READ Fields - Waste Management	46
Table 5.2. Evaluation Metrics Developed by OTIE - Waste Management	47
Table 5.3. Desirable Tool Analysis Capabilities by STAR Categories - Waste Management	49
vi

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Acronyms and Abbreviations
CE	Community Elements
DOT	Department of Transportation
EPA	US Environmental Protection Agency
GHG	Greenhouse Gas
GIS	Geographic Information System
ITS	Intelligent Transportation Systems
LCA	Life Cycle Assessment
LID	Low-Impact Development
MPO	Metropolitan Planning Organizations
ORD	Office of Research & Development
OTIE	Oneida Total Integrated Enterprises
READ	Registry of EPA Applications, Models and Databases
REDD	Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
SHCRP	Sustainable and Health Communities Research Program
STAR	Sustainability Tools for Assessing & Rating Communities
SWM	Stormwater Management
VMT	Vehicle Miles Traveled
vii

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Acknowledgments
Allen Brookes (EPA) Project lead.
David Eskew (OTIE) coordinated and managed development of the Sustainability Tools Inventory,
Gaps Analysis.
Lisa Wainger (OTIE) provided technical guidance for conduct of the search for tools and served as the
lead for developing the evaluation criteria, and co-authored the Land Use Tools chapter.
Don Catanzaro (OTIE) prepared the overall introduction and summary of the tool characteristics and co-
authored the Land Use Tools chapter.
Alan Britt (OTIE) led the inventory and evaluation of the Building and Infrastructure tools chapter.
Mari Westin (OTIE) and Steve Whayland (OTIE) co-authored the Building and Infrastructure Tools
chapter.
Steven Bartell (OTIE) authored the Transportation Tools chapter.
Keith Weitz (RTI International) authored the Waste Management Tools chapter.
The authors would also like to thank Eric Morris and Jean Mayo (OTIE) for conducting the search for
tools and maintaining the Excel database of information on tool characteristics, as well as, Emily
Zimmermann (OTIE) for assembling the document and editorial support.
viii

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1 .Introduction
As part of the Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program (SHCRP), the US Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research & Development (ORD) is producing an inventory and evaluation
of software tools relevant to community decision making that promote sustainability, especially in the four key
areas (a k a sectors) of transportation, land use, waste disposal, and buildings & infrastructure. These evaluated
tools address activities that significantly influence resource consumption, waste generation, and hazard generation
including air pollution and greenhouse gases. A major role of this inventory is to provide the sustainability user
community with information and data about software tools that will help them in making decisions about what
tool is appropriate to address their issue(s). SHCRP's plan is to make this inventory open and accessible to all via
one or more public-facing EPA websites.
Recognizing that software tools share many commonalities, it is important that tools be categorized in ways that
users will be able to easily find tools both relevant and useful. Tools can be categorized by the problems they are
designed to solve, by the type of user, by the data needed to use the tool, by the documentation available for the
tool, etc. While the listing of tools and categorization is important to users such as communities, this report serves
a different function and is intended to identify whether the suite of tools identified and screened address a
comprehensive set of community concerns or whether "gaps" exist in the tools' analytic capabilities.
To facilitate the identification of gaps, we produced a sustainability tool inventory database. The database has
some overlap with the Registry of EPA Applications, Models and Databases (READ) in that it shares some
database fields with the databases housed within READ. The final database of community decision models has
been incorporated into READ. This "gap" report analyzes identified tools to determine the relevance for each tool
and identifies overall database deficiencies, or gaps, in reference to the four decision sectors.
1.1	Tool Identification and Screening
The intended audience for the database of sustainability tools includes government officials, community
organizers, non-profit agencies, and interested community members, including residents and businesses. We did
not target advanced tools aimed at experts such as architects, engineers and other scientists, unless those tools also
included a component that could be used by those with limited specialized expertise. For example, a building
design tool may provide default numbers that a non-specialist might use to understand tradeoffs in building
design. The tool might also provide an interface, intended for an architect or engineer, in which to enter
values for specific materials that will be used in a building plan. If the first option or both options were
available, we included the tool. If the tool only included the latter capability, we excluded it to focus on
general knowledge.
The search/data gathering phase involved three parts: 1) evaluating review articles or reports on related
topics; 2) searching databases and directories of tools identified by reports, articles or discussions with
knowledgeable parties such as planners, EPA personnel, and modelers, and; 3) searching professional
association web sites for additional databases and directories. As previously reported, 17 reports and 57
websites were reviewed for collections of sustainability tools.1
1.2	Screening Criteria for Inclusion in Inventory
Using simple criteria during the search process, we excluded 308 identified tools (Table 1:1). Our screening
criteria were based on goals established by Allen Brookes and Betsy Smith (EPA office of Research and
Development) which included a vision for an ideal final database which consisted of a comprehensive set of tools
and information resources for communities. In this first phase of database development, we focused on a priority
goal to identify tools that could quantify impacts of possible alternatives.
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Table 1.1. Four screening criteria for tool exclusion
Criterion
Description
Number of Tools (see
Appendix A)
Scope
Relevance
Tools which calculate impacts to compare alternative decisions.
Tools aimed at addressing decisions relevant to one or more of the four
decision sectors (land use, transportation waste management, buildings).
Tools which are not based primarily on a basic biophysical model that
would be difficult to use to support a decision (e.g., a model calculating
dissolved organic carbon).
Out of Scope: 134
Development
Stage
Tools which are in a form that can be used now.
Tools which are new or regularly updated; or, if not, is the only tool that
calculates a relevant impact.
Tools which could be located.
Lacking Development
Stage: 42
Transferability
Tools which could be transferred to another case study by changing the
data used and without substantial changes to the model/tool.
Actual tools (e.g. not a book, paper, or website with links to other tools,
etc.)
Tools which are not overly broad (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Autodesk).
Tools which produce output available to the user.
Not Transferable: 131
Difficulty of Use
or Time Required
to Use
Tools were not generally screened by effort except in cases where the
model required extraordinary levels of data collection and model
calibration particularly as it applies to transferring the model to a new
study area (e.g., some types of watershed models can take a year to
prepare to run)
Expert System: 1
1.3 Inventory Descriptive Fields
After screening, a total of 72 tools were included in the final sustainability tools database which is currently
planned to be housed within the EPA's Registry of EPA Applications, Models and Databases (READ). The
EPA's READ database was designed for another purpose and thus the existing fields will be used as needed, as
they apply to the tool database (Table 1:2). Other fields are to be added to suit existing needs. Data for each of the
72 tools were collected by a single analyst over seven months.
Table 1.2. Database fields containing information collected for 72 sustainability tools
Field Name
Domain
Notes
Date


User

Analyst's Name
Information Resource Identifier

READ field
Information Resource Title

READ field
Information Resource Short
Title

READ field
Name

READ field
Acronym

READ field
Short Description for Reports

READ field
Ownership Type
Internal; External
READ field
Information Resource Type

READ field
Base Cost of Software
$0; $1 - $499; $500 - $1499; $1500 - $4000; > $4000
New field. Returns will include
models of equal or lesser cost.
Other Cost Considerations

New field. Explain complex cost
structure (e.g., if software is free
to some types of users, etc.)
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licld Name
l)om;iiii
Noles
(»pen Source
Yes; No; Partial
New field
Alternative Names

READ field
Sustainability Sector
Buildings & Infrastructure; Land use; Transportation;
Waste Management
New field
Constrained Keywords

STAR keywords (see below) will
be used in addition to analyst
generated keywords.
Keywords

Free text entry
Organization

READ field.
Contact Person

READ field
Phone Number

READ field
Email

READ field
Internet

READ field
Life Cycle
Beta; Mature; Available, but no Longer Supported
READ field
Last Known Software Update

READ field
READ Info Updated

New field. Date tool reviewed
Operating Environment
Desktop; Browser; Mobile
New field
Compatible Operating Systems
Windows; Mac; UNIX/Linux; iOS; Android; N/A
READ field
Other proprietary software
requirements (if any)
ESRI ArcGIS; Excel; Access; Other
READ field
Model Inputs

New field
Data requirements
None - All Data Provided; Low - Data Generally
Publicly Available; Med - Not Publicly Available, but
Routinely Available; High - New Data Must Be
Created
New field
wModel Output Types
Data (spreadsheet, database); Indicators; Indices,
Aggregate Scores; Priority Ranks; Monetary Values,
ROI; Graphs; Maps; GIS layers; 3-D Visualizations,
Movies; Checklists; Narratives, Reports
New field
Output Variables

New field.
Source of Support Materials

New field. URL (multiple URLs
for alternative sources of user
guides)
Types of Support Materials
Documentation; Tutorials; Case Studies; Knowledge
Base / Wiki; User Forum; Technical Support;
Training Courses
New field.
Model Evaluation

READ field
Model Structure
Web Calculator; Spreadsheet Calculator; Web-Based
GIS Tool; GIS Analysis Tool; Simulation Model;
Other
READ field.
Time Scale
Point in Time; Annual; Multi-Year; Other;
Insufficient Information
New field.
Spatial Extent
Building; Site; Neighborhood; City; County; State;
Region; Nation; Continent; Globe
New field.
Target User

READ field
Technical skills needed to apply
model
Spreadsheet Calc/Basic Math; Basic GIS;
Intermediate GIS; Advanced GIS; Basic Statistics;
Advanced Statistics; Model Calibration; Software
Coding; None; Other Specialized Knowledge
New field.
Interfaces to other Resources

READ field
3

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1.4 STAR Community Rating System
Throughout this analysis, we have used the STAR Community Rating System (STAR Communities,
2012) as an organizing concept to assist in evaluating whether tools in any of the four decision sectors of
transportation, buildings & infrastructure, land use, waste management conform to community needs in
terms of matching up with sustainability goals. The STAR system is a comprehensive approach to rating
community sustainability. STAR metrics cover conditions that can be observed and measured (e.g.,
physical environment, school condition) as well as conditions that are best captured with surveys or
observational studies (e.g., community engagement).
The STAR Community Rating System is built on a framework of sustainability goals, objectives (Table
1:3), and more detailed evaluation measures (not shown). Information regarding the STAR
goals/objectives/evaluation measures relevant to each of the 72 tools was captured during the tool
inventory process. The evaluation done by OTIE on these 72 tools is qualitative and somewhat
preliminary based on current understanding of the individual tools. Certain information regarding the
tools is unavailable without purchase of the software.
Table 1.3. STAR Community Rating System framework of goals and objectives
STAR Goal Area
STAR Objectives
Built Environment
Ambient Noise and Light
Community Water System
Compact and Complete Communities
Infill and Redevelopment
Public Spaces
Transportation Choices
Climate and Energy
Climate Adaptation
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
Greening the Energy Supply
Industrial Sector Resource Efficiency
Resource Efficient Buildings
Resource Efficient Public Infrastructure
Waste Minimization
Economy and Jobs
Business Retention and Development
Green Market Development
Local Economy
Quality Jobs and Living Wages
Targeted Industry Development
Workforce Readiness
Education, Arts and
Community
Arts and Culture
Community Cohesion
Educational Opportunity and Attainment
Historic Preservation
Social and Cultural Diversity
Equity and
Empowerment
Civic Engagement
Civil and Human Rights
Environmental Justice
Equitable Services and Access
Human Services
Poverty Prevention and Alleviation
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STAR Goal Area
STAR Objectives
Health and Safety
Active Living
Community Health and Health System
Emergency Prevention and Response
Food Access and Nutrition
Indoor Air Quality
Natural Systems
Green Infrastructure
Invasive Species
Natural Resource Protection
Outdoor Air Quality
Water in the Environment
Working lands (Agricultural and Forest)
1.5 Gaps Identified
Our inventory of sustainability tools found a total of 72 tools which were spread fairly evenly across the
four sustainability sectors: 30 with Buildings & Infrastructure (41%), 16 dealt with Land Use (22%), 23
with Transportation (32%), and 16 with Waste Management (22%). While our spread across the four
sectors was relatively even, overall, most tools focused on only a single sector (63 tools, 88%), with
very few tools involved in two or more sectors (9 tools, 12%) (Figure 1:1). This concentration was most
pronounced in the Buildings and Infrastructure sector, with 27 out of the 30 (90%) tools only being
within the Buildings and Infrastructure sector, and somewhat less concentrated in the Waste
Management sector tools with 12 out of the 16 tools (75%) focused solely on Waste Management. Land
Use and Transportation sectors were only slightly less concentrated on their sectors (63% and 61%
respectively). Our assessment of the sustainability tools available to communities is that most are
created to work primarily within a single sector and that multi-disciplinary tools that work across several
fields are lacking.
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ACS?
Vz
^ / 28
0
0
11
0
0
21
0
0
0
12
0
0
0
0
Figure 1-1. Venn diagram of the intersection of four sustainability sectors and 72 sustainability tools.
The numbers in each ellipse represent the number of tools identified.
Each of the 72 tools was assessed with respect to STAR Goals and Objectives and a high degree of
concentration was observed (Figure 1:2). Of the 72 tools, none were found to touch upon all seven
STAR goals, and over 80% of all tools crossed fewer than three STAR Goals - 15 had three STAR
Goals (21%), 24 had two STAR Goals (33%), and 18 had only one STAR Goals (25%). Of the seven
STAR Goals three in particular seem to be less represented: Economy and Jobs; Education, Arts and
Community; Equity and Empowerment (Figures 1:2 and 1:3).
6

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Figure 1.1 - Heat map of 68 sustoinoblity tools (4 tools were not evaluated) showing the number of STAR keywords (Goals and Objectives) for each tool.
o
$
CD to
^ ai
en •-
g U
£ .2.
O O
u w
Q)
£
3
#
& ft fa
Built	Climate	Natural
Environment	and	Systems
Energy
Health	Economy Education,	Equity
and	and	Arts and	and
Safety	Jobs Community Empowerment
Figure 1.2 - Bubble chart of the STAR Goals and number of STAR Objectives for 72 sustain ability tools.
1

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2.Buildings & Infrastructure Tools
2.1	Potential Uses of Building Tools
The tools in this category must provide users with information that address a broad spectrum of needs in
relation to healthy and sustainable communities. At one end is information relevant to building
performance, such as energy inputs & costs, thermal efficiency, lighting optimization, life cycle costs,
water efficiency, and environmental impacts. At the other end are impacts on socioeconomic factors,
urban context and character, effects of scale and density, and visual aesthetics. These are less easily
codified and measured, yet they factor heavily into a municipality's ability to attract people and
industry, and the potential to become a more healthy and sustainable community. Between these
extremes are issues of multi-modal transportation ease & accessibility, open space preservation,
stormwater management, parking, infrastructure integration & access, and other 'site' issues that may be
well-documented, but not necessarily addressed with tools employed at the building scale. For the
purpose of this report, "buildings & infrastructure" has been defined as the building shell and structure,
and the site area. This includes the materials that make up the building and the building and site
mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that support and allow the building to operate properly. It
also includes site features, such as hardscape, landscape, and stormwater management systems, which
support, enhance, and provide access to the building.
End users of the tools in this sector face a wide variety of issues, and possess varying requirements for
information at multiple levels of complexity. The tools that ultimately populate the database must reflect
those variations. The target audience for this web-accessed inventory has been identified as government
officials, community organizers, non-profit agencies, and interested community members, including
residents and businesses. Users in this broad target audience may require a variety of output types from a
given tool. A few of the possibilities are:
Data to pass along to a constituent;
Data to support policy or a compelling case for action;
Narratives or conclusions to pass along to a constituent;
Narratives or conclusions to support policy or a compelling case for action.
Municipal decision-makers can, to a degree limited by budget and political constraints, control the
program for municipally-owned buildings. These buildings typically represent a minority of design and
construction projects in any community. To expand sustainable building practices in non-public
commercial buildings, municipalities occasionally must leverage compelling arguments, essentially to
inspire private-sector building owners to exceed sustainability requirements.
To ensure that decision-makers have sufficient information to maximize their sustainability efforts
across the spectrum of impact, they must have access to the most comprehensive body of information
possible. To that end, we must identify any gaps in relevant information provided by the tools in our
database. Identification of these gaps will allow us to articulate the necessary steps to create additional
tools that provide complete and comprehensive guidance to those charged with making our communities
more sustainable.
2.2	Tool Usability
We identified a total of 30 tools that could be classified as building and infrastructure-related tools, and
evaluated those using metrics already incorporated into READ (Table 2:1) and new metrics that we
8

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created to reflect usability, cost-effectiveness, and integrity (Table 2:2). We created summary statistics
of this new database to illustrate the state of the field, as captured by efforts to date.
As shown in Tables 2:1 and 2:2, the majority of the tools identified are free desktop- or browser- based
tools that operate on the Windows platform. About 2/3 of the tools do not allow open access to the
source coding. More than half of the tools include documentation, such as a user's guide, and several
provide tutorials, training courses and/or technical support. The most common model outputs generated
are tabular results, graphs, and narrative reports; in addition, the stormwater tools generate maps. The
tools identified for the building and infrastructure structure are mainly simulation models, 2/3 of the
tools, with a few being spreadsheet or web based calculators. There are 10 GIS analysis tools which all
look at stormwater. Most of the tools, 22 out of 30, do not require any other software to run the model.
Table 2.1. Existing READ Fields - Buildings & Infrastructure
Field
Description
Summary Statistic
Life Cycle
Stage of development of the
software tool at the time of
database update
0/30
30/30
0/30
0/30
Beta
Mature
Available but No Longer Supported
Insufficient Information
Last Known Software
Update
Summarized in year ranges
0/30
13/30
3/30
2/30
12/30
Current year
l-3yr
3-5yr
>5yr
Insufficient Information
Compatible Operating
Systems
Native operating system (OS) for
desktop and mobile tools.
Browser-based tools are shown
as N/A since they operate
independently of the OS.
22/30
4/30
2/30
0/30
0/30
6/30
2/30
Windows
Mac
UNIX/Lenux
iOS
Android
N/A
Insufficient Information
Other proprietary software
requirements (if any):
Additional software needed to
run the model.
3/30
3/30
3/30
22/30
Excel
ERSI ArcGIS
Other
None
Model Evaluation
Indicates whether independent,
peer-reviewed evaluations of the
tool had been published at the
time of database update.
23/30
Tools have evaluations available
Model Structure
General categories of tool type
20/30
1/30
3/30
10/30
1/30
Simulation Model
Speadsheet Calculator
Web Calculator
GIS Analysis Tool
Web-Based GIS Tool
Interfaces to Other
Resources
Indicates whether a tool imports,
exports or otherwise interfaces
with any other software tools.
14/30
Tools interface with other resources
9

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Table 2.2. Evaluation Metrics Developed by OTIE- Buildings & Infrastructure
Field
Description
Summary
Statistic
Base Cost of
Software
Minimum cost of acquiring software/system
(excluding add-on modules). Some tools offer
student discounts or variable pricing, which is noted
in another field.
17/30
3/30
3/30
0/30
0/30
7/30
So
S1-S499
$500-$ 1499
$1500-$4000
> $4000
Insufficient Information
Open Source
Source code accessible?
8/30
19/30
3/30
2/16
Yes
No
Partial
Insufficient Information
Operating
Environment
Platforms on which software tool is operable.
24/30
7/30
1/30
0/30
Desktop
Browser
Mobile
Insufficient Information
Data Requirements
None= all data provided
Low = Data generally publicly available
Med = Not publicly available but routinely available
High = New data must be created
4/30
5/30
9/30
11/30
1/30
None
Low
Medium
High
Insufficient Information
Model Output
Types
Method of displaying returns generated by software
tool.
16/30
1/30
3/30
1/30
1/30
19/30
12/30
6/30
6/30
0/30
18/30
1/30
Data (spreadsheet database)
Indicators
Indices, Aggregate Scores
Priority Ranks
Monetary Value, ROI
Graphs
Maps
G IS Layers
3-D Visualizations, Movies
Checklists
Narratives, Reports
Other
Types of Support
Materials
Support available from the developer, user
community, or elsewhere.
16/30
7/30
14/30
9/30
10/30
13/30
12/30
4/30
Documentation
Case Studies
Tutorials
Knowledge Base / Wiki
User Forum
Technical Support
Training Courses
Insufficient Information
Time Scale
Projection period(s) for modeling tools. May not be
applicable to all tool types.
18/30
22/30
15/30
5/30
4/30
Point in Time
Annual
Multi-Year
Other
Insufficient Information
Spatial Extent
Geographical unit(s) in which the model is
applicable.
18/30
17/30
13/30
14/30
4/30
4/30
4/30
1/30
1/30
1/30
0/30
Building
Site
Neighborhood
City
County
State
Region
Nation
Continent
Globe
Insufficient Information
Technical skills
needed to apply
model
User capabilities required for proper application of
software tool.
6/30
1/30
2/30
0/30
0/30
0/30
0/30
0/30
18/30
4/30
0/30
Spreadsheet Calc/Basic Math
Basic GIS
Intermediate GIS
Advanced GIS
Basic Statistics
Advanced Statistics
Model Calibration
Software Coding
None
Other Specialized Knowledge
Insufficient Information
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2.3 Comprehensiveness of Analysis Capabilities
Throughout our analysis, one benchmark that we have used is the STAR Community Rating System
(STAR Communities, 2012). This rating system helps us to evaluate whether tools conform to
community needs in terms of matching up with sustainability goals. The STAR system is a
comprehensive approach to rating community sustainability. STAR metrics cover conditions that can be
observed and measured, as well as conditions that are best captured with surveys or observational
studies. The following section characterizes the combined capabilities across the selected Buildings &
Infrastructure Tools. Table 2:3 qualitatively describes the attributes of the individual tools as defined by
the STAR categories. It is worth noting that the results of this collective tabulation of selected tool
capabilities can help identify gaps that need to be addressed in order to have the comprehensive
information necessary for making decisions leading towards a more sustainable community.
The characterization in Table 2:3 is qualitative and somewhat preliminary based on current
understanding of the individual tools (e.g. for some tools extensive information about capabilities cannot
be accessed until the tool has been bought/downloaded). More detailed analysis of the tools might revise
the following tabulation, but the current characterization serves as a useful starting point for the gap
analysis of Buildings & Infrastructure tools.
As illustrated in the table, most of the selected Buildings & Infrastructure sector tools are designed to
address the environmental aspects of the "Climate and Energy" category, where there is also a direct
impact. The STAR category "Built Environment" is mainly focused on land-use issues rather than
buildings; however, the design of buildings and its infrastructure has direct effects on several of the
objectives/elements within this category. For the category "Health and Safety" there are objectives with
a strong correlation to the Buildings & Infrastructure sector however, this is not really covered in any
way by the building related tools selected in this project (except to the extent it is addressed by the tools
which are mainly land use sector tools). The Buildings & Infrastructure sector also has a direct impact
on objectives within the category "Natural Systems", but this is only sparsely addressed apart from the
storm water-related tools. For the analysis of tools related to stormwater management, we have selected
elements of the STAR system which are most applicable to stormwater planning. Four
objectives/elements within three STAR system categories have been identified to evaluate stormwater
tools capabilities: safe stormwater management under the "Built Environment" category, vulnerability
reduction under the "Climate and Energy" category, and green infrastructure and chemical pollutants
integrity under the "Natural Systems" category.
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Table 2.3 Desirable Tool Analysis Capabilities by STAR Categories - Buildings & Infrastructure
Star Community Rating
System Goals &
Objectives
Buildings & Infrastructure Tools
Based on the STAR
Community Rating System
Goals & Objectives. More
information on Evaluation
Measures and the STAR
Community Rating System
is available at
http://vwvw. sta rco mmu n iti es.
o rg/rati n g -sy ste m/f ra me wo rk
ATHENA
BASINS
BEES
BLCC5
Civil Storm
CommunityViz
Cool Roof Calculator
+
LD
Eco-Bat
eQuest
eSight
FRESA
HSPF
InfoSWMM
LISA
MetroQuest
MIKE URBAN
PCSWIMM
RSC
cc
in
Storm and Sanitary Analysis
SUSTAIN
SWC
IAIIAIMS
TREAT
Urban Footprint
VE-Toolkit
VE-Ware
WinSLAMM
XPSWMM
Built Environment

X

X
X
X


X

X

X
X
X
X
X
X


X
X
X
X

X
X

X
X
Ambient Noise and Light








X

X



















Community Water System

X

X
X





X

X
X
X
X
X
X


X
X
X
X

X
X

X
X
Compact and Complete
Communities





X



















X




Infill and Redevelopment

























X




Public Spaces

























X




Transportation Choices

























X




Climate and Energy
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Climate Adaptation

X










X








X
X





X

Greehouse Gas Mitigation
X

X


X


X


X


X










X
X
X


Greening the Energy Supply











X


















Industrial Sector Resource
Efficiency


X







X
X


















Resource Efficient Buildings
X


X


X
X
X
X
X
X


X



X
X




X
X
X
X


Resource Efficient Public
Infrastructure
X


X
X

X
X
X
X
X
X

X
X
X
X

X
X
X


X

X
X
X

X
Waste Minimization
X

X











X













X

Economy and Jobs





X
























Business Retention and
Development






























Green Market Development






























Local Economy





X
























Quality Jobs and Living
Wages






























Targeted Industry
Development






























Workforce Readiness






























Education, Arts and
Community





X
























Arts and Culture






























Community Cohesion






























Educational Opportunity and
Attainment






























Historic Preservation






























Social and Cultural Diversity





X
























Equity and Empowerment





X
























Civic Engagement






























Civil and Human Rights






























Environmental Justice






























Equitable Services and
Access





X
























Human Services






























Poverty Prevention and
Alleviation






























Health and Safety


X


X










X
X







X



X
Active Living

























X




Community Health and
Health System






























Emergency Prevention and
Response





X










X








X



X
Food Access and Nutrition






























Indoor Air Quality


X



























Natural and Human Hazards






























Safe Communities






























Natural Systems
X
X
X
X
X







X
X

X
X
X


X
X
X
X

X



X
Green Infrastructure



X









X


X
X


X
X
X






X
1 nvasive Species






























Natural Resource Protection

X
X









X



X
X



X
X





X
X
Outdoor Air Quality
X

X











X










X




Water in the Environment
X
X
X

X







X
X
X
X
X
X


X
X
X
X





X
Working lands (Agricultural
and Forest)






























12

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2.4 Tools Analysis
This section briefly outlines the capabilities of the selected individual building tools. Understanding
these capabilities is important to support current efforts related to sustainable building planning within
the larger context of overall community health and sustainability. Additionally, knowledge of current
capabilities can help identify gaps in the available building tools.
For this analysis, the building tools that are evaluated in this report have been classified into different
categories depending on what kind of capabilities they offer:
•	Energy and Buildings
o Energy Use
o Roofs Impact on Energy Use
o Renewable Energy
•	Stormwater Management
•	Building & Site Material Use
•	Whole Buildings & Site
•	Buildings & Site as Part of the Community
Several of the tools found in this research (23 out of 30) consider only one aspect of buildings &
infrastructure, e.g. many focus on energy use in buildings and others on stormwater management. Four
tools attempt to addresses the environmental impact from the whole building or building use, by
covering more than one aspect (e.g. both energy and water) or by a Life Cycle Analysis approach. Three
of the tools included in the Building & Infrastructure sector address buildings at a larger scale, as a part
of the surrounding community. These three tools are mainly covered in the land use section:
Community Viz, MetroQuest and Urban Footprint.
2.4.1	Energy and Buildings Tools
This category covers tools which only analyze the energy aspect of buildings. Some address energy use
in general, others specialize in the impact from roof design on energy use and heat island effect, and one
is intended to evaluate different options for renewable energy on site and the impact on energy use.
2.4.2	Energy Use Tools
Three of the tools in this category (EnergyPlus, eQuest and VE-Ware) analyze the effects on building
energy use from different building and building mechanics (HVAC) design. Another tool (TREAT)
analyzes the same, but with a focus on retrofitting. The fourth tool is for managing and evaluating
energy use in an existing building or group of buildings.
•	EnergyPlus (E+) - EnergyPlus is an energy analysis and thermal load simulation program, that
also models water use. Based on a user's description of a building from the perspective of the
building's physical make-up and associated mechanical and other systems, EnergyPlus calculates
heating and cooling loads necessary to maintain thermal control set-points, conditions throughout
13

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a secondary HVAC system and coil loads, and the energy consumption of primary plant
equipment.
•	Quick Energy Simulation Tool (eQuest) - eQuest is a building energy analysis tool that can
perform detailed analysis of building design technologies using building energy use simulation
techniques, but without requiring extensive experience in the "art" of building performance
modeling.
•	VE-Ware - VE-Ware is a whole-building annual energy and carbon usage tool. It appears that
this tool is no longer available but has been replaced by VE for engineers and VE for architects.
•	Targeted Retrofit Energy Analysis Tool (TREAT) - TREAT is energy audit software for
comprehensive energy analysis and building modeling. With thorough building material
libraries, single-family and multifamily versions, and the ability to project savings from
combined retrofits, TREAT is a comprehensive and flexible software platform.
•	eSight - eSight is desktop or web-based energy management software with the ability to monitor
consumption against production or degree day data. It can help understand where savings can be
made and monitor on-going usage.
2.4.3 Roofs Impact on Energy Use Tools
The three tools in this category all calculate the influence from roof design on building energy use.
•	Cool Roof Calculator - The Cool Roof Calculator estimates cooling and heating savings for flat
roofs with non-black surfaces. This version of the calculator is for small and medium-sized
facilities that purchase electricity without a demand charge based on peak monthly load.
•	Roof Savings Calculator (RSC) - The Roof Savings Calculator was developed as an industry-
consensus roof savings calculator for commercial and residential buildings using whole-building
energy simulations. An annual simulation of hour-by-hour performance is calculated for the
building properties provided based on weather data for the selected location.
•	Solar Reflectance Index Calculator (SRI) - The SRI calculator is an Excel-based simulation
model that can be used to estimate the surface temperature of the roof product under prescribed
conditions. This can be used not only to estimate heating and cooling needs as a result of roof
design, but also to measure the impact on the heat island effect.
2.5 Renewable Energy Tools
•	Federal Renewable Energy Screening Assistant (FRESA) - FRESA assists in identifying
renewable energy technologies appropriate for implementation at a facility or building. It allows
users to evaluate several renewable energy systems to reduce electricity, fuel use, and
greenhouse gas emissions at a building or facility.
2.5.1 Renewable Energy Tools
•	Federal Renewable Energy Screening Assistant (FRESA) - FRESA assists in identifying
renewable energy technologies appropriate for implementation at a facility or building. It allows
users to evaluate several renewable energy systems to reduce electricity, fuel use, and
greenhouse gas emissions at a building or facility.
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2.5.2 Stormwater Management Tools
We would want to consider tools that could provide useful output information related to stormwater
management (SWM) for: Peak Flow Control, Water Quantity Control, Water Quality Control, Erosion
& Sediment Control, Onsite Infiltration and Stormwater/Roofwater Reuse. These types of tools being
considered for a building and its site, could also be used on a regional or community basis, for decision
making regarding the built environment on a larger scale (e.g.: a subdivision, campus, a business park,
industrial park, mixed use development, or a whole community).
The following Stormwater Management (SWM) tools are included as part of this analysis: BASINS,
Civil Storm, HSPF, InfoSWMM, MIKE URBAN, PCSWMM, Storm and Sanitary Analysis, SUSTAIN,
SWC, SWMM, WinSLAMM and XPSWM.
•	BASINS — EPA's watershed modeling program that includes tools and utilities for assessing
watershed conditions to help users understand water quality issues and pollution sources in a
watershed, assess monitoring programs, identify data gaps, and develop watershed-water quality
modeling strategies.
•	CivilStorm — Storm and Sanitary systems modeling tool for MicroStation by Bentley users
•	HSPF — Watershed model program endorsed by EPA for simulating point and nonpoint source
pollutants. The model is used for developing total maximum daily load (TMDL) plans for
impaired water bodies.
•	InfoSWMM - A stormwater modeling program, based off of EPA's SWMM program,
developed by INNOVYZE
•	MIKE URBAN - An urban water modelling program that is good for looking at issues of
combined sewers and sewer system overflows. It covers all water networks in the city, including
water distribution systems, storm-water drainage systems, and sewer collection in separate and
combined systems, developed by DHI
•	PCSWMM - A stormwater modeling program, based off of EPA's SWMM program, developed
by CHI
•	Storm and Sanitary Analysis— Storm and Sanitary systems modeling tool for AutoCAD Civil
3D, by Autodesk users.
•	SUSTAIN - EPA's watershed analysis program that assists with developing and implementing
plans for flow and pollution control measures to protect source waters and meet water quality
goals.
•	SWC - EPA's National Stormwater Calculator (SWC) is a desktop application that estimates the
annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runoff from a specific site anywhere in the United
States (including Puerto Rico). Estimates are based on local soil conditions, land cover, and
historic rainfall records.
•	SWMM - EPA's Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) is used throughout the world for
planning, analysis and design related to stormwater runoff, combined and sanitary sewers, and
other drainage systems in urban areas. There are many applications for drainage systems in non-
urban areas as well. It is a dynamic hydrology-hydraulic water quality simulation model. It is
used for single event or long-term (continuous) simulation of runoff quantity and quality from
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primarily urban areas. It has recently been extended to model the hydrologic performance of
specific types of low impact development (LID) controls.
•	WinSLAMM - Water quality modeling program developed in Wisconsin to better understand
the relationships between sources of urban runoff pollutants and stormwater runoff quality. The
program can aid a user in identifying pollutant sources and evaluating the effects of different
stormwater control practices and runoff management strategies.
•	XPSWMM- A stormwater modeling program, based off of EPA's SWMM program, developed
by XP SOLUTIONS.
2.5.2.1	Safe Stormwater Management
Proper stormwater management can help reduce on-site building & community flooding and prevent
building site runoff pollutants from entering local surface waters. The first step to reduce community
flooding is to quantify the stormwater impacts and outcomes at both the building site and community
levels. Several SWM tools such as: XP-SWMM, PCSWMM, InfoSWMM, provide good 2-dimensional
flood routing, to simulate overland/street flow over complex topography. These tools are then able to
automatically define overland flow/street flow paths to predict flood inundation patterns.
Tools should also be equipped with stormwater system design capability to size suitable hydrological
structures in order to safely convey stormwater on a site or in a community-specified design system for a
given storm event. The better SWM tools for this use are: SWMM, XPSWMM, PCSWMM,
InfoSWMM, Mike Urban, SSA, and CivilStorm. For the purposes of measuring the water quality
component of the safe stormwater management element, preventing pollutants from entering local
surface waters, two tools have been widely used for this application (WinSLAMM, HSPF).
2.5.2.2	Vulnerability Reduction
This element requires planning and design for a building site or a community to demonstrate a
measurable reduction in climate change vulnerability related to commercial & residential building
flooding and stormwater infrastructures. This section would focus on whether the tool provides a built-in
climate change engine to predict the potential effects of climate change on stormwater. Three current
tools (Mike Urban, NSC, and BASINS) allow users to build climate change scenarios, either by
applying change factors or by selecting built-in climate models in the tool.
2.5.2.3	Green infrastructure
Under this consideration, building developers and the community need to design and maintain a network
of green infrastructure features that integrate with the built environment to conserve ecosystem functions
and provide associated benefits to human populations. To quantify the benefits of various green
infrastructures (GI) throughout the community, the tools are expected to provide a SWM-water quality
module and a Low Impact Development (LID)/Best Management Practice (BMP) module. The
following website provides a good reference for what is meant by GI & LID Best Management Practices
and techniques: http://www.lid-stormwater.net/lid_techniques.htm. Most SWM tools include a LID
control simulation module that allows users to input dimensions of LID practices; however, the Mike
Urban simulation tool has served as a base model on several green infrastructure assessment cases by
converting the practice's storage volumes into equivalent soil interception depths.
2.5.2.4	Chemical Integrity - Pollutants
In terms of meeting the chemical (pollutant) integrity sector goal, the building development community
is required to demonstrate that the total pollutant loadings are below Total Maximum Daily Load
16

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(TMDL) levels, or demonstrate a steady decrease in pollutant levels towards a long-term goal of below
TMDL levels. Reduction in Total Suspended Solids (TSS) is also a measurement used by the tools to
show the effectiveness of a stormwater system for a building or community. All models except NSC
have capability to simulate water quality variables of major concern (total dissolved solids and total
phosphorus). WinSLAMM is the only modeling tool that evaluates runoff volume and pollution loading
for each source area (roof, paved parking, etc.) within each land use, and for each rainfall event. The
software was built strongly on actual field observations, with minimal reliance on pure theoretical
processes.
2.5.3	Building & Site Material Use - Tools
•	Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) - BEES measures the
environmental performance of building and site materials/products by using the environmental
life-cycle assessment approach specified in ISO 14040 standards. This tool analyzes the life
cycle of products: raw material acquisition, manufacture, transportation, installation, use, and
end of use disposal. Environmental and economic performances are combined into an overall
performance measure using the ASTM standard for Multi-Attribute Decision Analysis. Currently
the tool is aimed at designers, builders, and product manufacturers and the user need to know and
input very detailed data. However, if the database is built up with more materials and products, it
could become useful for communities in the future.
•	LCA in Sustainable Architecture (LISA) - LISA (LCA in Sustainable Architecture) is a
streamlined LCA decision support tool evaluating construction and operation impacts. It was
developed in response to requests by architects and industry professionals for a simplified LCA
tool to assist in green building design. The following environmental indicators are calculated:
resource energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, suspended particle matter, non-
methane VOC, NOx, and SOx.
Note: Since the screening of tools was performed, this tool and site have been closed
down and are not available.
•	ATHENA Impact Estimator for Buildings 4 - This tool, which is mainly a material life cycle
impact assessment tool, is described below under "Whole Building and Site" as it has the option
to include input from energy modeling.
2.5.4	Whole Buildings & Site Tools
The tools that have been included in this category all analyze two or more different aspects of a
building, its site, and the site utilities that serve a building.
•	ATHENA Impact Estimator for Buildings 4 - ATHENA is an assessment and decision-
support tool for selection of material mixes and other design options that will minimize a
building's potential life-cycle environmental impacts. Operating energy consumption can be
included by inputting results from an energy consumption modeling tool, but mainly ATHENA
looks at the impacts from the material use. However, because of this option it allows the user to
better understand the inherent trade-offs between, for example, adding more insulation and
reduction in operating energy use. The tool takes into account the environmental impacts of the
following life cycle stages: material manufacturing, including resource extraction and recycled
content; related transportation; on-site construction; maintenance and replacement effects; and
17

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demolition and disposal. The following environmental impact measures are calculated: global
warming potential, acidification potential, human health respiratory effects potential, ozone
depletion potential, smog potential, and eutrophication potential.
•	Eco-Bat - Eco-Bat is designed to perform the life-cycle impacts analysis of a building and site,
especially during the conceptual phase. It can be used by architects and engineers who want to
assess the environmental impacts of a new building or existing building project. In addition to
environmental impact from energy use, it considers the impact on the environment from
materials manufacturing, transport, replacement and elimination. Currently four environmental
indicators are calculated: embodied energy, carbon footprint, water usage, and resource
consumption. It uses the database Ecoinvent to get information about different materials and
products.
•	VE-Toolkit - (similar tools now provided, from the same company, named VE for engineers and
VE for architects) - These tools conduct performance analysis from CAD models at early design
stages. It can be used to quantify and test feasibility of design ideas across energy use, CO2
emissions, occupant comfort, daylight levels, airflow, and water use.
•	Building Life Cycle Cost - BLCC conducts economic analyses by evaluating the relative cost
effectiveness of alternative buildings and building-related systems or components. Typically,
BLCC is used to evaluate alternative designs that have higher initial costs but lower operating
costs over the project life than the lowest-initial-cost design. BLCC include both energy and
water use.
2.5.5 Buildings & Site as Part of the Community Tools
These tools are primarily land use planning tools, but they also touch upon buildings and building sites
in various aspects. The three tools are mainly described and analyzed in the land use section (for
Community Viz and MetroQuest also to some extent in the transportation section).
•	CommunityViz - CommunityViz is primarily a GIS-based land use planning tool. This tool
permits the specification of land-use scenarios and analyzes the implications of scenarios in
terms of site suitability, infrastructure availability, stormwater & environmental impact, growth,
energy use, pollution emissions (including GHGs), population demographics, jobs, build-out
analysis, dwelling units, and population density. Its relevance for buildings is in mainly in where
to locate the building site within a community.
•	Urban Footprint - The Urban Footprint model is a land use planning, modeling, and data
organization framework designed to produce results for the following metrics: land consumption;
vehicle miles traveled (VMT); greenhouse gas emissions; building energy and water
consumption, transportation and utilities; public health impacts and costs; local fiscal impacts.
This tool addresses the building and building site in some detail by including building energy
and water consumption as well as household costs for housing.
•	MetroQuest - MetroQuest is an online community engagement platform for planning projects.
A MetroQuest configuration is comprised of a series of 4 to 5 screens that guide participants
through the process of learning about a project and providing valuable input to planners. It is
primarily designed for community engagement in developing plans, and has limited analysis
capabilities.
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2.6 Gaps Analysis
A review of the buildings & infrastructure tools found in this research project reveals that, even though
the selected tools offer some useful analysis capabilities there are critical gaps. Several STAR goals
(categories) and objectives, relevant to the buildings & infrastructure, are not covered at all, or not
covered well. In general, the STAR categories "Built Environment" and "Climate & Energy" are rather
well represented while the other five categories are very sparsely addressed or not at all addressed.
However, even within the STAR categories "Built Environment" and "Climate & Energy", there are
objectives which are not considered adequately by any building and infrastructure tool identified in this
search and screening.
In addition to the gaps in how well the STAR categories and objectives are addressed, there are gaps in
another aspect. Most of the tools only regard one specific feature of buildings & infrastructure, e.g.
energy use. There are few tools that address the whole building's environmental impact in a more
encompassing and holistic way, which would be beneficial for a community. The four tools ATHENA,
Eco-Bat, VE-Toolkit, and BLCC analyze more than one aspect of the building and, with the exception
of BLCC, calculate several indicators for environmental impact. However, none of them covers all
aspects of a building. ATHENA mainly focuses on building material but can incorporate energy use
from another simulation program, but it does not take into account water use in the building. It
calculates several important environmental indicators, but lacks indicators for indoor environmental
impact like occupant comfort, daylight levels and air quality. The only tool covering indoor
environmental impact is VE-Toolkit. This tool also looks and both energy and water, but on the other
hand it does not include environmental impact from material use. Eco-Bat models the environmental
impact from both energy use and materials but is limited to three indicators: embodied energy, carbon
footprint, and resource consumption. BLCC, on the other hand calculates the impact from both energy
and water use, but only on the life-cycle cost, no environmental indicators are modeled and materials are
not included. None of the four tools described above includes the building site in regards to rainwater,
greenspace etc. Sustainable landscaping is another practice where there is a gap in tools available. It
would be very valuable for site planning to have tools that quantifies the savings in operation and
maintenance costs related to e.g. watering, mowing and treating turf grass compared to landscaping that
is native to the area and well-suited to the site conditions and surrounding climate. Sustainable
landscaping also influences the so-called heat island effect; see further discussion below in regards to
climate change.
The STAR category that is best covered by the selected buildings & infrastructure related tools is
"Climate & Energy." Several tools exist that can quantify both energy use and the associated greenhouse
gas emissions. There are tools to be used for energy calculations during the design phase, for retrofitting
and for existing systems. In addition, one tool has been identified (FRESA) which can evaluate different
options for renewable energy on site and the impact on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The
main issue for recommending energy modeling tools for communities will be to accurately describe the
different tools so that the user can choose the one that is right both for the present application and the
knowledge base and skills of the user.
The STAR communities rating system has an objective under "Climate & Energy" to reduce water
consumption. (This also comes up under the objective "Community Water Systems" in the STAR
category "Built Environment") Even though water consumption has a large impact on climate change
through the use of energy to treat, transport and heat water, only three tools, eSight, VE-Toolkit and
BLCC, were identified with the capability to partly assess water use in buildings. In addition, BLCC
only looks at the life-cycle cost. Urban Footprint also addresses water use, but on the community level.
There is definitely a gap in the tool capabilities regarding modeling of water consumption. This is an
19

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important issue for communities, not only due to the water/energy nexus and the impact on climate
change but also concerning the widespread situation with old water infrastructure in addition to future
potential water shortages, partly caused by climate change.
Another objective under "Climate and Energy" regards waste minimization. In general, this is discussed
and analyzed in the waste section; however, there are some special issues in regards to buildings. For
example, waste from construction and demolition of buildings constitutes a large portion of the waste
going to landfills. Tools with a life-cycle analysis (LCA) approach to building materials would therefore
be valuable for communities. Two such tools were identified that would be usable for communities;
ATHENA and Eco-Bat. Previously a third tool, LISA, was available, but the site has closed down. The
LISA tool was positively referred to a few years ago in many books, summary papers, and lists of tools
by different organizations, being described as a simplified and easy to use LCA tool. (See for example
the AIA Guide to Building Life Cycle Assessment in Practice, 2010, and Desktop Tools for Sustainable
Design, K. Gowri, 2005.) This shows how important it is to identify and support tools that are valuable
for communities, so that they are not disappearing. (Several attempts have been made to find
information about the current situation of the LISA tool but the research center which provided the tool
does not exist any longer and no information has been located.) Another tool, BEES, analyzes building
materials and products life cycle impact, but is currently targeted towards experts. A database in being
built with common building products, and this tool could potentially become useful for communities in
the future. Another special issue regarding buildings & infrastructure and waste management, is how the
use of "green" building materials, and the "green" process of building & infrastructure demolition, will
impact the composite of the waste streams to both landfills and recycling facilities in the future. This is
an aspect that is not yet well understood since these materials, systems and processes are relatively new
in the market; however, these "green" construction methods and materials will influence the waste
management system and thereby building material LCA tools.
One topic within climate change considerations that is not covered in the STAR rating system, but
which nonetheless is a strong consideration for sustainable tools, is heat island effect in urban areas.
While green roofs and low-albedo "white" roofs are covered in several of the tools; no tools have been
identified which includes measuring the impact of "cool daylighting," designing for canopy trees and
other vegetation on the site, and using light-colored paving, as a way of mitigating the heat island effect
of building, driveway and parking lot development.
To a large extent the content of the STAR category "Built Environment" is focused on land-use issues
rather than buildings & infrastructure with the objectives" Compact and Complete Communities, Infill
and Redevelopment, Public Spaces, and Transportation Choices. Buildings & infrastructure does have
an impact on these objectives but these tools do not have any capabilities in these areas except for what
is covered by the land use tools (see the land use section for further discussion). Two objectives are
directly impacted by buildings & infrastructure, Ambient Noise and Light, and Community Water
Systems. Among the tools identified in this project, none specifically calculated the effect from building
design on ambient noise levels or light pollution. With the rising concern about light pollution and its
negative effect on natural systems, this is a topic for which an easy-to-use tool for communities would
be desirable. Regarding community water systems, only one of the selected tools, VE-Toolkit, analyzes
water consumption as a function of building design, (see discussion above in reference to the STAR
category "Climate Change"). However, there are many tools that look at stormwater, and the impact that
a building and its site have on stormwater runoff.
There is a substantial gap in the tools being evaluated, when considering tools that can assist in
providing good output related to a building and site's impact on stormwater management- peak flow,
quantity, quality and erosion & sediment control, as well as measuring stormwater that is kept onsite
20

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through infiltration or reuse. The Stormwater, Erosion & Sediment Control tools being considered
should aid in reaching the STAR Community Rating System objectives under 'Built Environment'
(Community Water System), 'Climate and Energy' (Climate Adaptation, Resource Efficient Buildings,
Resource Efficient Public Infrastructure) and 'Natural Systems' (Green Infrastructure, Natural Resource
Protection and Water in the Environment). An example of a very basic tool for estimating and
determining approximations for impact and required Best Management Practice (BMP) sizing related to
stormwater quantity runoff is the HydroCAD software program.
There are many SWM tools equipped both with the spatial-distributed hydrological and hydraulic
modeling features. Also, most SWM tools have a variety of standard closed and open conduit shapes,
natural channels, as well as hydraulic structures (like weirs, ponds, etc.) to represent the layout of the
drainage systems. There does appear to be a gap in available tools that provide current applicable
hydrological modules that can estimate region-specific and site specific runoff characteristics, on a
small-site scale, based on: precipitation, land use types and soil conditions at each user-defined sub-
catchment.
The most effective tool for determining and measuring the way in which a building and site
development is meeting the EPA, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) water
quality requirements for construction activities and development, appears to be WinSLAMM. The
challenges and gap with WinSLAMM is that it is not user-friendly for a planner or a user to run, there is
a cost associated with the program and it takes quite a bit of input to run the program. A program such as
the National Stormwater Calculator (NSC), that is relatively easy to use and gives good approximate
numbers in its outcomes, assisting planners and general users in decision making, could be very
valuable.
Most of the SWM tools available only simulate and assist with design for Low Impact Design (LID)
controls, using storage and outflow components explicitly (for example: rain gardens, rain barrels,
porous pavement, infiltration trenches, and ponds). Tools with accurate simulations of Green
Infrastructure (GI), like downspout disconnection and green roofs, do not seem to be available. This is
often accomplished by modifying the percent of impervious area in the sub-catchment, to represent
directing runoff from impervious area to pervious area, but this "work around" is really not an accurate
way to measure the benefit of these types of Best Management Practices (BMP's). Building site
stormwater management systems that use natural processes (rain gardens, bioswales, bioretention
basins) can be modeled using tools such as WinSLAMM. Manufactured devices for stormwater
treatment don't necessary have third party impartial tools that can measure their effectiveness. In areas
of the country where urban areas have combined sewer systems, creating a green infrastructure; with
green roofs, stormwater reuse systems, porous pavements and other infiltration systems are typically
more cost-effective than building a new and separate storm sewer piping system. The one tool that most
effectively considers the combined impact and benefits of several different Best Management Practices
(BMP's) included as part of a green infrastructure system is WinSLAMM. Reuse of graywater and
roofwater for toilet flushing and landscaping irrigation in buildings and onsite, could also be defined as a
green infrastructure system, but not many stormwater modeling tools consider stormwater reuse as a
best management practice.
Within the STAR category "Health & Safety", the only objective directly related to buildings &
infrastructure is "Indoor Air Quality". The VE-toolkit has some capabilities for this through ventilation
modeling. Another aspect of indoor air quality is the off-gassing from different materials and chemicals,
something that none of the tools addresses. There is a lack of knowledge about potential health
consequences from exposure to materials inside buildings, but it appears that this is an increasing
concern. This is apparent, for example, in the focus on this topic in the updates made to the latest version
21

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of the LEED rating system. This is a field that is changing rapidly, and tools targeting this issue are
possibly currently being developed. The other objectives in this category (Active Living, Community
Health and Health System, Emergency Prevention and Response, Food Access and Nutrition, Natural
and Human Hazards, Safe Communities) will only be indirectly influenced by how buildings are
designed and function. In addition, these impacts are not easily quantified, and none of the tools
identified have the capabilities to model these outcomes except what is included in the community
planning tools Community Viz and Urban Footprint.
For the three STAR categories "Economy & Jobs", "Education, Arts & Community" and "Equity and
Empowerment" there are no capabilities among the tools found within the buildings & infrastructure
section. The objectives in these three STAR categories are much harder to measure and quantify when it
comes to building and site development, however they are essential for a healthy and sustainable
community. There is clearly a gap in the current tools being considered when looking to measure: equity
for all users, healthy buildings to live, work, or play, in office spaces where productivity and job growth
can be maximized, how absenteeism & turnover is minimized, and where the building users have easy
access to open spaces, nature, and the arts. Similarly, there appears to be no effective tools for site
selection when considering available infrastructure, access to multi-modal transportation, and
minimizing impact to existing environmental and historical features. Tools modeling these topics would
be valuable in planning and decision making by developers, business owners and planners, for where
best to locate a given building use and type. These questions are considered in the Land Use section, but
on a larger scale. Possibly some of the land use tools identified could be adjusted to be used for a more
detailed, smaller scale.
The objectives under the STAR categories "Health & Safety", "Economy & Jobs", "Education, Arts &
Community" and "Equity and Empowerment" are not traditionally considered when buildings are being
modelled and designed; nevertheless, these are very important for communities that aspire to become
more healthy and sustainable. The tool search did not specifically target socioeconomic models, and
tools might exist which were not discovered.
2.7 Conclusions
Overall there is a gap in identified tools, within the building ^infrastructure sector, which have the
capability to model a comprehensive outcome of a given set of sustainable building and infrastructure
practices. Such an output could be used not only for community planning purposes but also to educate
the building users and the general public, such that sustainable practices can be better understood,
further innovated, and provided in an even better way for future building and site development. Most
tools address only one aspect of buildings and infrastructure (e.g. energy use or stormwater quantity) but
there are a few that are more encompassing (e.g. VE-Tools and ATHENA). In addition, most tools only
have capability to calculate one or a couple of environmental impact indicators, such as global warming
potential or phosphorous levels in water, disregarding others that would also be important for a healthy
and sustainable community.
In general, there are several tools in the building ^infrastructure sector that model traditional technical
objectives coved by the STAR goals/categories "Built Environment" and "Climate & Energy", but there
are few that can give any data for many of the socioeconomic objectives addressed in "Health &
Safety", "Economy & Jobs", "Education, Arts & Community" and "Equity and Empowerment". Tools
that capture the triple bottom line of society, economy and environment, and take a more holistic
approach to "quality of life" and a healthy and sustainable community are missing.
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In addition to the broad scope gaps described above, specific gaps in the identified tools include:
•	Tools that model water use, especially the impact on climate change, are largely missing.
•	Stormwater modeling tools that can be used on a "small-scale" building site and that are easy to
use and effective in providing good estimates for the types of BMP' s and the size or scale of
SWM that is needed.
•	Impact on indoor air quality is missing from material LCA tools. (There is a growing interest in
this aspect which has led to increased research and new tools are potentially being developed
currently.)
None of the tools that model buildings life cycle impact on the environment includes all of these three
aspects: energy use, water use and material use.
3.Land Use Tools
3.1	Potential Uses of Land Use Tools
Local governments must make difficult choices regarding how scarce land resources can support
multiple uses including residences, businesses, infrastructure, and open space. Furthermore, planners
must decide how different types of land use activities will be distributed to maximize social benefits and
minimize harms. In addition to supporting desirable places to live and work, sustainable land use
planning will consider the ability of the landscape to provide valued ecosystem services such as
protection of drinking water quality, outdoor recreation opportunities, wildlife protection, and support of
human health.
Addressing sustainable land use typically requires consideration of a variety of policies and their
effectiveness to achieve sustainability goals. A common approach used by land use planners is to
consider various scenarios and what-if analyses to evaluate policy options using a variety of measurable
outcomes, such as ball fields per child or total impervious area. Through such metrics, local
governments and others can use land use tools to conduct deliberations regarding zoning, permitting,
and related decisions. In addition, such tools can foster public engagement to design, communicate, and
facilitate local land use decisions. Land use tools can demonstrate the effects of alternative land use
policy scenarios on quality of life, including social, financial, health, and environmental outcomes. To
address the many questions that arise as part of land use decision-making, users and potential users of
land use tools desire tools that serve a variety of purposes. This understanding led OTIE to evaluate
aspects of tool capabilities in two ways. First, we examine aspects of tools that affect their usability such
as costs of use, available level of support, and functionality. Second, we evaluate whether available tools
address a comprehensive set of community concerns and whether gaps exist in analysis capabilities.
For this analysis of a suite of land use tools, we have selected elements of the STAR Community Rating
System that are most applicable to land use planning; and have adjusted or supplemented those metrics
with other sources in order to represent concerns that typically arise in land use planning discussions.
Thus, we have retained the STAR categories for organizing community concerns but have omitted
extraneous metrics and added new metrics pertinent to this database.
3.2	Tool Usability
The review and evaluation of candidate tools identified 16 land use tools that were consistent with the
screening-level criteria developed. This system is designed to fit within an existing EPA tool database,
23

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READ, and we have adopted fields from that system to characterize basic tool properties. We used a
subset of the applicable metrics from READ (Table 3:1) and added metrics to reflect usability, cost-
effectiveness, and integrity (Table 3:2). Summary statistics on characteristics of this set of tools reflect
the state of the field.
As shown in Tables 3:1 and 3:2, the majority of the tools identified are free desktop tools that operate on
the Windows platform. Most tools include documentation, such as a user's guide, and most generate
regional-scale maps as output. About 30% are Excel-based spreadsheet calculators, at least three of
which allow open access to the spreadsheet coding. Not shown in the summary statistics is that half of
software tools are scenario-based planning tools. These tools allow users to compare conditions for a
range of development patterns and levels of growth.
Table 3.1. Existing READ Fields - Land Use
Field
Description
Summary Statistic
Life Cycle
Stage of development of the software
tool at the time of database update
1/16
10/16
0/16
5/16
Beta
Mature
Available but No Longer Supported
Insufficient Information
Last Known Software
Update
Summarized in year ranges
1/16
5/16
0/16
2/16
8/16
Current year
l-3yr
3-5yr
>5yr
Insufficient Information
Compatible Operating
Systems
Native operating system (OS) for
desktop and mobile tools. Browser-
based tools are shown as N/A since
they operate independently of the OS.
11/16
4/16
1/16
0/16
0/16
3/16
2/16
Windows
Mac
UNIX/Lenux
iOS
Android
N/A
Insufficient Information
Other proprietary software
requirements (if any):
Additional software needed to run the
model.
5/16
8/16
8/16
4/16
Excel
ERSI ArcGIS
Other
None
Model Evaluation
Indicates whether independent, peer-
reviewed evaluations of the tool had
been published at the time of
database update.
9/16
Tools have evaluations available
Model Structure
General categories of tool type
1/16
5/16
0/16
9/16
3/16
Simulation Model
Speadsheet Calculator
Web Calculator
GIS Analysis Tool
Web-Based GIS Tool
Interfaces to Other
Resources
Indicates whether a tool imports,
exports or otherwise interfaces with
any other software tools.
7/16
Tools interface with other
resources
24

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Table 3.2. Evaluation Metrics Developed by OTIE-Land Use
Field
Description
Summary
Statistic


9/16
So

Minimum cost of acquiring software/system
0/16
S1-S499
Base Cost of
(excluding add-on modules). Some tools offer
2/16
$500-$ 1499
Software
student discounts or variable pricing, which is
1/16
$1500-$4000

noted in another field.
1/16
3/16
> $4000
Insufficient Information


7/16
Yes
Open Source
Source code accessible?
6/16
0/16
2/16
No
Partial
Insufficient Information


12/16
Desktop
Operating
Environment
Platforms on which software tool is operable.
4/16
1/16
1/16
Browser
Mobile
Insufficient Information

None= all data provided
3/16
None
Data
Requirements
Low = Data generally publicly available
2/16
Low
Med = Not publicly available but routinely
available
7/16
4/16
Medium
High

High = New data must be created
0/16
Insufficient Information


6/16
Data (spreadsheet, database)


2/16
Indicators


1/16
Indices, Aggregate Scores


2/16
Priority Ranks


0/16
Monetary Value, ROI
Model Output
Method of displaying returns generated by
7/16
Graphs
Types
software tool.
12/16
7/16
1/16
0/16
2/16
0/16
Maps
GIS Layers
3-D Visualizations, Movies
Checklists
Narratives, Reports
Other


14/16
Documentation


5/16
Case Studies
Types of Support
Materials
Support available from the developer, user
community, or elsewhere.
5/16
2/16
3/16
3/16
3/16
Tutorials
Knowledge Base / Wiki
User Forum
Technical Support
Training Courses


4/16
Point in Time
Time Scale
Projection period(s) for modeling tools. May not
be applicable to all tool types.
6/16
6/16
0/16
7/16
Annual
Multi-Year
Other
Insufficient Information


3/16
Building


5/16
Site


7/16
Neighborhood


9/16
City
Spatial Extent
Geographical unit(s) in which the model is
applicable.
10/16
10/16
12/16
1/16
1/16
1/16
4/16
County
State
Region
Nation
Continent
Globe
Insufficient Information


6/16
Spreadsheet Calc/Basic Math


1/16
Basic GIS


5/16
Intermediate GIS


1/16
Advanced GIS
Technical skills
needed to apply
User capabilities required for proper application
of software tool.
0/16
0/16
Basic Statistics
Advanced Statistics
model

2/16
0/16
1/16
0/16
4/16
Model Calibration
Software Coding
None
Other Specialized Knowledge
Insufficient Information
25

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3.3 Comprehensiveness of Analysis Capabilities
We developed a core set of questions to evaluate the scope of land use tools (Table 3:3). These questions cover
all the STAR categories of community well-being, but omit many metrics used in the full rating system. We have
selected and developed quality of life categories and metrics that are feasible to use in scenario analysis, since
that is the most common focus of land use planning tools.
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Table 3.3. Desirable Tool Analysis Capabilities by STAR Categories - Land Use
STAR Community Rating System Goals &
Objectives
Land Use Tools
Based on the STAR Community Rating System Goals
& Objectives. More information on Evaluation
Measures and the STAR Community Rating System is
available at http://www.starcommunities.org/rating-
sy stem/framework
CommunityViz
ComPlan
C-Plan
+
h-
LLJ
IDRISI
LandUse Analyst
MetroQuest
NatureServe Vista
RapidFire
SolVES
SPARC INDEX
Uplan: Urban Growth
Urban Footprint
UrbanSim
Wildlife Habitat BET
WMOST
Built Environment
X
X

X

X

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Ambient Noise and Light
















Community Water System



X




X



X


X
Compact and Complete Communities
X
X

X

X

X
X

X
X
X
X


Infill and Redevelopment

X

X




X

X
X
X
X


Public Spaces

X

X



X
X
X
X

X

X

Transportation Choices

X

X




X

X

X



Climate and Energy
X


X
X


X
X



X



Climate Adaptation



X



X








Greehouse Gas Mitigation
X


X
X



X



X



Greening the Energy Supply
















Industrial Sector Resource Efficiency
















Resource Efficient Buildings



X




X



X



Resource Efficient Public Infrastructure








X



X



Waste Minimization
















Economy and Jobs
X
X

X






X


X


Business Retention and Development
















Green Market Development
















Local Economy
X
X

X






X


X


Quality Jobs and Living Wages



X






X





Targeted Industry Development
















Workforce Readiness










X





Education, Arts and Community
X
X




X
X

X
X





Arts and Culture

X





X








Community Cohesion






X


X






Educational Opportunity and Attainment
















Historic Preservation







X








Social and Cultural Diversity
X









X





Eguity and Empowerment
X





X









Civic Engagement






X









Civil and Human Rights
















Environmental Justice
















Eguitable Sen/ices and Access
X















Human Services
















Poverty Prevention and Alleviation
















Health and Safety
X
X

X



X
X
X
X

X

X

Active Living

X

X



X
X
X


X

X

Community Health and Health System
















Emergency Prevention and Response
X







X



X



Food Access and Nutrition










X





Indoor Air Quality
















Natural and Human Hazards
















Safe Communities
















Natural Systems

X
X
X
X


X
X
X
X

X

X
X
Green Infrastructure
















Invasive Species







X








Natural Resource Protection


X

X


X

X
X



X
X
Outdoor Air Quality



X




X



X



Water in the Environment




X


X






X
X
Working lands (Agricultural and Forest)

X





X








27

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3.4	Tool Analysis
Land use shares 6 of its 16 tools with other sectors due to the interrelated nature of the decision sectors.
Of the tools included in the land use sector, some are primarily aimed at helping communities develop
potential land use scenarios (i.e., envisioning options), while others primarily serve to evaluate the
impacts of scenarios after they are implemented. Any tool that evaluates impacts can also be used
iteratively to inform scenario development, so the division is not concrete.
3.5	Land Use Scenario Tools
•	Planning Analytical Resources Core INDEX (SPARC INDEX) - SPARC is a cloud-served
data transformation service that supports urban and regional scenario planning with INDEX
Online. It includes capabilities to browse maps and employment characteristics of communities
and to improve data used in planning scenarios.
•	MetroQuest - MetroQuest is an online community engagement platform for planning projects
including selected elements of land use planning such as park locations or transportation
networks. MetroQuest is designed to educate the public and collect informed input quickly.
Participants can see the impact of their choices (using a series of metrics) in real time and learn
about the alternatives and tradeoffs based on their own priorities. A MetroQuest configuration is
comprised of a series of 4 to 5 screens, tailored to the project, that guide participants through the
process of learning about a project and providing valuable input to planners. It uses attractive
graphics and streamlined user interface tools to engage participants.
•	Conservation Planning System (C-Plan) - C-Plan is conservation decision support software
that links with GIS to map options for achieving explicit conservation targets. The system
calculates the irreplaceability value of landscape elements in terms of characteristics such as
species composition, vegetation types, etc. Irreplaceability is a measure of the rarity of
conservation elements and the opportunity to protect multiple conservation elements in a single
place.
•	ComPlan - ComPlan, also known as CorPlan, estimates regional land development potential
using community elements (CEs) as its building blocks. Each element is defined by a quarter-
mile diameter area and is illustrated by a photograph and plan diagram that conveys its visual
characteristics. The modelers wanted to define the CEs at a pedestrian scale, and they chose a
quarter mile as the maximum distance for pedestrian accessibility. Each CE is given unique land
use, infrastructure, and socioeconomic data. Local community input was used to identify and
define the characteristics of CE types ranging from urban to rural. These units served as the
foundation for modeling regional development scenarios. Results are used as inputs into a
transportation model to estimate travel demand. Users can test alternative development scenarios
by reassigning community elements. ComPlan is based on the concept that modes of
transportation are highly dependent on land use choices. In other words, if you want transit, a
certain development density of housing and commercial use is required.
Note: since the screening of tools was performed, this tool and site have been closed down and are not
available.
3.6	Scenario Impact Tools
•	CommunityViz - CommunityViz is primarily a GIS-based land use planning tool. This tool
permits the specification of land-use scenarios and analyzes the implications of each scenario in
terms of site suitability, growth, energy use, pollution emissions (including GHGs), population
28

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demographics, jobs, build-out analysis, dwelling units, and population density. Additionally,
Community Viz has structural and functional components that address the transportation
implications (e.g., required infrastructure, transit times, congestion, emissions) of proposed land-
use scenarios. Community Viz supports land use planning via sketch planning, 3-D visualization,
suitability analysis, impact assessment, and growth modeling.
•	Envision Tomorrow - Envision Tomorrow comprises a set of urban and regional planning tools
that can be used to model the feasibility of proposed development on a site-by-site basis. This
tool can also be used to create and evaluate multiple land use scenarios. Envision Tomorrow
permits testing and refining transportation plans, including transportation choices by evaluating
transportation affordability, vehicle miles traveled, parking, and GHG emissions. In addition,
Envision Tomorrow permits analysis of complex regional plans and addresses compact and
complete communities, returns on investment, predicted growth, affordable housing, efficient
buildings, regional air quality, and jobs.
•	Urban Footprint - The Urban Footprint (UF) is an interactive software urban planning platform
that is primarily web-based, but is also advertised as an open-source application that operates
across a variety of operating systems (e.g., Windows, MAC, Linux, iOS, Android). The UF
comprises separate, but integrated, planning components that provide for analysis of land
consumption, fiscal impacts, building energy use (residential, commercial), water use, public
health, and transportation outcomes of alternative planning scenarios. The UF characterizes
urban spaces at 150m resolution and provides for input of highly detailed data describing
multiple planning attributes for each modeled sector.
•	Nature Serve Vista - NatureServe Vista is an ArcGIS extension that automates advanced spatial
analyses for planners and managers. It is a decision-support system which helps users integrate
species, ecosystem, and cultural feature conservation with many types of planning, ecosystem
based management, ecosystem based adaptation, and scenario-based planning. It allows users to
weight and integrate diverse values and goals for alternative land uses, making it suitable to
integrate multiple conservation elements, development objectives, and other aspects of land-use
change, including climate change.
•	LandUse Analyst - LandUse Analyst is a multi-category land use evaluation system integrated
within the Argus ONE GIS environment. It allows the user to conduct a detailed land use
analysis of land use scenarios designed to fit a series of nested objectives. The user imports a
scenario from Arclnfo or CAD or uses the tool interface to graphically outline the suitability
zones for each category of land use elements. Land use categories are assigned weights
representing the location suitability and LandUse Analyst automatically calculates the suitability
of the land use scenario over the entire evaluated area. Results are visualized as graduated colors
over a base map. The system allows the user to view the suitability for each single category of
land use elements and hence to on-line perform powerful What-If analysis.
•	Land Change Modeler - Land Change Modeler is used for conducting land use change analysis
as a result of conservation and planning efforts. The tool allows the user to rapidly analyze land
cover change trends, simulate future land change scenarios, model REDD (CO2) emission
scenarios, and model species impacts and biodiversity. It is unusual in providing the capability to
empirically model relationships between land use drivers and outcomes as a result of planning
interventions, incentives and constraints, such as reserve areas and infrastructural changes. Land
use change results can be expressed as classified maps or as probabilities of land use change.
•	RapidFire - The RapidFire model is a user-friendly, spreadsheet-based tool that is used to
produce and evaluate statewide, regional, county, and jurisdiction-level scenarios. It emerged out
29

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of the need for a comprehensive modeling tool that could inform state, regional, and local
agencies and policy-makers in evaluating climate, land use, and infrastructure investment
policies. It incorporates data and research-based assumptions about the future to test the impacts
of varying land use patterns and policies across a range of critical metrics.
•	Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) - GIS-based tool designed to assess, map, and
quantify the perceived social values for ecosystem services, such as aesthetics, biodiversity, and
recreation. These values can be analyzed for various stakeholder groups as distinguished by their
attitudes and preferences regarding public uses. SolVES derives a quantitative, 10-point, social-
values metric, the "value index", from a combination of spatial and non-spatial responses to
public value and preference surveys and calculates metrics characterizing the underlying
environment, such as average distance to water and dominant land cover.
•	Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management Assets (VELMA) - VELMA can be used to help
improve the water quality of streams, rivers, and estuaries by making better use of both natural
and engineered green infrastructure (Gl) to control loadings from nonpoint sources of pollution.
It is designed to help users assess green infrastructure options for controlling the fate and
transport of water, nutrients, and toxics across multiple spatial and temporal scales for different
ecoregions and present and future climates.
•	Wildlife Habitat Benefits Estimation Toolkit - The Wildlife Habitat Benefits Estimation
Toolkit is a set of user-friendly Excel models that allows users to generate monetized economic
values generated by specific natural areas. Values include residential property value premiums
associated with open space; 2) net economic benefits of wildlife-associated recreation activities
(fishing, hunting, wildlife-viewing); 3) the number of wildlife-associated recreation visits
supported by a conservation area; and 4) the value of selected ecosystem services provided by
terrestrial and aquatic habitat or wetlands.
•	Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool v. 1 (WMOST) - The objective of
WMOST is to serve as a tool for local water resources managers and planners to screen a wide
range of potential water resources management options across their watershed or jurisdiction for
cost-effectiveness as well as environmental and economic sustainability. Examples of options
that could be evaluated with the tool include projects related to stormwater, water supply,
wastewater, and water-related resources such as Low-Impact Development (LID) and land
conservation.
•	UrbanSim - UrbanSim is a simulation platform for supporting planning and analysis of urban
development, incorporating the interactions between land use, transportation, the economy, and
the environment. It is intended for use by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), cities,
counties, non-governmental organizations, real estate professionals, researchers, and students
interested in exploring the effects of infrastructure and policy choices on community outcomes
such as motorized and non-motorized accessibility, housing affordability, greenhouse gas
emissions, and the protection of open space and environmentally sensitive habitats.
•	UPlan: Urban Growth Model - UPlan is a simple rule-based urban growth model. The needed
space for each land use type is calculated from simple demographics and assigned based on the
net attractiveness of locations to that land use (based on user input), locations unsuitable for any
development, and a general plan that determines where specific types of development are
permitted.
A few tools model future growth based on past land use change and/or characteristics that make a parcel
or pixel attractive for conversion to a developed use (Land Change Modeler, UPlan, UrbanSim). These
tools can be used to evaluate the likely effect on development of government policies and activities (e.g.,
30

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based on public transportation development, water and sewer development). In this way, they can be
used to judge how to effectively implement a desired plan.
Tools aimed at guiding communities through scenario development fall along a continuum that ranges
from flexible complex tools (CommunityViz, Envision Tomorrow) to less flexible simple tools
(RapidFire, LandUse Analyst). The more complex tools contain a range of capabilities for envisioning
land use change and evaluating outcomes. The MetroQuest tool is primarily designed for community
engagement in developing plans and has limited analysis capabilities.
Tools aimed at evaluating impacts of past land cover change or future scenarios tend to focus on a few
outcomes. The Land Change Modeler, for example, compares two land use images (e.g., two points in
time) to model impacts on species habitat, overall biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions. Some
tools have an emphasis on environmental outcomes (Nature Serve Vista, C-Plan) or water supply and
stormwater management (WMOST).
Two of the tools offer the capability to evaluate social or economic values associated with some types of
land use (SolVES) or land use change (Wildlife Habitat Benefits Toolkit). These are representative of a
larger set of economic analysis tools and analysis approaches that use existing economic valuation
studies to characterize values of unstudied sites - a technique known as benefit transfer. However, users
should be aware that benefit transfer tools that characterize the value of entire landscapes based on land
cover are not applying rigorous economic methods, since valuation tools are only appropriate for
calculating changes in land use and must be tailored to local conditions to be robust (Freeman 2003).
The Urban Footprint tool appears to offer the broadest range of impact analyses for land use maps or
scenarios as part of the core software. Alternatively, the scenario planning tools Community Viz and
Envision offer similarly broad analysis capabilities, but only when used in conjunction with add-on
programs or tools.
3.7 Gaps Analysis
The database of land use tools reviewed here reveals that available tools offer some useful analysis
capabilities but also have some critical gaps. The capabilities that are most available in software tools
include: land use projections; scenario visualization (most often as GIS maps); and synthesis of
suitability/preference ratings by land parcel (generated from either technical or community processes).
Tools are likely to embed components that address planning concerns such as preserving open space,
managing transportation needs (covered more thoroughly under Chapter 8 Transportation Tools), and
creating opportunities for infill development. Environmental impacts are covered to some degree, as
several tools address species habitat impacts and two tools can be used to examine greenhouse gas
emissions.
By comparing the tool outputs with Table 3:2, it became clear that many metrics that communities
wanted to consider in planning were not easily quantified with available tools. We identified gaps in
land use planning tools which fail to adequately address noise or light pollution analysis, walkability,
effects on home values, or infrastructure costs. On the other hand, the flexible land use planning tools,
such as Envision and Community Viz, are effectively modeling frameworks that can be expanded to
meet a wide variety of analysis needs. These tools include optional modules that directly address some
key issues (e.g., job projections) or may be easily conducted on any created land use scenarios using GIS
tools (e.g., degree of historic district preservation, green infrastructure development). Some tools
considered water demand (Urban Footprint and WMOST), although not necessarily in a comprehensive
manner.
31

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Generally, the tools lack the ability to take a comprehensive look at health, safety, social, economic, and
environmental impacts. In particular, it is not clear that certain cumulative effects are well captured,
such as the net effect of planning choices on water quality in receiving water bodies or effects on
regional air quality, although many tools that would not be considered land use planning tools are
available to conduct such environmental analysis on land use scenarios. Our tools search did not
specifically address energy and climate; therefore, we may not have adequately captured the state of the
science for addressing the community concerns about resource efficiency. (See Chapter 6 Buildings &
Infrastructure for further discussion). Nonetheless, our search reveals that land use planning tools are not
routinely incorporating aspects of more specialized tools such as flood vulnerability mapping,
infrastructure costs, health outcomes, or environmental quality.
We note that a thorough planning process often brings in personnel and conducts separate analyses to
create a comprehensive assessment of all concerns, but the available software tools either do not
incorporate such analyses or require development of add-on analyses (including GIS assessments) in
order to take a similarly comprehensive look at sustainability metrics during planning. Thus, tools are
needed that estimate a more comprehensive set of metrics as well as more information about likely
solutions. A simple approach to improve such tools could be to provide options to add simple overlays
representing planning practices that are known to be generally effective at addressing common concerns.
For example, an overlay might be used to roughly estimate the water quality improvements of adding
permanent vegetated buffers to a specified proportion of streams. Even if such a scenario were
impractical to fully implement, it would provide guidance on the potential effectiveness of policies and
incentives.
A long-term research goal to advance such tools could be to improve their ability to represent likely
human responses to policies and physical design of cities (e.g., similar to Sim City) as a means to
evaluate the best methods to achieve desired plans. The Land Change Modeler contains elements of this
goal and suggests that behavioral response models that are based on empirical evidence from multiple
communities (i.e., where planning techniques have been applied) and that are adapted to local conditions
are within reach. Such tools could simulate aggregate behavioral responses to common planning
mechanisms such as sewer and transportation placement, density restrictions, or growth boundaries.
Although such generic modeling is likely to be impractical for representing many specific local
conditions, it would be a means to synthesize and transfer some of the knowledge gained by
jurisdictions about the effectiveness of particular legal and planning mechanisms for achieving desired
sustainability goals.
3.8 Conclusions
The land use tools that we have evaluated can be divided into two categories. They are either
comprehensive tools for scenario planning that may have limited quantitative analysis tools as part of
the core capabilities, or they are quantitative analysis tools with a narrow focus on a particular outcome
such as greenhouse gas emissions. In combination, such tools meet a variety of planning needs.
However, tools are not necessarily designed to work together. In other words, a planning scenario that
emerges from a public engagement process may or may not have the detail or specifications needed to
support calculations of a specific environmental or social impact. Finally, tools appear to lack the
necessary elements to evaluate cumulative or net effects on regional resources such as air and water
quality.
32

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^Transportation Tools
4.1 Potential Uses of Transportation Tools
This section identifies and describes various tools available to help communities assess current local
conditions in relation to sustainable transportation. Hopefully, communities will be able to use these
tools to help understand the likely outcomes of policy alternatives directed at improving transportation
systems within a broader framework of healthy and sustainable communities.
Sustainable transportation challenges manifest across a range of community needs, scales, and modes of
transportation. Local governments routinely operate fleets of various types of service vehicles (e.g.,
police, fire departments, sanitation, and public transit). Private small businesses often operate similar,
but more specialized fleets (e.g., product or service delivery), while larger corporations might locally
operate fundamentally different and larger commercial vehicles (e.g., long-haul trucking, commercial
rail, cargo and passenger aircraft). Finally, individual modes of transportation currently emphasize
personal automobiles, but also encompass walking, cycling, and use of private (e.g., taxis) and public
transportation. Sustainable transportation tools should have the capability to address each of these
transportation systems individually. Tools are also needed that examine the complex interrelationships
among these diverse modes of transportation to meet systemic community sustainability goals that
pinpoint transportation.
Addressing sustainable community transportation can involve a variety of policies directed at multiple
sustainability goals with corresponding measures of performance (metrics). For example, sustainable
transportation might imply a reduction in total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) measured across all
transportation sectors. Increased efficiencies in terms of per capita VMT or tons of freight hauled per
VMT could also indicate improvements in transportation systems. Providing increased options and
alternative modes of transportation (including technological advances, e.g., hybrid and electric vehicles)
across the user community could increase community sustainability. Minimizing the human health and
environmental impacts (e.g., air quality, GHG emission) of transportation appear as valued contributions
to sustainable transportation. Building and maintaining transportation infrastructure within a
comprehensive approach to sustainable land-use management represents a key sustainability goal.
Ideally, tools should be available to address each of these community demands for increased
sustainability of transportation.
Sustainable transportation is one component within the broader health and sustainability vision of the
SHCRP (e.g., Flanders et al. 2013). Community sustainability requires recognition of the complex
feedbacks and interrelationships among the many structural and functional components that define
health and sustainability at this scale. This SHCRP project separately addresses available tools that focus
on transportation, buildings, waste (materials) management, and land-use. Meaningful efforts directed at
comprehensive community health and sustainability goals will require tools that can characterize the
feedbacks and interrelationships under current conditions and, more importantly, describe how the likely
outcomes of management alternatives will be influenced by these kinds of community structural and
functional interactions.
Correspondingly, users of tools identified by this project will be confronted by a range of health and
sustainability challenges and will require information presented at different degrees of detail. The set of
selected transportation tools must be able to meet these varied challenges and information requirements.
Likely users of the identified tools include government officials, community organizers, non-profit
agencies, and interested community members, including residents and businesses. The set of
sustainability tools will have to be able to meet the varied needs and address specific interests across this
33

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diverse user community.
This report briefly outlines capabilities of selected transportation tools in relation to community health
and sustainability goals consistent with the SHCRP vision. Importantly, this endeavor was not
undertaken solely to identify and elaborate the benefits of individual tools to the end-users. A central
focus in identifying and evaluating individual tools was to identify gaps in current capabilities to support
sustainable transportation activities. Identification of these gaps may facilitate the development of
additional tools that provide for more comprehensive guidance in the realization of future transportation
systems in support of healthy and sustainable communities.
4.2 Tool Usability
This section identifies and briefly describes the usability of selected transportation tools (models) in
relation to community health and sustainability. The review and evaluation of candidate tools identified
23 transportation models that were consistent with the screening-level criteria developed and applied
across the sectors of community sustainability addressed by this report. Tables 4:1 and 4:2 summarize
attributes of the transportation tool that determine their relative accessibility (e.g., cost, open source),
type of implementation, ease of use, nature of outputs, and required user skills. The selected tools are
primarily mature simulation models that run on desktop computers in a Windows environment. Several
tools are essentially spreadsheets or calculators; three are GIS analysis tools; three tools provide a web-
enabled browser.
The transportation tools are primarily stand-alone models that do not depend on additional software,
although several models can interface with software (e.g., GIS, spreadsheets) to facilitate analysis and
presentation of model results. Contrastingly, input data requirements vary widely among the selected
tools, and are generally substantial. Only four of the models includes all data required for
implementation.
The selected transportation tools are generally free or relatively inexpensive (<$1,500) and may appear
to include access to the source code. The tools generally require only a basic understanding of
mathematics and/or spreadsheet calculations. The models are well-documented and a range of training
materials are available, including user manuals, case studies, and tutorials. Four models provide wiki
support. Training courses are available for five of the selected transportation tools. These attributes of
the selected transportation tools define the relative effort required for implementation. Clearly, ease of
implementation will factor into the tendency of the potential users to apply the selected tools to address
community healthy and sustainability issues.
With a fundamental focus on transportation, it is not surprising that the selected tools tend to focus on
neighborhood, city, county or regional spatial scales, with a decided emphasis on regional applications.
However, the Urban Footprint provides for site descriptions with 150 m spatial resolution.
Corresponding temporal scales emphasize annual or multi-year applications, although several tools are
described somewhat ambiguously in terms of time-scales.
The transportation models produce a range of outputs potentially useful in addressing transportation
challenges to promote healthy sustainable communities. Model outputs for the selected transportation
tools emphasize narratives, reports, maps, graphs, and spreadsheets. Nine of the models interface with
external software (e.g., GIS) for additional analysis and presentation of results.
34

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Table 4.1. Existing READ Fields - Transportation
Field
Description
Summary Statistic
Life Cycle
Stage of development of the
software tool at the time of
database update
1/23
19/23
0/23
3/23
Beta
Mature
Available but No Longer
Supported
Insufficient Information
Last Known Software Update
Summarized in year ranges
0/23
7/23
3/23
2/23
11/23
Current year
l-3yr
3-5yr
>5yr
Insufficient Information
Compatible Operating Systems
Native operating system (OS) for
desktop and mobile tools. Browser-
based tools are shown as N/A since
they operate independently of the
OS.
15/23
7/23
2/23
0/23
0/23
6/23
2/23
Windows
Mac
UNIX/Lenux
iOS
Android
N/A
Insufficient Information
Other proprietary software
requirements (if any):
Additional software needed to run
the model.
6/23
2/23
0/23
0/23
Excel
ERSI ArcGIS
Other
None
Model Evaluation
Indicates whether independent,
peer-reviewed evaluations of the
tool had been published at the time
of database update.
9/23
Tools have evaluations available
Model Structure
General categories of tool type
9/23
5/23
1/23
3/23
3/23
Simulation Model
Speadsheet Calculator
Web Calculator
GIS Analysis Tool
Web-Based GIS Tool
Interfaces to Other Resources
Indicates whether a tool imports,
exports or otherwise interfaces with
any other software tools.
9/23
Tools interface with other
resou rces
35

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Table 4.2. Evaluation Metrics Developed by OTIE-Transportation
Field
Description
Summary
Statistic
Base Cost of
Software
Minimum cost of acquiring software/system
(excluding add-on modules). Some tools offer
student discounts or variable pricing, which is noted
in another field.
16/23
1/23
1/23
0/23
1/23
4/23
So
S1-S499
$500-$1499
$1500-$4000
> $4000
Insufficient Information


13/23
Yes
Open Source
Source code accessible?
4/23
3/23
3/23
No
Partial
Insufficient Information
Operating
Environment
Platforms on which software tool is operable.
17/23
7/23
1/23
1/23
Desktop
Browser
Mobile
Insufficient Information
Data
Requirements
None= all data provided
Low = Data generally publicly available
Med = Not publicly available but routinely available
High = New data must be created
4/23
2/23
8/23
7/23
2/22
None
Low
Medium
High
Insufficient Information
Model Output
Types
Method of displaying returns generated by software
tool.
12/23
3/23
1/23
1/23
0/23
6/23
6/23
2/23
1/23
0/23
5/23
0/23
Data (spreadsheet database)
Indicators
Indices, Aggregate Scores
Priority Ranks
Monetary Values, ROI
Graphs
Maps
G IS Layers
3-D Visualizations, Movies
Checklists
Narratives, Reports
Other
Types of
Support
Materials
Support available from the developer, user
community, or elsewhere.
15/23
5/23
5/23
4/23
2/23
3/23
5/23
7/23
Documentation
Case Studies
Tutorials
Knowledge Base / Wiki
User Forum
Technical Support
Training Courses
Insufficient Information


8/23
Point in Time
Time Scale
Projection period(s) for modeling tools. May not be
applicable to all tool types.
7/23
5/23
1/23
10/23
Annual
Multi-Year
Other
Insufficient Information
Spatial Extent
Geographical unit(s) in which the model is applicable.
3/23
6/23
8/23
8/23
9/23
10/23
12/23
4/23
2/23
2/23
8/23
Building
Site
Neighborhood
City
County
State
Region
Nation
Continent
Globe
Insufficient Information
Technical skills
needed to
apply model
User capabilities required for proper application of
software tool.
9/23
0/23
4/23
0/23
1/23
1/23
2/23
0/23
4/23
2/23
3/23
Spreadsheet Calc/Basic Math
Basic GIS
Intermediate GIS
Advanced GIS
Basic Statistics
Advanced Statistics
Model Calibration
Software Coding
None
Other Specialized Knowledge
Insufficient Information
36

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4.3 Comprehensiveness of Analysis Capabilities
The following section characterizes the combined capabilities across the selected transportation tools.
Table 4:3 qualitatively describes the attributes of the individual tools as defined by the STAR categories
as well as additional metrics deemed relevant to transportation systems for healthy and sustainable
communities. Importantly, the results of this collective tabulation of selected tool capabilities can help
identify gaps that need to be addressed in order to develop comprehensive and necessary transportation
analysis skills directed towards community healthy and sustainability.
The characterization in Table 4:3 is qualitative and somewhat preliminary based on current
understanding of the individual tools. More detailed analysis of the tools might revise the following
tabulation, but the current characterization serves as a useful starting point for gap analysis for
transportation tools.
(Table is based on STAR metrics but includes other considerations)
37

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Table 4.3. Desirable Tool Analysis Capabilities by STAR Categories - Transportation
STAR Community Rating System
Goals & Objectives
Transportation Tools
Based on the STAR Community Rating
System Goals & Objectives. More
information on Evaluation Measures
and the STAR Community Rating
System is available at
http://www.starcommunities.org/rating~
system/framework
AFLEET
AirCRED
C2RouteApp
CACP
Clean Cities Area of
Interest
CommunityViz
EERPAT
+
h-
LLJ
GEMIS
GHG Emissions from
Transport or Mobile
Sources Calculator
GREET
IDAS
INVEST
ITHIM
MetroQuest
MOVES
RapidFire
RUBMRIO
SmartGAP
SPARC INDEX
STEAM
StreetMix
Urban Footprint
Built Environment
X
X
X
X
X
X

X
X

X
X
X
X

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Ambient Noise and Light












X







X


Community Water System







X




X



X





X
Compact and Complete Communities





X

X




X
X


X


X


X
Infill and Redevelopment







X








X


X

X
X
Public Spaces







X








X


X

X
X
Transportation Choices
X
X
X
X
X


X
X

X
X
X
X

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Climate and Energy
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

X
X

X

X

X
Climate Adaptation







X















Greehouse Gas Mitigation
X
X

X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

X
X

X

X

X
Greening the Energy Supply

X








X












Industrial Sector Resource Efficiency























Resource Efficient Buildings







X








X





X
Resource Efficient Public Infrastructure


X
X






X
X
X
X


X

X



X
Waste Minimization












X










Economy and Jobs



X

X

X
X



X




X
X
X



Business Retention and Development























Green Market Development























Local Economy





X

X









X
X
X



Quality Jobs and Living Wages







X











X



Targeted Industry Development























Workforce Readiness



















X



Education, Arts and Community





X






X

X




X



Arts and Culture























Community Cohesion














X








Educational Opportunity and
Attainment























Historic Preservation












X










Social and Cultural Diversity





X













X



Eguity and Empowerment





X






X

X








Civic Engagement












X

X








Civil and Human Rights























Environmental Justice























Eguitable Services and Access





X

















Human Services























Poverty Prevention and Alleviation























Health and Safety





X

X




X
X


X

X
X


X
Active Living







X




X
X


X

X



X
Community Health and Health System























Emergency Prevention and Response





X










X





X
Food Access and Nutrition



















X



Indoor Air Quality























Natural and Human Hazards













X









Safe Communities























Natural Systems
X
X


X


X

X
X
X
X
X

X
X


X


X
Green Infrastructure























Invasive Species












X










Natural Resource Protection












X






X



Outdoor Air Quality
X
X


X


X

X
X
X
X
X

X
X





X
Water in the Environment























Working lands (Agricultural and Forest)























38

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4.4 Tools Analysis
This section briefly outlines the capabilities of the selected individual transportation tools.
Understanding these capabilities is important to support current efforts related to sustainable
transportation planning within the larger context of overall community health and sustainability.
Additionally, knowledge of current capabilities can help identify gaps in the available transportation
tools.
•	CommunityViz - CommunityViz is primarily a GIS-based land use planning tool. This tool
permits the specification of land-use scenarios and analyzes the implications of scenarios in
terms of site suitability, growth, energy use, pollution emissions (including GHGs), population
demographics, jobs, build out analysis, dwelling units, and population density Additionally,
CommunityViz has structural and functional components that address the transportation
implications (e.g., required infrastructure, transit times, congestion, emissions) of proposed land-
use scenarios. CommunityViz supports land use planning via sketch planning, 3-D visualization,
suitability analysis, impact assessment, and growth modeling.
•	Envision Tomorrow - Envision Tomorrow comprises a set of urban and regional planning tools
that can be used to model the feasibility of proposed development on a site-by-site basis. This
tool can also be used to create and evaluate multiple land use scenarios. Envision Tomorrow
permits testing and refining transportation plans, including transportation choices, transportation
affordability, vehicle miles traveled, parking, and GHG emissions. In addition, Envision
Tomorrow permits analysis of complex regional plans and addresses compact and complete
communities, returns on investment, predicted growth, affordable housing, efficient buildings,
regional air quality, and jobs.
•	SPARC INDEX - SPARC is a cloud-served data transformation service that supports urban and
regional scenario planning with INDEX Online. INDEX can be used for land-use scenario
planning, estimating vehicle miles travelled, evaluating income, developing population census,
and assessing transportation, including public transit and commuting. In addition, INDEX
examines brownfields, natural resource conservation, housing, employment, population, water,
wetlands, agriculture, hurricanes, climate, energy, infrastructure, emergency services, culture,
education, work force, public health, and social services.
•	INVEST - INVEST is a practical, web-based, collection of voluntary best practices designed to
help transportation agencies integrate sustainability into their programs and projects. INVEST
can be used by transportation agencies, such as DOTs, MPOs, Council of Governments, public
works departments, and their consultants and partners to evaluate and assist in integration of
sustainability concepts into program planning and project analysis. INVEST can be used to
evaluate the economic, social, and environmental implications of transportation plans.
Additionally, this tool permits evaluation of highway infrastructure planning, design,
construction, operation, and maintenance.
•	EERPAT - EERPAT was developed to assist state transportation agencies with analyzing
greenhouse gas reduction scenarios and alternatives for use in the transportation planning
process. EERPAT also addresses the development of state climate action plans and scenario
planning exercises directed towards measuring the GHG reduction potential of various
transportation strategies to meet state greenhouse gas reduction goals and targets. EERPAT
serves as a policy analysis tool to evaluate GHG reduction implications and VMT associated
with alternative transportation system characteristics and transportation demand.
39

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•	MOVES - The MOVES system estimates emissions of a broad range of pollutants by mobile
sources (i.e., automobiles, trucks, and motorcycles). MOVES allows analysis of emissions at
multiple scales of transportation systems. This transportation tool is used to evaluate regulatory
compliance with state implementation plans, examine conformity with transportation planning,
analyze fuel economy standards, and estimate emissions associated with refueling infrastructure.
•	IDAS - IDAS is a sketch-planning software analysis tool that transportation practitioners can use
to estimate the benefits and costs of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) investments. ITS
are smart applications aimed at better management of traffic and alternative modes of
transportation. IDAS develops inventories of ITS equipment needed for proposed deployments
and identifies cost-sharing opportunities. The tool works with the outputs of existing
transportation planning models and compares or screens ITS deployment alternatives. IDAS can
predict relative costs and benefits for more than 60 types of ITS investments. The tool provides
documentation for transition from planning to detailed design and implementation of its
investments.
•	STEAM - The Surface Transportation Efficiency Model (STEAM) uses information developed
through the travel demand modeling process to compute the net value of mobility and safety
benefits attributable to regionally important transportation projects. The STEAM addresses travel
times, vehicle operating costs, pollutant emissions, energy consumption, and noise associated
with alternative transportation plans. The tool also considers traffic congestion, GHG emissions,
access to jobs, and levels of risk associated with the estimated results of STEAM applications.
•	SmartGAP - SmartGAP is a tool for evaluating the impact of various smart growth policies.
SmartGAP is designed to be a high-level evaluation at a regional scale that can bridge the
distance between evaluating smart growth policies during a regional visioning process and
evaluating smart growth policies at a project or alternative level in a regional transportation plan.
SmartGAP focuses on travel demand, population demographics, and connectivity associated with
regional transportation plans.
•	TRANUS - TRANUS is an integrated land-use and transportation system model. This
transportation tool simulates interactions between land-use, real estate development, and
subsequent transportation demands. TRANUS was designed more specifically to evaluate land-
use and transportation planning alternatives from economic, financial, and environmental
perspectives. The model permits analysis of passenger and freight movements across multiple
interacting modes of transportation. TRANUS represents public transportation systems with
multiple transfers, waiting times, and integrated travel costs (i.e., fares). The model can be
applied across a wide range of scales, from detailed urban sites to regional and national
implementation.
•	ITHIM - ITHIM provides integrated health impact assessments of transport systems by
characterizing changes in travel patterns, physical activity, road traffic injury risk, and urban air
pollution. These health impacts are also examined in relation to possible implications of
greenhouse gas emissions. ITHIM can either be used as a stand-alone model or it can be linked
to other transport and health models. ITHIM can be used for development of scenarios, for
estimation of changes in exposures, and for modelling health outcomes.
•	Urban Footprint - The Urban Footprint (UF) is an interactive software urban planning platform
that is fundamentally web-based, but is also advertised as an open-source application that
operates across a variety of operating systems (e.g., Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android). The
UF comprises separate, but integrated, planning components that provide for analysis of land
consumption, fiscal impacts, building energy (residential, commercial), water use, public health,
40

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and transportation outcomes of alternative planning scenarios. The UF characterizes urban
spaces at 150 m resolution and provides for input of highly detailed data describing multiple
planning attributes for each modeled sector. The UF transportation component examines
relationships between planning designs (sketches) and associated VMT, mode of travel choice,
congestion, and emissions of pollutants, including GHGs. The travel model addresses residential
and employment concentrations, mixes of commercial and residential housing, walkability and
non-motorized transportation, proximity to public transportation, and relationships between
travel choices and household size and income. The transportation model also estimates costs of
automobile ownership, maintenance, and fuel. The UF transportation model has been evaluated
through comparison of predicted and observed vehicle miles traveled for major regions of
California (e.g., Calthorpe 2012).
•	StreetMix - StreetMix is a streetscape design visualization tool. Add bike paths, widen
sidewalks or traffic lanes, and learn how all of this can impact your community.
•	GHG Emissions from Transport or Mobile Sources Calculator -This spreadsheet tool
calculates C02, CH4 and N20 emissions from privately owned vehicles; public transport by
road, air, rail or water; agricultural and construction equipment.
•	Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation Model
(GREET) - To fully evaluate energy and emission impacts of advanced vehicle technologies and
new transportation fuels, the fuel cycle from wells to wheels and the vehicle cycle through
material recovery and vehicle disposal need to be considered. GREET allows researchers and
analysts to evaluate various vehicle and fuel combinations on a full fuel-cycle/vehicle-cycle
basis.
•	Alternative Fuel Life-Cycle Environmental and Economic Transportation (AFLEET) -
AFLEET is a spreadsheet tool that examines both the environmental and economic costs and
benefits of alternative fuel and advanced vehicles. The tool uses data from Argonne's
Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) fuel-cycle
model to generate necessary well-to-wheels petroleum use and GHG emission coefficients for
key fuel production pathways and vehicle types. In addition, Environmental Protection Agency's
MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) and certification data are used to estimate tailpipe
air pollutant emissions. Various sources are used to provide default cost data, including the Clean
Cities Alternative Fuel Price Report and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awards.
•	AirCRED - The AirCred model estimates emissions benefits from the fleet use of alternative-
fuel vehicles. The model is designed to assist states in estimating emissions credits for non-
attainment areas and to help fleet operators meet the Department of Energy's Energy Policy Act
fleet-conversion and alternative-fuel market penetration goals.
•	RapidFire - The RapidFire model is a user-friendly, spreadsheet-based tool that is used to
produce and evaluate statewide, regional, county, and jurisdiction-level scenarios. It emerged out
of the need for a comprehensive modeling tool that could inform state, regional, and local
agencies and policy makers in evaluating climate, land use, and infrastructure investment
policies.
•	Random-Utility-Based Multiregional Input-Output (RUBMRIO) - RUBMRIO is a freely
available, open-source transportation-economic model that simulates the flow of goods, labor,
and vehicles across a multiregional area. RUBMRIO simulates trade across regions/zones, as
motivated by foreign and domestic export demands.
•	C2RouteApp - Route optimization software mainly geared toward waste management.
41

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•	Clean Air and Climate Protection Software (CACP) - CACP is an emissions management
tool that calculates and tracks emissions and reductions of greenhouse gases and criteria air
pollutants associated with electricity, fuel use, and waste disposal.
•	Global Emission Model for Integrated Systems (GEMIS) - Perform complete life-cycle
computations for a variety of emissions, and determine the resource use, analyze costs, and allow
for aggregation of emissions into so-called C02 equivalents, S02 equivalents, and tropospheric
ozone precursor potential (TOPP), and by a calculation of external costs.
4.5 Gaps Analysis
The preceding description and evaluation of the selected transportation tools helped identify important
gaps in current capabilities for transportation models to support healthy and sustainable communities
(e.g., Table 4:3). Not surprisingly, the selected transportation tools demonstrate a wide range of
capabilities for the STAR categories that include the built environment, climate, and energy with
particular emphasis on the air quality (e.g., pollutants, GHGs) aspects of transportation systems. The
tools also usefully emphasize infrastructure costs associated with transportation systems. At the same
time, the tools do not substantially address water supply, water efficiency, walkability, or neighborhood
diversity in relation to transportation impacts, although the Urban Footprint begins offers some
capabilities across these topics.
The transportation tools do not address STAR categories defined as education, arts, and community
(e.g., availability of community venues, historic district preservation). Equity and empowerment aspects
of sustainable communities are not well addressed by the selected tools. Several of the health and safety
categories (e.g., access to health care, emergency response times, access to recreation) would appear to
be reasonable attributes for transportation tools directed towards sustainable community planning;
however, these categories are not well represented by the current tool selection.
Implementation of transportation tools to support community health and sustainability would seem to
benefit from capabilities that characterize interactions or impacts of transportation systems on natural
systems. However, except for air quality, the selected tools appear largely silent regarding these
interactions or potential impacts. Interactions between transportation system design and associated green
infrastructure opportunities also seems to be an area ripe for future tool development. Protection and
preservation of natural habitats should also be considered in the design and implementation of
sustainable transportation systems. Yet, these categories are not well-represented by the current tool
selection. The Urban Footprint provides some initial capabilities in relating transportation systems to
land consumption, including the potential for preserving natural systems or creating "green spaces" as
part of healthy and sustainable community planning.
In addition to categories identified by the STAR evaluation (i.e., Table 4:3), there are additional topics
that could be usefully addressed by transportation tools used in support of sustainable and healthy
communities. Many of these topics have been recognized by Flanders et al. (2013) as part of their
comprehensive analysis of sustainable transportation systems. Several of these topics (i.e., gaps, needs)
include the following. There seems to be an opportunity for possible double accounting of concrete
production in relation to estimates of GHG emissions, where emissions associated with production are
assessed "at the factory" and again as part of an overall GHG assessment of concrete used in developing
new transportation infrastructure (e.g., roads, over-passes, bridges). Tools seem to be lacking in the
ability to evaluate upstream production and supply chain impacts associated with fleet modifications and
overall life cycle analysis of ongoing and future fleet changes (e.g., increases of hybrid and electric
vehicles). Similarly, the implications of home electric car charging and overall demands on the grid need
to be incorporated into existing transportation tools. Correspondingly, tools are needed to evaluate
42

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opportunities and explore broader energy policy for encouraging the implementation of "green"
electricity (e.g., solar) to meet increased demands for electric charging stations across local, regional,
and national scales.
Existing land-use tools (e.g., Community Viz, Envision Tomorrow, Urban Footprint) that have
transportation components need to be modified to determine if local land-use plans can accommodate
needs for carbon sequestration to offset local transportation GHG emissions and simultaneously meet
other land-use needs for sustainable and healthy community development. Tools are needed that
emphasize water quality impacts of transportation and supporting infrastructure. Tools are also needed
to assess the human health and psychological effects of noise produced by transportation. As noted
under the STAR evaluation of the current tool selections, additional models are needed to incorporate
the social determinants of quality of life (e.g., access to health care, employment opportunities, social
interactions) into transportation planning integrated with the other sectors in overall planning for
sustainable and healthy communities.
From more of a policy and governance perspective, tools are needed that address how local governments
can help accelerate adoption of new vehicle technologies and develop the infrastructure (e.g., hydrogen
fueling and electric charging stations) necessary to facilitate the increased adoption of new technologies
by individual owners, as well as private and commercial fleet managers.
4.6 Conclusions
Through the process of identifying, evaluating, and selecting transportation tools that can assist in the
planning and implementation of sustainable and healthy communities, it has become apparent that
transportation assessment capabilities are important components of several multi-use planning tools
(e.g., Community Viz, Envision Tomorrow, Urban Footprint). These multi-use planning tools can likely
contribute substantially in sustainable transportation planning within the broader context of healthy and
sustainable communities. One potential path forward would be to "fill in the gaps" by adding additional
functionality to these comprehensive models. For example, the Walk Score (www.walkscore.com) could
be made accessible from several of the land-use and transportation tools (e.g., Community Viz, Urban
Footprint) to fill this gap. Walk Score provides ratings (0-100) for any location that describe not only
options for walking, but also the availability of public transportation or biking access to accomplish
daily errands or reach frequented destinations (e.g., schools, shopping, entertainment). In addition, any
of the identified gaps that pertain to transportation planning within a broader land-use context (e.g.,
transportation infrastructure, water infrastructure, carbon sequestration) could likely be accommodated
by modifications of the existing comprehensive land-use planning tools.
In contrast, some aspects (e.g., emission, VMT, congestion) of transportation planning in relation to
healthy and sustainable communities can be addressed using the selected tools that are comparatively
narrow in scope (e.g., MOVES, STEAM). Corresponding future tool development could emphasize
construction of similarly focused models that address individual gaps in great detail. A comprehensive
set of focused transportation tools could be used individually or in combination to examine the
sustainability and health of community planning activities.
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5.Waste Management Tools
5.1 Potential Uses of Waste Management Tools
Solid waste management is a responsibility and service provided by most municipalities in the U.S.,
although many locations have privatized or semi-privatized service provision. For the waste sector,
decision makers must balance budgetary, contractual, political, environmental, and social
considerations. As new waste collection and management technologies and strategies such as current
Zero Waste initiatives (Ferry, 2011) municipalities require data and information to quickly assess the
cost, environmental and social aspects of potential changes to their waste management strategy.
Municipalities also are required to update their solid waste master plans at regular intervals according to
individual State requirements. Data and tools are needed to support the waste sector to inform decisions
from near-term operational aspects to long-term master planning.
The tools in this category must provide users with data and information that addresses a broad spectrum
of need. We identified and evaluated waste sector tools that best fit our screening criteria. These tools
include both domestic and international options that allow municipal decision makers to assess the cost,
environmental, and/or social impacts of waste management options. Most tools are designed to allow
users the ability to tailor the data and assumptions for key parameters (e.g., waste composition). As
such, tools that are not US-based may be tailored to reflect US conditions. However, a tools ability to
accept user-specified inputs for a large number of parameters can increase the overall level of
complexity and the skill set(s) needed for using these tools.
End users of the tools in this sector possess varying needs for information at multiple levels of
complexity, from generic assessments of individual options (e.g., composting) to development of
detailed integrated solid waste management plans. A number of states prepare Statewide Solid Waste
Management Plans and many states require municipalities to prepare and regularly update Solid Waste
Management Plans (ASTSWMO, 2009). The tools that ultimately populate the database should be
flexible enough to meet the varying needs of users. The target audience for this web-accessed inventory
has been identified as municipal waste managers, consultants, waste industry, government and non-
profit agencies, academia, and residents and businesses.
End users in this broad target audience may require a variety of output types from a given tool. End-user
groups that could be interested in using waste sector tools include:
¦	Municipal Waste Managers - Municipal waste managers have an ongoing interest in assessing
the environmental performance of their operations and to evaluate and compare MSW collection
and management alternatives, both as a decision support for planning purposes and to meet
regulatory compliance. These tools can also assist them in communicating to stakeholders the
relative environmental burdens associated with waste options and the overall contribution that
waste management activities make to the environmental footprint of the municipality. Use of
these tools can also demonstrate the contribution that waste management to achieving policy
objectives (e.g. GHG emission reduction targets).
¦	Consultants - Many municipalities utilize consultants to analyze and assess waste generation,
composition and management options particularly during the development of community solid
waste management master plans. Consultants make use of their own internal [proprietary]
analytical tools as well as free or commercially available external tools and software.
¦	Waste Industry - Firms in waste management industry often have an interest in demonstrating
the environmental performance of their facilities and operations. Waste sector tools can help
44

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them to identify opportunities or potential vulnerabilities associated with their facilities and
operations (e.g., economic risks associated with energy or materials market price fluctuations), as
well as to benchmark their facilities and operations against others. Waste tools also facilitate
communication about their operations with government agencies and other stakeholder groups.
¦	Policy Analysts - Government and other policy analysts could use waste tools to quantify and
evaluate costs and environmental impacts of the waste sector. Environmental impacts often
include air and water pollution, climate change, and resource (e.g. land) use. The tools could also
be used to determine the contribution that waste management makes to environmental impacts as
well as how waste sector policies (e.g., landfill ban for organics) would contribute to achieving
overall environmental targets and objectives (e.g., GHG emissions reduction targets).
¦	Academic Community - Waste sector tools are a useful research and teaching tools that can be
used to create a better understanding of the potential impacts and trade-offs of alternative waste
management options and technologies. Tools can also be used to assess the contribution of waste
management practices to larger issues such as alternative energy sources or global warming and
to identify priorities for research and development of new techniques and technologies to reduce
targeted impacts (or maximize target benefits).
¦	Residents and Businesses - Both residents and businesses may be interested in waste sector
tools to provide information about waste management alternatives for different waste streams.
Data and information from these tools could be used as learning tool as well as tools to identify
alternatives for businesses to managing their waste streams in a cost efficient and
environmentally responsible manner.
The scope of tools required for this potentially daunting set of needs compels us to conduct a thorough,
iterative evaluation to maximize the usefulness of the database to all stakeholders. The tools database
will house the waste sector tools and identify their benefits to the end-users. Our goal, however, is not
merely to create a "show-and-tell" mechanism for what exists. To ensure that decision makers have
sufficient information to maximize their sustainability efforts across the spectrum of impact, they must
have access to the most comprehensive body of information possible. To that end, we must identify any
gaps in relevant information provided by the waste sector tools in our database. Identification of these
gaps will allow us to articulate the necessary steps to create additional tools that provide complete and
comprehensive guidance to those charged with making our communities more sustainable.
5.2 Tool Usability
We identified a total of 16 tools that could be classified as waste management related tools, and
evaluated those using metrics already incorporated into READ (Table 5:1) and new metrics that we
created to reflect usability, cost-effectiveness, and integrity (Table 5:2). We created summary statistics
of this new database to illustrate the state of the field, as captured by efforts to date.
45

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Table 5.1. Existing READ Fields - Waste Management
Field
Description
Summary
Statistic
Life Cycle
Stage of development of the
software tool at the time of
database update
1/16
13/16
0/16
2/16
Beta
Mature
Available but No Longer Supported
Insufficient Information
Last Known Software Update
Summarized in year ranges
1/16
3/16
3/16
1/16
8/16
Current year
l-3yr
3-5yr
>5yr
Insufficient Information
Compatible Operating
Systems
Native operating system (OS) for
desktop and mobile tools.
Browser-based tools are shown as
N/A since they operate
independently of the OS.
11/16
1/16
0/16
0/16
0/16
2/16
3/16
Windows
Mac
UNIX/Lenux
iOS
Android
N/A
Insufficient Information
Other proprietary software
requirements (if any):
Additional software needed to run
the model.
5/16
0/16
0/16
0/16
Excel
ERSI ArcGIS
Other
None
Model Evaluation
Indicates whether independent,
peer-reviewed evaluations of the
tool had been published at the
time of database update.
3/16
Tools have evaluations available
Model Structure
General categories of tool type
9/16
5/16
1/16
1/16
1/16
Simulation Model
Speadsheet Calculator
Web Calculator
GIS Analysis Tool
Web-Based GIS Tool
Interfaces to Other
Resources
Indicates whether a tool imports,
exports or otherwise interfaces
with any other software tools.
4/16
Tools interface with other resources
46

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Table 5.2. Evaluation Metrics Developed by OTIE- Waste Management
Field
Description
Summary
Statistic


10/16
So

Minimum cost of acquiring software/system
0/16
S1-S499
Base Cost of
(excluding add-on modules). Some tools offer
1/16
$500-$ 1499
Software
student discounts or variable pricing, which is
0/16
$1500-$4000

noted in anotherfield.
2/16
3/16
> $4000
Insufficient Information


1/16
Yes
Open Source
Source code accessible?
9/16
2/16
4/16
No
Partial
Insufficient Information


12/16
Desktop
Operating
Environment
Platforms on which software tool is operable.
3/16
1/16
3/16
Browser
Mobile
Insufficient Information

None= all data provided
4/16
None
Data
Requirements
Low = Data generally publicly available
0/16
Low
Med = Not publicly available but routinely
available
4/16
6/16
Medium
High

High = New data must be created
2/16
Insufficient Information


6/16
Data (spreadsheet, database)


2/16
Indicators


0/16
Indices, Aggregate Scores


1/16
Priority Ranks


6/16
Monetary Values, ROI
Model Output
Method of displaying returns generated by
7/16
Graphs
Types
software tool.
2/16
0/16
0/16
0/16
7/16
1/16
Maps
GIS Layers
3-D Visualizations, Movies
Checklists
Narratives, Reports
Other


11/16
Documentation


1/16
Case Studies
Types of
Support
Materials
Support available from the developer, user
community, or elsewhere.
3/16
2/16
1/16
6/16
3/16
Tutorials
Knowledge Base/Wiki
User Forum
Technical Support
Training Courses


2/16
Point in Time
Time Scale
Projection period(s) for modeling tools. May not
be applicable to all tool types.
7/16
4/16
2/16
7/16
Annual
Multi-Year
Other
Insufficient Information


1/16
Building


5/16
Site


4/16
Neighborhood


4/16
City
Spatial Extent
Geographical unit(s) in which the model is
applicable.
4/16
4/16
4/16
2/16
1/16
1/16
6/16
County
State
Region
Nation
Continent
Globe
Insufficient Information


6/16
Spreadsheet Calc/Basic Math


0/16
Basic GIS


1/16
Intermediate GIS


0/16
Advanced GIS
Technical skills
needed to apply
User capabilities required for proper application
of software tool.
0/16
0/16
Basic Statistics
Advanced Statistics
model
2/16
0/16
3/16
3/16
0/16
Model Calibration
Software Coding
None
Other Specialized Knowledge
Insufficient Information
47

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As shown in Tables 5:1 and 5:2, the tools identified include a mix of free and for-purchase desktop
applications that operate on the Windows platform. Most tools include documentation, such as a user's
guide, and most generate tabular results and some provide options for data charting as output. It is not
clear that any of the tools allow open access to the spreadsheet coding. Not shown in the summary
statistics is that more than half of the software tools are LCA-based waste management analysis and
planning tools. These tools allow users to compare waste management options and integrated strategies
on a life-cycle emissions and/or impacts basis, and in some cases cost.
5.3 Comprehensiveness of Analysis Capabilities
We developed a core set of questions to use to evaluate the scope of waste sector tools, as shown in
Table 5:3. These questions cover all the STAR categories of community well-being, but not all the
metrics used in the rating system. As illustrated in the table, the existing waste sector tools generally
cover the high-level categories directly related to waste management, including the built environment,
climate and energy, and natural systems. Most waste sector tools are designed to account for the
environmental aspects associated with waste management operations and strategies. A few tools account
for costs associated with waste management, and none appear to account for the broader range of
economic and social aspects.
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Table 5.3. Desirable Tool Analysis Capabilities by STAR Categories - Waste Management
STAR Community Rating System Goals 	 T ,
& Objectives Waste Management Tools
Based on the STAR Community Rating
System Goals & Objectives. More
information on Evaluation Measures and the
STAR Community Rating System is
available at
http://www.starcommunities.org/rating-
system/framework
C2RouteApp
CACP
EASETECH
Electronics EBC
Econometrics and
funding support
Food Waste
Assessment Tool
GEMIS
Intea rated Waste
Management Tool
LandGEM
MetroQuest
MSWDST
SimaPro
Umberto NXT
WAMPS
WARM
Waste Taraet-Settina
Tool
WRATE
Built Environment
X
X




X
X
X


X
X
X



Ambient Noise and Light

















Community Water System

















Compact and Complete Communities

















Infill and Redevelopment

















Public Spaces

















Transportation Choices
X
X




X




X





Climate and Energy
X
X
X
X

X
X
X
X


X
X
X
X
X
X
Climate Adaptation

















Greehouse Gas Mitigation

X




X
X
X

X
X

X
X


Greening the Energy Supply

















Industrial Sector Resource Efficiency



X













Resource Efficient Buildings

















Resource Efficient Public Infrastructure
X
X















Waste Minimization


X
X

X




X

X
X
X
X

Economy and Jobs

X




X










Business Retention and Development

















Green Market Development

















Local Economy

















Quality Jobs and Living Wages

















Targeted Industry Development

















Workforce Readiness

















Education, Arts and Community









X







Arts and Culture

















Community Cohesion









X







Educational Opportunity and Attainment

















Historic Preservation

















Social and Cultural Diversity

















Equity and Empowerment









X







Civic Engagement









X







Civil and Human Rights

















Environmental Justice










X






Equitable Services and Access

















Human Services

















Poverty Prevention and Alleviation

















Health and Safety





X











Active Living

















Community Health and Health System

















Emergency Prevention and Response

















Food Access and Nutrition





X











Indoor Air Quality

















Natural and Human Hazards

















Safe Communities

















Natural Systems



X



X
X


X
X
X
X

X
Green Infrastructure

















Invasive Species

















Natural Resource Protection



X







X




X
Outdoor Air Quality







X
X


X

X
X


Water in the Environment











X





Working lands (Agricultural and Forest)

















49

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5.4	Tools Analysis
Successful provision of service within budgetary constraints is a key focus for municipalities when it comes to
waste management. Success in this context often means collecting waste from generators, keeping public areas
free from litter and trash, and ensuring that all waste is managed in a timely manner. Municipalities must also
meet mandated (or voluntarily set) performance metrics. As noted by EPA (2015), the overall rate of recycling is
a common metric used by municipalities to measure the environmental performance of their waste management
systems. However, the rate of recycling alone does not account for differences between materials and material-
specific properties that govern energy consumption, emissions, recycling benefits, and other key parameters.
Thus, recycling rate alone is limited as a proxy for overall waste system performance.
A short-list of existing tools identified for this research is highlighted in this section. These include tools deemed
more relevant and useful and were divided into the two broad categories of those that focus on:
(1)	integrated waste management systems; and
(2)	specific waste streams or operations.
Almost all of the tools that fall into the first category of integrated waste management systems tools can
be classified as life-cycle assessment (LCA) based tools. LCA is an approach for analyzing the energy
consumption, emissions (often to the air, water, and land), and human and ecological impacts across the
entire life cycle of a product or process. In the context of waste management, the LCA-based tools
typically start with the generation of waste and consider all subsequent activities needed to collect,
transport, and management the waste (or specific waste fractions). Some LCA tools (e.g., SimaPro) are
designed for product and process LCAs and, although they include end-of-life data and modules, are not
waste sector tools per se and thus not included in the short-list.
5.5	Integrated/LCA-Based Waste System Tools
Highlighted tools that can be classified as integrated waste management systems and/or LCA-based
tools include:
¦	Environmental Assessment System for Environmental Technologies (EASETECH) -
EASETECH is a software application developed and made available by the Danish Technical
University and designed for waste planners and analysts for conducting an LCA of waste
management operations and integrated management strategies. The tool is made available only
after the user completes a training course at a cost of approximately $5,550. The default data and
assumptions used by the tool are representative of Denmark and Western Europe but may be
replaced by the user with data from other locations as available.
¦	Municipal Solid Waste Decision Support Tool (MSW DST) - MSW DST is a free
downloadable software application developed by EPA and made available through RTI
International. The MSW DST is designed for use by waste planners and analysts for quantifying
the cost and life cycle energy consumption, air emissions, water emissions and wastes for
different waste management operations and integrated management strategies. Includes the
ability to perform optimization analyses for cost, energy consumption, GHG emissions, and
other air pollutants. The default data and assumptions used by the tool are representative of U.S.
national averages and may be replaced with data from specific locations as available.
¦	Solid Waste Optimization Life-cyle Framework (SWOLF) - SWOLF is a software
application currently under development at North Carolina State University. Similar to the MSW
DST, SWOLF is designed for use by waste planners and analysts for quantifying the cost and life
cycle energy consumption, air emissions, water emissions and wastes for different waste
management operations and integrated management strategies. Future versions are to include
50

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dynamic optimization capabilities to allow users to capture changes in waste composition,
energy systems, and other key factors over time. The default data and assumptions used by the
tool are representative of U.S. national averages and may be replaced with data from specific
locations as available.
¦	Solid Waste Management Planning Software (SWPlan) - SWPlan is a commercial software
tool available at the cost of $475 from Scientific Software Group. SWPlan is designed for
calculating the costs of integrated solid waste management systems. Based on information
available, the tool uses proprietary algorithms in determining facility cost in relationship to
capacity throughout and relies on U.S. national averages which the user can replace with their
own values as available.
¦	Waste Reduction Model (WARM) - Warm is a free web- and spreadsheet-based calculator
made available by the U.S. EPA for quantifying the life-cycle energy consumption and GHG
emission reduction potential for various waste management operations and scenarios. The default
data and assumptions used by the tool are representative of U.S. national averages and
modification of these averages is more limited than other tools.
¦	Waste and Resources Assessment Tool for the Environment (WRATE) - WRATE is a
software tool originally developed for the Environmental Agency (United Kingdom) and
available through Golder Associates. A free demonstration version is available while an annual
license for the standard version costs approximately $2,400. The default data and assumptions
used by the tool are representative of UK conditions and may be replaced with data from specific
locations as available.
Detailed descriptions and comparisons for many of these LCA-based tools are provided in a recent
comparative analysis prepared by EPA (2015). A unique feature of the LCA and related LCA-based
MSW management tools is that not only are the direct environmental impacts from waste operations
accounted for but also the "upstream" environmental impacts associated with energy and materials
production that are inputs to the operations. In addition, where materials and/or energy are recovered
from the waste stream, the "savings" associated with displacing materials and energy production are
captured. Thus, the results from LCA-based tools include direct burdens from waste activities and
operations (regardless of whether or not the activity or operation is located or takes place within the
municipality) and indirect emissions and credits to other sectors (namely the materials manufacturing
and utility sectors) that are most likely located outside of the municipality, region or even the country.
The value of LCA-based tools for municipalities and other MSW management decision makers and
stakeholders is that they can provide a comprehensive view of the environmental impacts associated
with waste management. These tools can also provide insight into the key activities and operations that
drive emissions/impacts as well as tradeoffs between available options. Most of the LCA-based tools
provide results for energy consumption, multi-media emissions, and associated ecological and human
health impacts. Some LCA-based tools are focused on more specific topics, such as EPA's WARM
focus on GHG emissions. Others, such as ICLEI's CACP tool, capture the entire waste sector but are not
LCA-based tools. In the case of CACP, this tool is a GHG inventory tool that accounts for only direct
GHG emissions from waste facilities.
Few tools in this category include economic or social metrics that are included in the STAR Community
Rating System and otherwise important to communities and decision makers. The MSW DST and
SWOLF tools do include cost (capital, labor, and equipment) but do not include other economic metrics
such as job creation or loss and local market/economic development that are relevant to municipal
decision makers. No waste sector tools were found that capture social impacts such as environmental
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justice, aesthetics, noise, odor, and traffic considerations.
5.5.1 Targeted Waste Tools
Other potentially useful waste sector tools that are more targeted to specific topics include:
¦	Clean Air and Climate Protection (CACP) - Although detailed information about this tool
was not readily available for review, CACP appears to be a tool designed for use by
municipalities to prepare GHG inventories following the [Scope 1, 2, and 3] Greenhouse Gas
Protocol developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The tool is available to ICLEI members only.
¦	Electronics Environmental Benefits Calculator - Electronics Environmental Benefits
Calculator is a specific tool designed for use by institutional purchasers to quantify the
environmental and economic benefits of alternatives for management of electronic equipment.
¦	Food Waste Cost Calculator - The Food Waste Cost Calculator, developed by EPA and
designed for use by institutions and commercial entities (e.g., grocers), estimates the cost for
various food waste diversion options.
¦	Landfill Gas Emissions Model (LandGEM) - LandGEM estimates landfill gas (e.g., methane)
emissions. The EPA developed this tool.
¦	Hospital Waste Target-Setting Tool - Hospitals and medical centers can use the Hospital
Waste Target-Setting Tool to set targets and management medical and non-medical waste
streams and estimate costs for managing different waste streams and potential cost-reduction
opportunities.
¦	Industrial Waste Reuse - This tool can be used to characterize the cost and environmental
benefits associated with non-disposal end-use applications for industrial wastes.
¦	Fleet Route - Fleet Route is a for-purchase tool for optimizing waste collection vehicle routing
to minimize total vehicle miles traveled for waste collection and thus minimize cost and fuel
consumption.
¦	Routeware - specific for-purchase tool for optimizing waste collection vehicle routing to
minimize total vehicle miles traveled for waste collection and thus minimize cost and fuel
consumption.
5.6 Gaps Analysis
In the context of municipalities and waste management decision making, most of the existing waste
sector tools fall mainly in the realm of LCA-based decision support tools. These tools are designed to
quantify the life cycle environmental attributes (and in some cases cost) for integrated waste
management strategies. These tools can provide municipalities and waste sector stakeholders with the
ability to assess larger-picture questions such as what is the overall environmental impact/benefit of
alternative waste management strategies or which management strategy is best for a specific waste
stream (e.g., food). A handful of other existing tools are designed for specific topics within the overall
realm of waste management, primarily tools addressing special waste streams.
Municipal waste managers and planners require tools that allow them to track performance metrics (e.g.,
recycling rate) as well as tools that support waste master planning and account for economic,
environmental, and social attributes. Key limitations and gaps in the existing waste sector tools, in the
context of the goals of EPA's SHCRP and other related initiatives such as the STAR Community Rating
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System, include:
¦	LCA nature of many tools - while LCA can provide municipalities with a more complete picture
of the environmental impacts associated with waste management operations and strategies,
existing tools are limited in their ability to present local versus national or global emissions. As
such, these LCA tools are not designed for or directly usable for supporting common initiatives
such as city GHG reporting. In addition, these tools typically do not include common waste
management performance metrics (e.g., complaints, service provision) and economic or social
aspects that are important to municipalities.
¦	Data sources - the use of proprietary and/or non-standardization of data by the existing tools
creates differing results, but as noted by EPA (2015) directional results generally align among
tools. Tools would benefit from being able import common data sets, as well as community or
company specific data sets (e.g., for specific materials).
¦	Source reduction is not captured well by any of the identified existing tools. This would involve
moving up the supply chain from the point of waste generation and allow for the analysis of
policy measures (e.g., material disposal bans) and technical measures (e.g., materials substitution
or reduction, design for recyclability).
¦	Existing tools are primarily developed for analyses of the MSW stream. Few tools exist for
targeted waste streams that are typically handled as distinct and separate from MSW such as
construction & demolition, electronics, medical, and industrial waste. No tools were found that
can handle the full suite of waste streams. Some tools designed for MSW can capture some of
these waste streams to the extent that there are similar wastes in the MSW stream (e.g., wood in
MSW and C&D wastes).
¦	Environmental attributes captured by existing tools align with LCA practice and include
emissions (air, water, land), impacts to human and ecological health. Other environmental
attributes that are often missing include:
o Land use, resource requirements, water use, odor, noise, and dust
¦	Economic impacts (e.g., jobs, business opportunities, etc.) are largely missing from existing tools
as only per ton type costs (capital, labor, and equipment) are measured. Other economic
measures that are missing include:
o Capital investment, revenue, financial risks, job creation, economic/market development
impacts, impact on property values
¦	Social impacts were not incorporated in any of the existing waste sector tools identified and
reviewed. Key social measures that are missing and may be important to municipal decision
makers include:
o Public health and safety and risks, transportation congestion, environmental justice,
demographic impacts, aesthetics/visual quality
5.7 Conclusions
EPA's SHC Research Program strives to provide tools for community decision-makers to more
effectively and equitably evaluate and integrate parameters across all three pillars of sustainability (i.e.,
economic, environmental, social). This includes decisions related to waste management.
Some of the key environmental and economic measures that pertain to MSW management decision-
making are captured by existing waste sector tools but no tools were identified that address all aspects.
53

-------
Instead, the majority of existing tools focus on developing LCAs for waste management systems or are
dedicated to specific elements of waste management such as GHG emissions accounting, special wastes
(e.g., electronics, food, medical, industrial) management and collection route optimization tools. Some
tools, such as EPA's Food Waste Cost Calculator and SWPlan address cost only. Other tools, such as the
MSW DST and SWOLF enable users to account for both cost and environmental attributes. No tools
were identified that capture the broader range of economic and social impacts.
6.References
ASTSWMO. 2009. Local Solid Waste Management Plan Guidance and Information: A Reference Sheet.
Prepared by the Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Task Force of the ASTSWMO Solid Waste
Subcommittee. Available at: http://astswmo.org/files/policies/Solid_Waste/2009-09-Local-SW-
Management-Plan.pdf
Calthorpe. 2012. Urban Footprint. Technical Summary. Model Version 1.0. Calthorpe and Associates,
Berkeley, California.
Ferry, David. 2011. The Urban Quest for 'Zero' Waste. In The Wall Street Journal. September 12, 2011.
Available at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111904583204576542233226922972
Flanders, N., J. Yang, R. Dodder, G. Furie, R. Baldauf, L. Bachle, A. Bostrom, L. Berry, C. Walters, J.
Bare, T. Barzyk, R. Bruins, E. Cooter, F. DiCosmo, T. Eason, T. Fontaine, L. Jackson, N.
Schumaker, and J. Weaver. 2013. Synthesis paper on sustainable transportation. Prepared for
Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program - Theme 4. United States Environmental
Protection Agency.
Freeman, A. M. 2003. The measurement of environmental and resource values: theory and methods.
RFF Press, Washington, D.C.
K. Gowri, 2005, Desktop Tools for Sustainable Design. ASHRAE Journal January 2005.
Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities (STAR Communities) 2012. STAR
Community Rating System v. 1.0. Washington, DC.
US EPA. 2015. A Comparative Analysis of Life-Cycle Assessment Tools for End-of-Life Materials
Management Systems. Report Number EPA /600/R-l5/232. Remediation and Redevelopment
Branch Land Remediation and Pollution Control Division National Risk Management Research
Laboratory Office of Research and Development. Cincinnati, OH.
54

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Appendix A: Tools Screen
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
SimLab
Joint Research
Centre of the
European
Commission
https://ec.europa.eu/irc/en/samo/simlab
SimLab provides a free development framework for
Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis. SimLab is a
professional tool for model developers, scientists and
professionals, to learn, use and exploit uncertainty and
sensitivity analysis techniques.
out of scope
out of scope
SiteBuilder 3D
Placeways, LLC
htto://olacewavs.com/communitwiz/?i3
=site
SiteBuilder 3D enables users to create photo-realistic,
3D interactive scenes from 2D map data.
not a tool
not a tool
SLAMM-View
Image Matters
LLC
htto://www.slammview.ore/
SLAMM-View is a web browser-based application
that provides tools for improved understanding of
results from research projects that employ the Sea
Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM). Version
2.0 of SLAMM-View was designed for a user-
friendly, workflow-based approach to assess impacts
of sea-level rise (SLR) on coastal areas with both
visualization and analysis functionality. SLAMM-
View provides simultaneous comparison between both
current and future conditions out to the year 2100, and
among different SLR scenarios (e.g., 0.4 meter vs. 1
meter), using interactive maps and tabular reporting
capabilities.
out of scope
out of scope
SMART- Salt
Marsh Assessment
and Restoration
Tool
Wells NERR
httos ://scmd. nasa. eov/KevwordSearch/
Metadata. do?Portal=GCMD&Kevwor
dPath=%5B Science Parameters%3 A+
Science Cateeorv%3D%27EARTH+S
CIENCE%27%2C+Science Tooic%3
D%270CEANS%27%2C+Science Te
rm%3D%27COASTAL+PROCESSES
%27%2C+Science Variable Level 1
%3D%27ESTUARIES%27%5D&Entr
vId=SMART&MetadataView=Full&
MetadataT\DC=1 &lbnode=mdlb3
SMART is designed to support projects seeking to
reestablish tidal flow and return an area to its native
salt marsh habitat
out of scope
out of scope
55

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
SME- Spatial
Modeling
Environment
University of
Vermont -
Thomas Maxwell
httD://\vww. likbcz.com/AV/SDatial M
odelins Book/2/
This environment which transparently links icon-
based modeling enviromnents with advanced
computing resources, allows modelers to develop
simulations in a user-friendly, graphical enviromnent,
requiring no knowledge of computer programming.
not a tool
not a tool
SSFATE
Applied Science
Associates
N/A
SSFATE is an integrated system combining a
Geographic Information System (GIS) with a
computational model that predicts the transport,
dispersion and settling of suspended sediments
released to the water column as a result of dredging
operations.
out of scope
out of scope
The System for
Assessing
Vulnerability of
Species (SAVS)
US Forest
Service
htto://www.fs.fed.us/rm/erassland-
shrubland-dcscrt/Droducts/sDCcics-
vulnerabilitv/
The System for Assessing Vulnerability of Species
(SAVS) quantifies the relative impact of expected
climate change effects for terrestrial vertebrate
species.
out of scope
out of scope
Tomoye
NewsGator
htto://www.tomove.comA>roducts.html
Tomoye Communities maximize the engagement and
productivity of your communities; help you define
(and refine) your strategy with our community growth
model, ensuring you get the most from your
community investment.
not a tool
not a tool
STELLA
ISEE Systems
htto://www.iseesvstems.com/
The STELLA software is expressly designed for
modeling the dynamics of highly interdependent
systems. STELLA software provides a set of simple
building blocks which faculty or students can use to
piece together the relationships operating in an
ecosystem.
not a tool
not a tool
TownSquare
MIG, Inc.
htto://www.mi stownsauare.com/
Townsquare connects people, planning and ideas. It's
an easy and cost-effective suite of web-based tools to
coordinate staff; expand collaboration data sharing
and analysis; and engage communities in
understanding and participating in complex planning
concepts and processes.
not a tool
not a tool
TROPOMOD
NORAD funded
AquaPark project
by Chris Cromey
and Patrick
White
(Akvaplan-niva)
N/A
TROPOMOD is a particle tracking model which
predicts flux to the sea bed from milkfish and tilapia
farms in the tropics using information on bathymetry,
cage layouts including cage length, width and net
depth, current flows, feed input and other husbandry
information, dispersion coefficients (kx, ky, kz) and
out of scope
out of scope
56

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



settling velocity of feed and feces.


TxEMP- The
Texas Estuarine
Mathematical
Programming
Texas Parks and
Wildlife
Department,
Texas Water
Development
Board
htto://cedb.asce.ors/csi/WWWdisr)lav.
cei?9404346
Study the effect of freshwater inflow to the bays and
estuaries in Texas and to help establish long-term
objectives of maintaining and enhancing an
ecologically healthy enviromnent for the estuaries.
out of scope
out of scope
Transportation
Research Record
Journal 2242:
Sustainability and
Livability:
Economic,
Environmental,
and Social
Impacts,
Transportation
Research Board
htto://trb.metaoress.com/content/r588r
D748514/?D=7fff254f97ca4079ac06bb
cb lc5a9b8d&oi=8

not a tool
paper
Research Results
Digest 365:
Sustainable
Pavement
Maintenance
Practices
National
Cooperative
Highway
Research
Program
(NCHRP)
htto://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/16655
7,asD\

no output
no output
Sustainable
Concrete
Pavements: A
Manual of Practice
National
Concrete
Pavement
Technology
Center at Iowa
State University
htto://www.cr)techcenter.org/teclinical-
librarv/documents/Sustainable Concret
e Pavement 508.odf
This guide provides a clear, concise, and cohesive
discussion of pavement sustainability concepts and of
recommended practices for maximizing the
sustainability of concrete pavements.
no output
no output
TRB
Transportation
Research E-
CircularE-C152:
Adapting
Transportation to
Transportation
Research Board
httD://onlincDubs.trb.ora/onlincDubs/cir
culars/ecl52.t>df
TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research
Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 365:
Sustainable Pavement Maintenance Practices
highlights the current practice in sustainable pavement
maintenance and preservation.
not a tool
not a tool
57

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
the Impacts of
Climate Change:
State of the
Practice 2011





Assessment of
Colorado
Department of
Transportation
Rest Areas for
Sustainability
Improvements and
Highway
Corridors and
Facilities for
Alternative Energy
Use,
Colorado
Department of
Transportation
litto ://www. co 1 o radodo t. i nfo/o ro erams/
research/odfs/2011/restareas

not a tool
not a tool
Feasibility Study
of Using Solar or
Wind Power for
Transportation
Infrastructure
National
Cooperative
Highway
Research
Program
(NCHRP)
h 11 d : //o n 1 i nc d ub s. t rb. o r a/o n 1 i nc d ub s/ nc
hro/docs/NCHRP25-
25(64) FinalHandbook.odf
This tool is intended to be a resource for local,
regional, state, and federal transportation agencies in
their work in integrate existing and emerging
technologies into innovative transportation
applications, focusing on REIs as a net alternative
power source.
not a tool
not a tool
Transportation
Planning and
Sustainability
Guidebook
Federal Highway
Administration
httt>://www.fhwa.dot.eov/hei3/cliinate/s
ustainabilitv/index.cfm
The Sustainable Highways Initiative (SHI) supports
programs and activities conducted across the Federal
Highway Administration to facilitate balanced
decision making among enviromnental, economic, and
social values — the triple bottom line of sustainability.
not a tool
guidebook
Enviromnental
Corridor
Management
National
Cooperative
Highway
Research
Program
(NCHRP)
h 11 d : //o n 1 i nc d ub s. t rb. o r a/o n 1 i nc d ub s/ nc
hro/docs/NCHRP25-25(63) FR.ixlf
This report presents a framework for conducting and
documenting enviromnental management
activities by corridor, focusing on the core
maintenance practices of roadside management and
the primary areas of attention for enviromnental
performance measurement identified by AASHTO and
FHWA: resource use and recycling; water quality;
roadside enviromnental management; and
energy.
not a tool
not a tool
58

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Promoting
Sustainable
Transportation
Through Site
Design: An ITE
Recommended
Practice
Institute for
Transportation
Engineers
httDs://trid.trb.ora/vic\Y,asD\''id=76304
6
A guidebook to help municipalities and the land
development industry better design non-residential
development sites to promote accessibility by travel
modes other than the single-occupant vehicle (SOV).
not a tool
not a tool
Sustainability Peer
Exchange Report,
Resources
Center for
Enviromnental
Excellence bv
AASHTO
h 11 d : //e mi ro n i lie n t. t ra n s do rta t i o n. o r a/c
enter/oroducts oro erams/sustainabilitv
oeer exchanee.asox

not a tool
report
Innovative
Practices for
Greener Roads
International
Road Federation
htto://www.irfnet.cli/files-ur)load/i3df-
files/IRF BP Enviromnent Wcb.odf

not a tool
report
Infrastructure
2009: A Pivot
Point
The Urban Land
Institute
htto://www.uli.ors/ResearcliAndPublic
ations/RcDorts/~/mcdia/Documcnts/Rc
search AndPublications/RcDorts/Inrrastr
ucture/Infrastructure%202009.aslix

not a tool
report
NCHRP Research
Results Digest
304: Technologies
to Improve
Consideration of
Enviromnental
Concerns in
Transportation
Decisions,
National
Cooperative
Highway
Research
Program
(NCHRP)
h 11 d : //o n 1 i nc d ub s. t rb. o r a/o li 1 i nc d ub s/ nc
hro/nchro rrd 304.odf

not a tool
paper
Defining
Sustainable
Transportation
Center for
Sustainable
Transportation.
htto://cst.uwinnii3es.ca/docuinents/Defi
nine Sustainable 2005.odf

not a tool
paper
59

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
TCRP Report 93:
Travel Matters:
Mitigating Climate
Change with
Sustainable
Surface
Transportation,
Transit
Cooperative
Research
Program
lUtD://onlincDiibs.trb.ora/onlincDiibs/tcr
D/tcro rot 93.ixir

not a tool
report
Sustainable
Transport
Journal of
Transport
Geography
httD://\vww. scicnccdircct.com/scicncc'.'
ob=ArticleURL& udi=B6VG8-
3SX4MHJ-
3& user=10& rdoc=l& fmt=& orie=
search& sort=d&view=c& acct=COOO
050221& version=l& urlVersion=0&
userid= 10&md5=ab8b09bbba3 5d9eb
57281f3e459f7a90

not a tool
not a tool
Promoting the
Concept of
Sustainable
Transportation
within the Federal
System.
Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology
Engineering
Systems Division
httD://csd.init.cdu/staaina/\\Ds/csd-\\D-
2006-13.t)df

not a tool
not a tool
Issues in
Sustainable
Transportation.
Victoria
Transport Policy
Institute
http://www.vtpi.ore/sus iss.pdf

not a tool
paper
Sustainable
Development
Principles and
their Impact for
Transport.
Henrik
Gudmundssona,
Mattias Hojer
lUtD://\v\v\v. scicnccdircct.com/scicncc'>
ob=ArticleURL& udi=B6VDY-
3WT40M-
T& user=10& rdoc=l& fmt=& oris
=search& sort=d&view=c& acct=C00
0050221& version=l& urlVersion=0
& userid=10&md5=cba6ce012bf6cd4
db7b5574b74889bcd

not a tool
paper
Moving Toward
Sustainability:
Transforming a
Comprehensive
Land Use and

htto://trb.metai3ress.com/content/n8i326
ul3i828r387/

not a tool
paper
60

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Transportation
Plan.





Financing and
Implementing
Sustainable
Development: A
Local Planning
Approach

htto ://tti.tamu. edu/oublications/catalo eJ
record detail.htm?id=15435

not a tool

Weak Versus
Strong
Sustainability:
Exploring the
Limits of Two
Opposing
Paradigms.

htto://books.eooele.com/books?hl=en
&lr=&id=To3wOT>Slwc8C&oi=fnd&i3e
=PRll&da=47.%09Neumaver.+E..+W
eak+versus+Strons+Sustainabilitv: +Ex
olorine+the+Limits+of+Two+Oroosin
e+Paradiems.+2003.+Cheltenham:+Ed
ward+Elsar. &ots=U VXWNbObu9&si
e=ZSumeWHVwi OTCeWfOueHvRIe
UCk

not a tool
book
Transportation
Invest in our
Future.
American
Association of
State Highway
and
Transportation
Officials
AASHTO
h 11 d : //www. t ra n s do rta t i o n 1. o ra/t i F5 re d
ort/

not a tool
report
ERSEM-
European
Regional Seas
Ecosystem Model
Plymouth Marine
Laboratory
(PML)
htto ://www. meece .eu/librarv/ersem. ht
ml
ERSEM (the European Regional Seas Ecosystem
Model) is a mature plankton functional type model
that represents the key processes of temperate shelf
ecosystems; the main ones being some plankton
community complexity, the microbial loop, variable
nutrient stoichiometry, variable carbon, chlorophyll
ratios and a comprehensive description of benthic
biochemical and ecological processes.
out of scope
out of scope
61

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Fishery Analyst
for ArcGIS 9.x
Mappamondo
GIS
litto ://www. manna mo ndo ais.it/Droduct
s.htm
Fishery Analyst is an ArcGIS 9.x extension developed
to effectively analyze and visualize temporal and
spatial patterns of fishery dynamics.
out of scope
out of scope
Fledermaus
Software Suite
Ageotec
htto://www.aseotec.coin/cms/index.i3h
o/en/oroducts/asencies/software/fleder
maus-3d-visualization-and-analvsis-
software
IVS 3D's Fledermaus suite of software provides
interactive and intuitive tools for visualization,
processing, quality control and analysis of multibeam
sonar and related data.
out of scope
out of scope
ORWARE
0. Erikssona, B.
Frostella, A.
Bjorklunda
N/A
It is a computer-based model for calculation of
substance flows, enviromnental impacts, and costs of
waste management.
not available
not available
Global Water Tool
CH2M HILL
htft>://old.wbcsd.ors/work-
oro sram/sector-oroi ects/water/slobal-
water-tool.asD.x
A free and easy to use tool for companies and
organizations to map their water use and assess risks
relative to their global operations and supply chains.
out of scope
out of scope
Google Earth
Google
htft>://www. soosle.com/eartli/

not a tool
not a tool
Gaia Studio
Michael Gerzon,
Martin
Feuchtwanger,
Reno Sun
httos ://ansel. co/saiastudio
Cloud-based and user-friendly modelling software
solution for forest management planning, serving the
different stakeholders involved with the impact of
changes in forest landscapes as well as policy makers.
out of scope
out of scope
Habitat Digitizer
Extension
Ken Buja -
NOAA
httos ://www. arc sis. coin/home/item, ht
ml?id=aaa88d03d6cd499db77f663bdc
b77173
The Habitat Digitizer Extension is designed to use a
hierarchical classification scheme to delineate aquatic
habitats by visually interpreting georeferenced images
such as aerial photographs, satellite images, and side
scan sonar.
out of scope
out of scope
62

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
HEP USGS
Habitat Evaluation
Procedures
Fort Collins
Science Center,
USGS
htto://www.fort.uses.eov/Products/Soft
ware/HEP/
The HEP accounting program uses the area of
available habitat and Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) to
compute the values needed for Habitat Evaluation
Procedures (HEP) as described in the Ecological
Services Manual (ESM 102) and the HEP training
course Habitat Evaluation Procedures.
out dated
out dated
Expert Choice
Expert Choice
lUtD://c\oc rtchoicc.com/aboiit-us/
Expert Choice software provides a structured approach
and proven process for prioritization and decision-
making.
out of scope
out of scope
ILWIS- Integrated
Land and Water
Information
System
International
Institute for Geo-
Infonnation
Science and
Earth
Observation
(ITC)
htto://52northorg/communities/ilwis
Integrated Land and Water Information System
(ILWIS) is a remote sensing and GIS software which
integrates image, vector and thematic data in one
unique and powerful package on the desktop.
out of scope
out of scope
IDRISI Selva
Clark Labs
htft>://clarklabs.ore/t>roducts/idrisi.cfm
IDRISI Andes is an integrated GIS and Image
Processing software solution providing over 250
modules for the analysis and display of digital spatial
information.
out of scope
out of scope
IMPLAN
IMPLAN Group
LLC
htto://i molancom/
IMPLAN is an economic impact assessment modeling
system. It allows the user to easily build economic
models to estimate the impacts of economic changes
in their states, counties, or communities.
out of scope
out of scope
IAN Integration
and Application
Network
Conceptual
Diagrams
Integration and
Application
Network
lUtD://ian. iimccs.edu/svmbols/
The IAN symbol libraries contain over 1500 custom-
made vector symbols (in 32 categories) designed
specifically for enhancing science communication
skills.
not a tool
not a tool
InfoGames
Urban Interactive
Studio
lUtD://urbani ntcractiYCStudio.com/infou
ames
InfoGames are interactive workbooks, typically
displayed as multi-step wizards, that present your
content as fun infographics.
out of scope
out of scope
63

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
InVitro
CSIRO
lUtD://\vww.cmar.csiro.au/rcscarch/msc
/invitro.htm
InVitro is an agent based ecosystem-level
management strategy evaluation modelling
framework. It lias been specifically designed to
consider multiple use management questions for the
marine enviromnent.
out of scope
out of scope
Inundation
Toolbox
Applied Science
Associates
N/A
A software system that connects storm surge model
predictions to GIS mapping and analysis capabilities
to generate maps of areas at risk to inundation from
the predicted surge.
not available
not available
Kepler scientific
workflow system
Kepler and
SEEK Projects
https://kepler-proiect.ore/
Kepler is designed to help scientists, analysts, and
computer programmers create, execute, and share
models and analyses across a broad range of scientific
and engineering disciplines.
out of scope
out of scope
ISIS-FISH
Ifremer
htto://www.isis-fish.ors/en/
Spatial and seasonal simulation model describing the
dynamics of resources, exploitation and management
has been developed to explore the impact of a range of
management measures upon fisheries dynamics
out of scope
out of scope
LandScope
America
Nature Serve,
National
Geographic
httt>://www.landscot>e.org/
LandScope America is a conservation guide to the
country's natural places. This free, publicly available
website seeks to increase the pace and effectiveness of
land conservation, in part, through a nationwide map
viewer that provides easy access to authoritative maps
on conservation priorities, protected areas, threats,
plants and animals, ecosystems, recreation and
energy.
not a tool
not a tool
LUPM- The Land
Use Portfolio
Model
Western Region
Geography
htft>://eeo sraohv. wr.usss. eov/science/1
umn.html
A tool for modeling, mapping, and communicating
risk
out of scope
out of scope
64

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
LDW- Logical
Decisions for
Windows
Logical
Decisions
http://www.loeicaldecisions.com/
Evaluate choices by considering many variables at
once, separating facts from value judgments, and
explaining your choice to others
out of scope
out of scope
Maptalk
W!SL
Wageningen
Software Labs
and Alterra
httos ://www. researcheate. net/oublicati
on/40115211 ICT tools for Darticioat
orv dla nnina

out of scope
out of scope
Maptitude GIS &
MAPPING
SOFTWARE for
Windows
Caliper
Corporation
http://www.caliper.com/maptovu.htm
General GIS software
not a tool
not a tool
MAPTITE (Marsh
Analysis and
Planning Tool
Integrating Tides
and Elevations)
NOAA - Ken
Buja
NA
Simulate water level changes on an elevation model
for resource management and research issues. Its
primary purpose is to automate the process of
connecting tidal datum and land elevations to produce
marsh grass planting zones for coastal habitat
restoration projects.
not available
no longer
available
Marine Integrated
Decision Analysis
System (MIDAS)
Conservation
International
lUtD://DCODlc.bu.cdu/suchi/midas/indc\.
html
Software tool that was developed with three main
objectives in mind: (1) to assist the Marine Managed
Areas (MMAs) users and managers in understanding
the critical factors that influence the MMA's effects so
that they can plan accordingly; (2) to estimate likely
MMA effects based on the ecological, socioeconomic
and governance conditions; (3) and finally, to advise
management plan revisions that will result in
optimization of outcomes and outputs
out of scope
out of scope
Marine Reserves
and Local
Fisheries - An
Interactive
Simulation
Steven Phillips,
Daniel R.
Brumbaugh,
Eugenia Naro-
Maciel
htto://www.amnh.org/our-
research/center-for-biodiversitv-
conservation
This simulation-based educational tool allows users to
experiment with the use of marine reserves as tools in
fisheries management and to explore various
biological and economic factors that influence
population viability and fisheries sustainability.
out of scope
out of scope
65

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
MarineMap -
Marine Protected
Areas Decision
Support Tool
Will McClintock,
MarineMap
Project Manager
http://www.seasketch.ore/home.html
Web-based application used for designing marine
protected areas (MPAs)
out of scope
out of scope
Marine
Conservation
Agreements - A
Practitioner's
Toolkit
The Nature
Conservancy
htto://www.mcatoolkit.ore/
Provides information for local, national, and
international organizations regarding a promising
strategy to protect ocean and coastal biodiversity from
degradation and depletion.
not a tool
not a tool
Maxent
Phillips, Dudik
& Schapire,
supported bv
AT&T Labs;
Princeton U.
lUtD://\vww.cs. Drinccton.cdu/~schaDirc/
maxent/
Maxent is a program that produces models of species
geographic distributions based on presence-only data.
It was designed specifically for modeling distributions
when users have access to historical and/or current
species localities, but do not have data on sites where
the species is known to be absent.
out of scope
out of scope
MEFISTO
Francesc
Mavnou -
MEFISTO
Consortium
htto ://mefisto. software .informer, com/d
ownload/
MEFISTO is a software package implementing a
bioeconomic model for the Mediterranean fisheries.
out of scope
out of scope
MECON - Model
Economic
Francesc
Maynou -
MEFISTO
Consortium
htto ://mefisto. software .informer, com/d
ownload/
MECON is a simple bio-economic fisheries model. Its
main purpose is to illustrate the dynamics of a fish
stock subject to fishing by an economic agent.
out of scope
out of scope
MGET- Marine
Geospatial
Ecology Tools
Duke University
- Jason Roberts
http://meel.env.duke.edu/meet
Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools (MGET), also
known as the GeoEco Python package, is an open
source geoprocessing toolbox designed for coastal and
marine researchers and GIS analysts who work with
spatially-explicit ecological and oceanographic data in
scientific or management workflows.
out of scope
out of scope
MIKE 21 / MIKE
3
DHI Water &
Enviromnent
htto://www.dhierouacom/Software/M
arine/MIKE21. asox
MIKE 21 is a professional engineering software
package for the simulation of flows, waves, sediments
and ecology in rivers, lakes, estuaries, bays, coastal
areas and seas.
out of scope
out of scope
66

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Minimum-Data
Tradeoff Analysis
Model (TOA-MD)
Oregon State
University - John
Antle and
Roberto Valdivia
htto://aesci.oreeonstate.edu/tradeoffs/a
bout-toa
TOA-MD is a simulation model designed to carry out
multi-dimensional impact assessment of agricultural
and aquaculture technologies, analysis of ecosystem
service supply, and climate impact and adaptation
assessment.
out of scope
out of scope
Mercury
ORNL
htto://mercurv.ornl.eov/
Mercury is a Web-based system to search for metadata
and retrieve associated data.
not a tool
not a tool
Sustaining
America's Urban
Trees and Forests
USD A Forest
Service
htto/Avww.fs.fed.us/ooensoace/fote/re
Dorts/nrs-
62 sustaining americas urban.odf

not a tool
report
Evaluating
Sustainable
Development in
the Built
Environment 2nd
Edition

lUtD://\vww. rcscarchandmarkcts.com/Dr
oduct/a49a97/evaluatine sustainable d
evelomnent in the built

not a tool
book
Indicators of
Sustainable
Development -
Guidelines and
Methodologies
United Nations
Division for
Sustainable
Development
h 11 d : //e mi ro n 1 lie n t. t ra n s do rta t i o n. o r a/e
nviromnental issues/sustainabilitv/doc
s rcDorts.asD.x

no output
no output
Sustainable
Transportation
Performance
Indicators
Centre for
Sustainable
Transportation
N/A

no output
no output
Sustainable
Mobility and
Indicator Systems
in Transport
Policy.

htto://onlinelibrarv.wilev.com/doi/10.1
111/1.1468-2451.2003.05502003. x/Ml

not a tool
paper
67

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
DISTILLATE -
Design and
Implementation
Support Tools for
Integrated Local
Land Use,
Transport and the
Enviromnent
Institute for
Transport
Studies (ITS) at
the University of
Leeds
lUtD://\vww.distil late. ac.uk/outDuts/Dro
ducts.dIid

not a tool

Enviromnental and
Sustainable
Development
Indicators for
Canada.
National Round
Table on the
Enviromnent and
the Economy
htft>://collectionscanada.ec.ca/webarchi
ves2/2013032214490 l/httt>:/nrtee-
trnee.ca/environment-and-sustainable-
develomnent-indicators-index
The National Round Table lias developed six proposed
new formal economic measures or indicators. These
indicators will augment familiar
economic data such as gross domestic product (GDP)
and the consumer price index (CPI).
no output
no output
Sustainable
Transportation:
Conceptualization
and Performance
Measurement
Texas
Transportation
Institute)
htto ://tti.tamu. edu/oublications/catalo eJ
record detail.htm?id=25602
Sustainable transportation attempts to address
economic development, enviromnental stewardship,
and social equity of current and future generations.
not a tool
comparison of
11-year-old
models
sc STREAM
Cradle North
America Inc.
htto ://www. cradle-cfd. com
sc STREAM can calculate the phenomena related to
HVAC (airflow, heat transfer-including radiation and
solar radiation humidity, condensation, contamination
distribution and air quality indexes~for all sizes of
buildings.
not a tool
fluid dynamics
model
GaBi4
PE Europe
GmbH
http://www.pe-europe.com

out of scope
LCA
AQUALAND:
The Massachusetts
Aquatic
Landscape
Characterization
Tool
UMass
Landscape
Ecology Program
httos://www.ebmtoolsdatabase.org/tool
/aaualand-massachusetts-aauatic-
landscaDC-charactcrization-tool
AQU ALAND analyzes the contribution of upstream
aquatic and terrestrial systems to aquatic habitats.
out dated
no update since
2003?
68

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
ATLSS (Across
Trophic Level
System
Simulation)
The Institute for
Enviromnental
Modeling
University of
Tennessee
htto://atlss.ore/
A set of models designed to integrate three approaches
for different trophic levels of the system: (1) process
models for lower trophic levels (including benthic
insects, periphyton and zooplankton), (2) structured
population models for five functional groups of fish
and macroinvertebrates, and (3) individual-based
models for large consumers (wood storks, great blue
herons, white ibis, American alligators, white-tailed
deer, and Florida panther).
not
transferable
not
transferable
BathyFusion
Toolbox
Applied Science
Associates
N/A

out of scope
out of scope
Benthic Terrain
Modeler (BTM) v.
3.0
NOAA, ESRI
htto://ebmtoolsdatabase.org/tool/benthi
c-terrain-modeler-btm-v-30
Collection of tools that ocean and coastal scientists
and resource managers can use in concert with
bathymetric data to classify and understand the
benthic enviromnent
out of scope
out of scope
Brainstorm
Anywhere
PlaceMatters
lUtD://olacc matters, ora/bloa/ta a/brainst
onn-anvwhere/

not a tool
keypad polling
CanVis
National
Agroforestry
Center
httos://coast.noaa.eov/dieitalcoast/tools
/canvis
Allows users to "see" potential changes, from coastal
development (including a new building or marina) to
sea level rise.
out of scope
out of scope
Caribbean
Decision Support
System

N/A

not
transferable
not
transferable
69

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
CATS-
Consequences
Assessment Tool
Set
Defense Tlireat
Reduction
Agency
httDs://\vww. lcidos.com/Drodiicts/sccur
itv/cats

out of scope
out of scope
Chesapeake Bay
Ecosystem
Explorer
NOAA
lUtD://\v\v\v. think num.com/do\vnload/D
resskit/case studv/tm noaa.odf

out of scope
out of scope
CITYgreen
American
Forests
lUtD://\vww.amc ricanfo rests, ora/
Now part of InVest tool suite.
not available
inactive
CiviCRM
CiviCRM
httos ://civicrm. org/

out of scope
out of scope
ConnIe3
CSIRO
httD://\\\\\\.csiro.au/connie/
Investigate patterns of marine spatial connectivity
out of scope
out of scope
CORMAS
Centre de
cooperation
internationale en
recherche
agronomique
pour le
developpement
htto://cormas.cirad.fr/indexens.htm
Simulation platform based on the VisualWorks
programming environment which facilitates the
construction of agent-based models and the design,
monitoring and analyzing of agent-based simulation
scenarios.
not a tool
not a tool
CORMIX
MixZon Inc.
httt>://www.cormix.info/
USEPA-supported mixing zone model and decision
support system for enviromnental impact assessment
of regulatory mixing zones resulting from continuous
point source discharges
out of scope
out of scope
70

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
CORSET - Coral
Reef Scenario
Evaluation Tool
Institute for
Marine and
Antarctic
Studies,
University of
Tasmania
htto://coral.aoml.noaa.eov/mt>ermail/c
oral-list/2010-December/009448.html
CORSET is a generic, biophysical model for coral reef
systems which couples dynamics from local to
regional scales.
out of scope
out of scope
CPCe - Coral
Point Count with
Excel extensions
National Coral
Reef Institute
http://www.nova.edu/ocean/cpce/
Windows-based software (PC use only) that provides
a tool for the determination of coral cover using
transect photographs
out of scope
out of scope
CRiSTAL
Community-based
Risk Screening -
Adaptation and
Livelihoods
International
Institute for
Sustainable
Development
(USD), The
World
Conservation
Union (IUCN),
Stockholm
Enviromnent
Institute (SEI-
US) and
Intercooperation
httD://www.iisd.ora/cristaltool/
CRiSTAL is a project-planning tool that helps users
design activities that support climate adaptation (i.e.,
adaptation to climate variability and change) at the
community level.
out of scope
out of scope
Criterium
DecisionPlus
(CDP)
InfoHarvest Inc
lUtD://\vww. inroharvest.com/ihroot/ind
cx.aso
Criterium DecisionPlus (CDP) decision management
system helps you structure and communicate complex
decisions between alternatives.
out of scope
out of scope
Cumulative
Impacts
Assessment Tool
National Center
for Ecological
Analysis and
Synthesis
lUtD://\vww. nccas.ucsb.cdu/GloballVIari
ne
Estimates and visualizes the impact humans are
having on ocean ecosystems
out of scope
out of scope
71

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
CVAT
Community
Vulnerability
Assessment Tool
Tashya Allen
httos://coast.noaa.eov/data/docs/dieital
coast/cvat-nhr.Ddf
Community-wide risk and vulnerability assessments
out of scope
out of scope
DELFT3D
WL/Delft
Hydraulics
httD://\vww.dcltarcssvstcms.com/hydro
/oroduct/621497/delft3d-suite
Simulates two and three-dimensional flow, waves,
water quality, ecology, sediment transport and bottom
morphology and is capable of handling the
interactions between those processes.
out of scope
out of scope
GARP
The University
of Kansas Center
for Research
httD://\v\v\v. nhm.ku.edu/dcsktoDuaro/
Predict and analyze wild species distributions.
out of scope
out of scope
CPCe - Coral
Point Count with
Excel extensions
National Coral
Reef Institute
htto://cnso. nova.edu/ncri/index.html
Windows-based software (PC use only) that provides
a tool for the determination of coral cover using
transect photographs.
out of scope
out of scope
CRiSTAL
Community-based
Risk Screening -
Adaptation and
Livelihoods
International
Institute for
Sustainable
Development
(USD), The
World
Conservation
Union (IUCN),
Stockholm
Enviromnent
Institute (SEI-
US) and
Intercooperation
httD://\\\\\\. iisd.ora/c ristaltool/
Process for planners and managers to identify the links
between the livelihoods of locals and climate.
out of scope
out of scope
Criterium
DecisionPlus
(CDP)
InfoHarvest Inc.
htto://www.infoliarvest.com/iliroot/ind
cx.aso
Helps you structure and communicate complex
decisions between alternatives.
out of scope
out of scope
72

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Cumulative
Impacts
Assessment Tool
UCSB National
Center for
Ecological
Analysis and
Synthesis
lUtD://\vww. nccas.ucsb.cdu/GloballVIari
ne
The Cumulative Impacts Assessment Tool estimates
and visualizes the impact humans are having on ocean
ecosystems.
out of scope
out of scope
CVAT
Community
Vulnerability
Assessment Tool
NOAA - Tashya
Allen
htto://www.csc.noaa.eov/dieitalcoast/tr
ainine/roadmao
Step-by-step guide for conducting community-wide
risk and vulnerability assessments.
out of scope
out of scope
DELFT3D
WL/Delft
Hydraulics
httD://\vww.dcltarcssvstcms.com/hydro
/oroduct/621497/delft3d-suite
Simulates two and three-dimensional flow, waves,
water quality, ecology, sediment transport and bottom
morphology and is capable of handling the
interactions between those processes.
out of scope
out of scope
GARP
The University
of Kansas Center
for Research
lUtD://\vww. nhm.ku.cdu/dcsktODaarD/
Predict and analyze wild species distributions
out of scope
out of scope
Differential
DPSIR
A.M. Nobre
lUtDs://\vww. ncbi.nl m. nih.aov/Diibmcd/
19471999
The differential DPSIR is a tool for integrated
ecosystem management and was developed to evaluate
impacts on the coastal enviromnent. It consists of an
adaptation of the Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-
Response to understand the inter-relations between
ecological and economic dynamics of coastal zones.
out of scope
out of scope
Digital Coast:
Legislative Atlas
NOAA Coastal
Services Center
N/A
Web-based information-access tool that allows coastal
resource managers to better understand the complex
legal jurisdictions and regulatory framework of our
nation's oceans and coasts by visualizing this
information in a dynamic Web-mapping application.
out of scope
out of scope
DIVA- Dynamic
Interactive
Vulnerability
Assessment
Potsdam Institute
for Climate
Impact Research
htto://www.r)ik-
DOtsdam.de/rcscarch/transdisciDlinarv-
conccDts-and-
methods/arcliiv/oroi ects/oroi ect-
arcliive/favaia/diva
To explore the effects of climate change on coastal
enviromnents and societies
out of scope
out of scope
73

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
DNDC-
Denitrification
Decomposition
model
University of
New Hampshire
http://www.dndc.sr.unli.edu/
A computer simulation model of carbon and nitrogen
biogeochemistry in agro-ecosystems that can be used
for predicting crop growth, soil temperature and
moisture regimes, soil carbon dynamics, nitrogen
leaching, and emissions of trace gases.
out of scope
out of scope
Dyna-Plan
Anne-Helene
Mathey and
Michael Gerzon
N/A
Simulates forest ecosystem dynamics while also
optimizing forest management. These include policies
related to harvest flows, percent of harvested area, and
logging impact distribution on the land
out of scope
out of scope
EAR - Ecosystem
Assessment &
Reporting Tool

N/A

not available
no longer
available
EASy Mapping
Solutions for
Marine Resources
Dale Kiefer
N/A
Resource management and oceanography, pollution
studies and coastal monitoring
not available
no longer
available
Atlantis
Ecosystem Model
Beth Fulton of
CSIRO
http://atlantis.cmar.csiro.au/
Modelling framework intended for use in management
strategy evaluation (MSE) studies of marine
ecosystems
out of scope
out of scope
EcoGIS
NOAA - Tim
Haverland
htto ://www. st. nmfs. noaa. sov/eco sis/ab
out. htm
The EcoGIS project is developing a set of GIS tools to
better enable both fisheries scientists and managers to
adopt ecosystem approaches to fisheries management.
out of scope
out of scope
EcoNetwrk
NOAA/GLERL,
Chesapeake
Biological
Laboratory,
University of
Maryland,
GLFC, Michigan
httos://ecmd.nasa.eov/records/NOAA
EcoNetwrk.html
Quantifies the structure and function of food webs by
evaluating biomasses and energy flows
out of scope
out of scope
74

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection

State University




EcoSeed
Villy Christensen
or Zach Ferdana
- Duke
University
N/A
Ecoseed is a zoning tool for the EwE software
package designed to evaluate placement of protected
areas.
not available
no longer
available
EcoWin
GEM-
Geocheinical and
Ecological
Modelling
http://www.ecowin.ore/resources.asp
EcoWin2000 is an ecological model for aquatic
systems, developed using an object-oriented approach.
It resolves hydrodynamics, biogeochemistry and can
incorporate population dynamics for target species.
out of scope
out of scope
Eeelgrass
Restoration Site
Selection Model
Fre Short -
University of
New Hampshire
N/A
This GIS spatial computer model allows coastal
managers to rank the potential of different sites in an
estuary for eelgrass restoration thereby maximizing
the impact of their financial and operational resources.
out of scope
out of scope
EngagingPlans
Urban Interactive
Studio
http://urbaninteractivestudio.com/
EngagingPlans enables planners to launch and
maintain interactive, place-based public involvement
websites for gathering stakeholder feedback and
sharing updates to the community.
out of scope
out of scope
ERAEF: The
Ecological Risk
Assessment for the
Effects of Fishing
CSIRO Marine
Research
htto://www.seafish.org/media/Publicati
ons/SR644 A Guide to ERAEF Mar
ch 2011.Ddf
ERAEF is a procedure for identifying and prioritizing
the risks posed to marine ecosystems by commercial
fisheries.
out of scope
out of scope
Eonfusion
Myriax, Inc
litto ://www. eonfusion. com/
River/floodplain modeling, dambreak scenarios,
spillway design testing, urban flood risk assessment
out of scope
out of scope
75

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Eureka!
Ecotrust
httD://archi\e. ecotrust.ora/marincDlann
ing/
A survey tool to enter data and evaluate the effect of
fully-protected marine reserves (no-take zones) in situ.
out of scope
out of scope
EwE Ecopath with
Ecosim
Ecopath
httt>://www.ecot>ath.org/
Address ecological questions, evaluate ecosystem
effects of fishing, explore management policy options,
analyze impact and placement of marine protected
areas, predict movement and accumulation of
contaminants and tracers, model effect of
enviromnental changes.
out of scope
out of scope
International
Sustainable Built
Environment
Conference
Gulf
Organization for
R&D
http ://www. isbe -conference .com/

not a tool
no tools
The Sustainability
Consortium

N/A

not a tool

Guide to
Sustainable
Transportation
Performance
Measures
USEPA
httr>://www.et>a.eov/smarterowth/trans
bo oerfonnance.htm
Addresses connection between smart growth and
transportation.
no output
no output
Method for
Evaluation of
Sustainable
Transportation
Stuart Samberg,
Alon Bassok,
Shawna Holman
lUtD://trb. mctaDrcss.com/contcnt/ci8103
2r361663132/?r>=622522416e934e038
e851df5aa2c0019&r)i=0

not a tool
lit review
Leaner and
Greener
Center for
Enviromnental
Excellence
h 11 d : //e mi ro n 1 lie n t. t ra n s do rta t i o n. o r a/o
df/LeanerGreener.odf
This report provides many examples, and the Kansas
Department of Transportation's (KDOT) investment
in ecologically friendly mowing practices offers a
simple illustration.
not a tool
Report
76

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Conference
Proceedings on the
Web 6:
Transportation
Systems for
Livable
Communities
Transportation
Research Board
h 11 d : //o n 1 i nc d ub s. t rb. o r a/o n 1 i nc d ub s/co
nf/cmv6.t>df

not a tool
Report
The Role of
Transportation
Systems
Management &
Operations in
Supporting
Livability and
Sustainability: A
Primer
Federal Highway
Administration
htft>://www.ot>s.fhwa.dot.eov/i3ublicati
ons/flnvahoD 12004/fhwahoo 12004,odf

no output
no output
MINOE
Stanford
University
http://www.minoesoftware.com/
MINOE is an ecosystem-based management software
program built to assist interested parties navigate
through existing laws and regulations (and associated
agencies). MINOE stands for Management
Identification for the Needs of Ocean Ecosystems.
not a tool
not a tool
Model Builder
ESRI
httD://\\\\\\.csri.com/
Model Builder is an application in ESRI's ArcGIS
software that enables users to construct, execute, and
share spatial models using process flow diagrams.
not a tool
not a tool
Monitoring
Resources
Pacific
Northwest
Aquatic
Monitoring
Partnership
(PNAMP)
httr)s://www.mo nitorinsresources.org/
Monitoring Resources provides a network of
information and tools to support many facets of
ecological and biological monitoring. These resources
include orientation and educational materials, a
community forum, a place to document and share your
monitoring methods, the ability to describe your
monitoring projects and upload your sample sites, and
tools for creating sample designs based on a master
sample.
out of scope
out of scope
77

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
MPA EZ - the
CCIF MPA
Financial
Management Tool
ii
httos://tranxfer.natureserve.org/downlo
ad/loneterm/ebm%20tools/MPA%20E
Z%20-
%20The%20CCIF%20MPA%20Finan
cial%20Tool%20Webinar%2018MavO
9/
The CCIF MPA Financial Management Tool is a
pragmatic platform for managing marine protected
areas (MPAs).
not available
cannot locate
Multi-purpose
Marine Cadastre
tool
NOAA Coastal
Services Center
httos://coast.noaa.eov/dieitalcoast/tools
/mmc.html
The Multipurpose Marine Cadastre Project (MMC) is
a multi-agency effort to build a marine information
system for the outer continental shelf and state waters.
out of scope
out of scope
Morpho
National Center
for Ecological
Analysis and
Synthesis
(NCEAS)
litto ://knb .ecoinfonnatics. org/morohor)
ortal.iso
Morpho helps scientists to create and manage data,
and to share it with others. It was created to provide an
easy-to-use, cross-platform application for accessing
and manipulating metadata and data (both locally and
on the network, so that it works equally well in the
field and lab).
not a tool
not a tool
Multispecies
Virtual Population
Analysis
(MSVPA-X)
Garrison
Enviromnental
Consulting
N/A
The MSVPA-X model is a trophic dynamics model
focusing on interactions between fish species within
exploited communities. The primary output is time
and age-variant predation mortality rates for all
modeled species.
out of scope
out of scope
NAMEM:
Network Analyst
for Marine
Ecosystem-based
Management
Dr. TimKeitt,
UT Austin
N/A
NAMEM performs large-scale connectivity analysis
of marine habitats using recent advances in the
application of network theory to source-sink
population structures. Results are provided as GIS
outputs so that they can easily be incorporated into
mapping and visualization products.
out of scope
out of scope
Neighborhood
America - Public
Communication
Management
Neighborhood
America
http://www.neiehborhoodamerica.com/
A platform that transforms static websites into
interactive involvement sites allowing citizens to voice
their concerns/comments throughout the planning
process.
not a tool
not a tool
NetDraw
Analytic
Technologies
litto ://www. analvtictech. com/
NetDraw is a free program for visualizing both 1-
mode and 2-mode social network data.
out of scope
out of scope
78

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Open OceanMap
Ecotrust
lUtD://\vww.ecotrust. ora/mari ncDlannin
a/Ooc nOccanIVIaD.html
Open OceanMap is a data collection tool used to
effectively collect local expert knowledge in support
of marine conservation planning processes.
out of scope
out of scope
Mitigation Ratio
Calculator
Dennis M. King,
NOAA
N/A
The Mitigation Ratio Calculator is a framework
formula, and associated spreadsheet program that
resource agencies can use to develop wetland
mitigation ratios that are based on scientific and
economic principles, can be applied using "best
available" information, result in mitigation that will
achieve the "no net loss" wetland goal, and are capable
of withstanding technical and legal challenges.
not available
not available
OzClim
CSIRO Marine
and Atmospheric
Research
httD://\\\\\\.csi ro.au/ozcli in/hoinc.do:is
essionid=56EDEE8306177C0C2D35A
C668720DE54
OzClim is a climate scenario generator for Australia
that simplifies the process of calculating future climate
change for application to impact models.
out of scope
out of scope
Ramas GIS 5.0
Applied
Biomathematics
http://www.ramas.coin/
Ramas GIS links GIS data to a metapopulation model
for viability risk analysis and extinction risk
assessment. Identifies habitat patched in the landscape,
allows modeling habitat dynamics, and integrates the
spatial data with an age-or-stage structured
metapopulation.
not available
no longer
available
Reef Resilience
Toolkit
The Nature
Conservancy
httos://toolkit.climate.sov/tool/reef-
resilience-toolkit
The Reef Resilience Toolkit provides the latest
information guidance, and resources to help managers
address the impacts of climate change and local threats
to coral reefs.
out of scope
out of scope
Restoration
Prioritization
Toolset
GoMRC
httD://\v\v\v. mil. uov/main/Dublicat ions/
external/technical rcDorts/PNNL-
17054.ndf
The Restoration Prioritization Toolset is a GIS based
decision support tool used to help prioritize restoration
management activities within an area of interest. The
toolset is focused on submerged aquatic vegetation
(SAV) and comprised of three models: Controlling
Factors, Benthic Change and Prioritization.
out of scope
out of scope,
not available
79

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
RESTORE
Oregon State
University - John
P. Bolte
N/A

not available
not available
Sampling Design
Tool for ArcGIS
NOAA's
Biogeography
Branch
httos ://coastalscience. noaa. eov/oroi ects
/detail?kev=185
The tool provides a means to effectively develop
sampling strategies in a geographic information
system (GIS) enviromnent.
out of scope
out of scope
SELES- Spatially
Explicit
Landscape Event
Simulator
Dr. Andrew Fall
- Gowlland
Technologies
htto://www.eowlland.ca/about eowlla
nd/SelesBrochure.odf
The Spatially Explicit Landscape Event Simulator is a
tool for constructing and running spatially explicit
spatio-temporal landscape models that integrate
natural and anthropogenic processes (e.g. fire, insect
outbreaks, logging, succession) and track indicators
(e.g. age class, habitat supply, timber volumes) over
long time-frames and large spatial areas. SELES is
useful as a tool for land-use planning scenario
exploration sustainable forest management, natural
disturbance modelling and habitat modelling.
out of scope
out of scope
Sector
Management Tool
(Multi-species
Community-Based
Fisheries
Monitoring and
Managing Tool)
Cape Cod
Commercial
Hook
Fishermen's
Association/Appl
ied Geographies
N/A
provides real time management functionality to track
multi-species fisheries quotas and interactions with
protected species, as well as assist in community
based management decision making.
out of scope
out of scope
SBEACH- Storm-
induced Beach
Change Model
Coastal and
Hydraulics
Laboratory, US
Army Corp of
Engineers
htto://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a
222824.udf
SBEACH (Storm-induced BEAch CHange Model) -
simulates cross-shore beach benn, and dune erosion
produced by storm waves and water levels. The latest
version allows simulation of dune erosion in the
presence of a hard bottom.
out of scope
out of scope
ResNet GUI
Biodiversity and
Biocultural
Conservation
Laboratory,
University of
Texas
httD://edhi ll.uithub. io/oro jccts/resiiet.ht
ml
The ResNet software package concerns a place
prioritization procedure, which, in its original form,
was developed in the late 1980s. It emphasizes the
selection of places containing rare surrogates (the
principle of 'rarity') and places, which add as many
under-represented surrogates as possible to a set of
not a tool
not a tool
80

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



selected places (the principle of 'complementarity').


SimCLIM
CLIMsy stems
Ltd
litto ://www. simclim. com/
SimCLIM is an "open-framework" modelling system
that can be customized, maintained and applied by
users for the purpose of examining impacts and
adaptations to climate variability and change,
including extreme climatic events.
out of scope
out of scope
SimCoast
Discovery
Software Ltd. &
View The World
Ltd.
htto://www.discovervsoftware.co.uk/Si
mCoast.htm
SimCoast is a fuzzy logic rule-based expert system
designed to enable researchers, managers and
decision-makers to create and evaluate different policy
scenarios for coastal zone management.
out of scope
out of scope
UMB- Universal
Model Builder
The Information
Center for the
Enviromnent
(ICE).
Department of
Enviromnental
Science &
Policy,
University of
California, Davis
lUtD://\vww.icc. iicdaYis.edu/umb/
UMB is a universal normalized-additive raster model
that allows grouping and weighting on multiple levels.
UMB attempts to be universal. It makes very minimal
requirements of the input data and can be adapted to
many uses based on the inputs and the user's desires.
not a tool
not a tool
UNIBEST
(UNIform Beach
Sediment
Transport)
Deltares
http://www.deltaressvstems.com/
The program UNIBEST-CL+ is a powerful tool to
model longshore sediment transports and
morphodynamics of coastlines. Shoreline migration is
computed on the basis of computed longshore
transports at specific locations along the coast.
out of scope
out of scope
Visual Nature
Studio
3D Nature, LLC
http://3dnature.com/
terrain visualization software package
not a tool
not a tool
81

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
VTT: Software for
Fisheries Analysis
MEFISTO
Consortium
htft>://webco.faocot>emed.org/old codc
med/en/activ/infodif/vit. htm
VIT was designed to analyze exploited marine
populations based on catch data, structured by ages or
sizes, from one or several years.
out of scope
out of scope
VSP- Visual
Sample Plan
Pacific
Northwest
National
Laboratory
httD://\SD.Dnnl. sov/
Visual Sample Plan (VSP) is a software tool that
supports the development of a defensible sampling
plan based on statistical sampling theory and the
statistical analysis of sample results to support
confident decision making.
not a tool
not a tool
WEMo - Wave
Exposure Model
NOAA CSC -
Amit Malhotra,
Mark Fonseca
httDs://Droducts.coastal science, noaa.ao
v/wemo/
WEMo (Wave Exposure Model) is a simple
hydrodynamic model that calculates the wind wave
exposure of a site
out of scope
out of scope
WEAP - Water
Evaluation And
Planning system
Stockholm
Enviromnent
Institute
http://www.weap21 ,ore/index.asp
Freshwater management challenges are increasingly
common. Allocation of limited water resources
between agricultural, municipal and enviromnental
uses now requires the full integration of supply,
demand, water quality and ecological considerations.
The Water Evaluation and Planning system, or
WEAP, aims to incorporate these issues into a
practical yet robust tool for integrated water resources
planning.
out of scope
out of scope
Multi-scale
Integrated Models
of Ecosystem
Services (MIMES)
Gund Institute
for Ecological
Economics,
University of
Vermont
htto://www.afordablefutures.com/orien
tation-to-what-we-do/services/mimes
The Multi-scale Integrated Models of Ecosystem
Services (MIMES) is a suite of models for land use
change and marine spatial planning decision making.
The models quantify the effects of land and sea use
change on ecosystem services and can be run at
global, regional, and local levels. The MIMES use
input data from GIS sources, time series, etc. to
simulate ecosystem components at under different
scenarios defined by stakeholder input.
not available
little/no
information
available, no
longer
available?
Waste Prognostic
Tool
Technische
Universitat
Darmstadt
htto ://www. iwar.tu-darmstadt. de/lca-
iwm/lca iwm/oroiect results/results/in
dcx.cn.iso
The LCA-IWM Waste Prognostic Tool is an
estimation tool for the future generation of municipal
solid waste in European cities.
not
transferable
not
transferable
82

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Building
Greenhouse
Rating
Sustainable
Energy
Development
Authority -
Australia
htto://www.buildinsratins.ors/docume
nt/australian-buildine-ereenhouse-
ratine-scheme
Provides assessments of the greenhouse intensity of
office buildings by awarding a star rating on a scale of
one to five. Buildings identified by the Australian
Building Greenhouse Rating scheme with a high star
rating will be more energy efficient and cheaper to
run and will result in lower greenhouse gas emissions.
not
transferable
not
transferable
Hazard
Assessment
Template
NOAA CSC
htto://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=69
1166
This Internet tool helps to construct websites that
identify potential hazards for specific locations. The
tool queries the hazards data to determine the hazards
zone(s) for the location. Streamlines hazard
identification process for planning, permitting, etc.
not available
no longer
available
Watershed
Information
System (WISE)
Watershed
Concepts
AECOM
httD://\vww. waters hcdconccDts.com/sof
tware/WISE/Overview.html
The Watershed Information System (WISE) is a
comprehensive system to manage, access, and analyze
large amounts of water resources data.
not a tool
not a tool
World
Construction Set
3D Nature, LLC
htto://3dnature.com/
World Construction Set 6 is 3D landscape modeling,
rendering and animation software. It creates detailed
and realistic 3D models from animations.
not a tool
not a tool
WQMAP
Applied Science
Associates
htto://www.asascience.com/software/w
a man/index. shtml
WQMAP is an integrated modeling system designed
to study surface water quality issues. The system
allows the engineer or scientist to develop numerical
grids, perform hydrodynamic simulations, conduct
single constituent pollutant transport and multiple
constituent eutrophication studies in a geographical
context
out of scope
out of scope
Walk Score
Walk Score
httDs://\vww. walkscorc.com/
Walk Score rates over 10,000 neighborhoods in
almost 3,000 cities across the United States, Canada,
and Australia so you can find a walkable home or
apartment.
not a tool
not a tool
Neighborhood
Enviromnent
Walkability Scale
Confirmatory
Factor Analysis
UCSD
httD://sall is. Licsd.edu/incasurc news.ht
ml
98-question survey used to assess perceived
enviromnental attributes that influence physical
activity. The NEWS tool has been validated and
determined to be generalizable to urban locations
across the United States.
not a tool
not a tool
83

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
(NEWS-CFA)





ParkScore
The Trust for
Public Land
httt>://t>arkscore.tt>l.ore/
Locate neighborhoods underserved by parks and
identify the best locations to invest in new facilities.
Assess your park system's strengths and weaknesses.
Compare your city with others around the country
not a tool
not a tool
Community Park
Audit Tool
(CP AT)
Robert Wood
Johnson
Foundation -
Active Living
Research,
Andrew
Kaczynski -
Kansas State
University, Sonja
Wilhelm Stanis -
University of
Missouri
htto://activelivinsresearch.ors/commun
ity-Dark-audit-tool-coat
The CP AT was developed as a tool that would enable
diverse community stakeholders to audit local parks
for their potential to promote physical activity, with an
emphasis on the tool being user-friendly and focusing
on youth physical activity.
not a tool
not a tool
SimLab
Vladimir
Batagelj and
Andrej Mrvar
htto ://t>ai ek. imfm. si/doku.DhD'.'id=Dai e
k
Pajek is a program for analysis and visualization of
large networks having some thousands or even
millions of vertices. Pajek provides tools for analysis
and visualization of such networks such as
collaboration networks, citation networks, diffusion
networks, data-mining (2-mode networks), etc.
out of scope
out of scope
Leadership in
Energy and
Enviromnental
Design - LEED
U.S. Green
Building Council
htto://www.ussbc.ors/leed
Comprehensive and flexible, LEED is a green building
tool that addresses the entire building lifecycle
recognizing best-in-class building strategies. At its
core, LEED is a program that provides third-party
verification of green buildings. Building projects
satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve
different levels of certification.
not a tool
not a tool
84

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
InterfaceFlor
LEED Calculator
Interface
lUtDs://\vww. intcifaccnor.com/dcrault.
asox? Section=2& Sub=6
The LEED Calculator shows how Interface can
contribute to your LEED project and provides
supporting documentation. It can also support your
research for finding the best style for your project.
not a tool
not a tool
PACE EH -
Protocol for
Assessing
Community
Excellence in
Enviromnental
Health
CDC - National
Center for
Enviromnental
Health (NCEH),
National
Association for
County and City
Health Officials
(NACCHO)
litto ://www. cdc. eov/nceh/ehs/ceha/P A
CE EH.htm
This methodology guides communities and local
health officials in conducting coimnunity-based
enviromnental health assessments. PACE EH draws
on coimnunity collaboration and enviromnental justice
principles to involve the public and other stakeholders
in: Identifying local enviromnental health issues,
setting priorities for action, targeting populations most
at risk, and addressing identified issues.
not a tool
not a tool
• Integrated
Infrastructure
Planning (IIP)
various
N/A
a planning approach that builds on smart growth
principles to pursue infrastructure investments that
meet the needs of a growing population while
minimizing potential impacts of climate
not a tool
not a tool
Sustainable Sites
Initiative - SITES
American
Society of
Landscape
Architects, Lady
Bird Johnson
Wildflower
Center at The
University of
Texas at Austin
and the United
States Botanic
Garden
htto://www.sustainablesites.ore/
The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) program is an
interdisciplinary effort to create voluntary national
guidelines and performance benchmarks for
sustainable land design construction and maintenance
practices.
not a tool
not a tool
Sustainable
Design and Green
Building Toolkit
for Local
Governments.
USEPA
lUtDs://\Yww.cDa.aov/smartaro\Yth/sust
ainable-desien-and-ereen-buildine-
toolkit-local-eovernments
The U.S. Enviromnental Protection Agency (EPA)
developed the Sustainable Design and Green Building
Toolkit for Local Governments (Toolkit) in order to
assist local governments in identifying and removing
barriers to sustainable design and green building
within their permitting process. This Toolkit addresses
the codes/ordinances that would affect the design
construction, renovation, and operation and
not a tool
not a tool
85

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



maintenance of a building and its immediate site.


LUCAS
UNESCO
httDs://l ibrarv.cccs.iitk.edu/storauc/471
DliDSTDDDDUt-cs-94-266.Ddr
The Land-Use Change Analysis System (LUCAS) is a
prototype computer application specifically designed
to integrate ecological and socioeconomic information
using Geographic Resources Analysis Support System
(GRASS) for adaptive approaches to landscape
management.
out dated
out of date
ASSETS -
Assessment for
Estuarine Trophic
Status
NOAA, New
University of
Lisbon
htto://www.eutro.org/
Screening model that can be used as an integrated
approach for eutrophication assessment.
out of scope
out of scope
Sustainable
Management
Approaches and
Revitalization
Tools - electronic
(SMARTe)
USEPA
www.smarte.ore/smarte/home/index.x
ml:isessionid=mthldf3148in
SMARTe, is an open-source, web-based, decision
support system for developing and evaluating future
reuse scenarios for potentially contaminated land.
SMARTe contains resources and analysis tools for all
aspects of the revitalization process including
planning, enviromnental, economic, and social
concerns.
not a tool
not a tool
ALCES Urban
Forem
Technologies
htto://www.alces.ca/
ALCES Urban is an online mapping application that
allows the user to visualize historic and future growth
of towns and cities.
not
transferable
not
transferable
AQUATOX
USEPA
httD://\\atcr.cDa.ao\/scitcch/datait/inod
els/aauatox/index.cfm
AQUATOX is a simulation model for aquatic
systems. AQUATOX predicts the fate of various
pollutants, such as nutrients and organic chemicals,
and their effects on the ecosystem including fish,
invertebrates, and aquatic plants.
out of scope
out of scope
CLUE
University
Amsterdam
Institute for Env
Studies
htto ://www. ivm. vu. nl/en/Orsanisation/
deoartments/sBatial-analvsis-decision-
sliddo rt/C 1 iie/i ndcx .aso
The Conversion of Land Use and its Effects modelling
framework (CLUE) was developed to simulate land
use change using empirically quantified relations
between land use and its driving factors in
combination with dynamic modelling of competition
not
transferable
no
transferability
86

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



between land use types. The model was developed for
the national and continental level and applications for
Central America, Ecuador, China and Java, Indonesia
are available.


DELTA
David Simmons
Consultancy, Ltd
httD://da\idsi minonds.com/index. dIid'.'s
ection=33
DELTA is designed to interact with any appropriate
transport model in order to create a full model of
interactions between land-use, economy and transport.
Because land uses and economic activities take time to
change, these interactions are modelled over time, as
shown in Figure 1. DELTA provides land-use or
economic inputs to the transport model, which
generate demands for transport. The transport model
provides measurements of accessibility and
enviromnent to DELTA, which influence the location
of households, production and jobs.
not a tool
not a tool
Smart Location
Database
USEPA
lUtD://\vww.cDa.aov/dccd/smartlocation
database.htm#thesmartlocationdatabas
e
The Smart Location Database is a nationwide
geographic data resource for measuring location
efficiency. It includes more than 90 attributes
summarizing characteristics such as housing density,
diversity of land use, neighborhood design destination
accessibility, transit service, employment, and
demographics.
not a tool
not a tool
SmartCode
Center for
Applied Transect
Studies
httD://\\\\\\. transect, ora/codes. html
The SmartCode is a form-based code that incorporates
Smart Growth and New Urbanism principles. It is a
unified development ordinance, addressing
development at all scales of design, from regional
planning on down to the building signage.
not a tool
not a tool
Integrated Urban
Water
Management
(IUWM)
World Bank
Water
Partnership
Program
htto://water.worldbank.ors/iuwm
Takes a landscape view of water challenges by
looking at competing water users in a given catchment
or river basin. Through coordinated and flexible
planning among water using sectors, IUWM allows
for the optimal sequencing of traditional and new
infrastructure with alternative management scenarios
that leverage efficiencies and promote conservation.
out of scope
out of scope
87

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Green Guide for
Health Care
Center for
Maximum
Potential
Building
Systems and
Health Care
Without Harm.
htto://www.sshc.ors/tools.2.2overview
Jhp
The Green Guide for Health Care (GGHC.org) is a
self-certifying toolkit that steers facilities through
greener design, construction and operations.
out of scope
out of scope
Waste Wise
USEPA
httos://www.era.eov/smm/wastewise
Organizations can join WasteWise as a partner,
endorser, or both. Partners demonstrate how they
reduce waste, practice enviromnental stewardship, and
incorporate sustainable materials management into
their waste-handling processes. Endorsers promote
enrollment in WasteWise as part of a comprehensive
approach to help their stakeholders realize the
economic benefits to reducing waste.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output
Greenhealth
Tracker
Practice
Greenhealth
httt>s://t>racticeereenhealth.ore/tools-
resources/ereenhealth-tracker
Greenhealth Tracker enviromnental data tracking tool
helps your facility understand how hundreds of
thousands of waste disposal dollars are being spent
and organizes information by each type of waste. This
information will allow you to see where to prioritize
goals for waste minimization and justify addressing
the specific contracts that contribute to particular
waste streams.
no output
no output, no
illustration of
trade-off
Diversion &
Recycling
Tracking Tool -
(DART
Waste
Management
htto://www.wm.com/enterDrise/constru
ction/Diversion-and-Recvcline-
Trackina-Tool.isD
Track your construction diversion and recycling
program online. View trends in your construction
diversion and recycling program and benchmark your
progress.
no output
no output, no
illustration of
trade-off
Waste to Biogas
Mapping Tool
USEPA
httos ://www3. eoa. sov/re sion9/bio sas/o
uroose.html
The Waste to Biogas Mapping Tool is an interactive
map created to connect organic waste producers (e.g.
grease rendering facilities or food processing
facilities) and potential users (e.g. wastewater
treatment facilities) for the purpose of biogas
production through co-digestion.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output
Sustainability
Dashboard Tools
Sustainability
Dashboard
Tools, LLC.
http://www. ereen2sustainable.com/
Track spending on waste disposal, energy usage and
building maintenance, and identify where spending
can be reduced
no output
no output, no
illustration of
trade-off
88

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
EPEAT
Green
Electronics
Council, USEPA
httD://\vww.CDcat.nct/
EPEAT is a comprehensive global environmental
rating system that helps purchasers identify greener
computers and other electronics
no output
no output,
rating system
TEAM
Ecobilan
htto ://ecobilan.owc .fr/en/boite -a-
outils/tearaihtml
LCA tool. TEAM enables the description of any
industrial system and the calculation of its related life
cycle inventories and potential enviromnental impacts
according to ISO 14040 & ISO 14040 standards.
out of scope
too broad of a
tool
HOLIWAST
French
Geological
Survey
httDs://lca-
net. coin/oroi ects/sho w/holiwast/
This HOLIWAST project intends to give direct
decision making tools and policy support in the field
of waste management, particularly effective but low
cost waste treatment technologies, by applying tailor
made assessment tools such as life-cycle-oriented
Cost-Benefit-Analysis (CBA) and Cost-Effectiveness-
Analysis (CEA).
not a tool
consortium,
not a tool
OpenTERRAwork
s-OTW
USEPA
N/A
A multi-scale Geographical Information System (GIS)
toolset to expand the technical capacity of
communities and the USEPA to predict hillslope- to
watershed-scale effects of proposed, alternative, and
legacy landscape designs involving significant terrain
modification.
out of scope
support tool
used to
generate data;
not a model
LUAIRTOX
Melvin R. Willis,
PhD - UCSB
N/A
LUAIRTOX is an interactive spreadsheet model
capable of generating individual air toxic emission
factors for broad categories of industrial and
commercial land uses, normalized by area. It enables a
user to generate air toxics emission factors unique to
the specific land use policies of a community or
region as embodied in the set of permitted uses for
each land use district generally specified in a zoning
ordinance
not available
not available
NARC Roadmap
to Green
Infrastructure
National
Association of
Regional
Councils
htto://narc.ore/issueareas/environment/
areas-of-interest/sreen-infrastructure-
and-landcare/
This tool will assist local government, regional
councils and their communities to better understand
how each federal agency defines, implements and
funds green infrastructure. Through this Roadmap,
NARC hopes to facilitate regions' understanding of
the numerous benefits of green infrastructure and the
ways in which it can be funded and implemented in
not a tool
not a tool,
guidebook, no
output
89

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



their communities.


Strategic Solid
Waste
Management
Supporting
Software
(SSWMSS)
Tanaka
N/A

not available
not available
Solid Waste
Optimization Life-
cycle Framework -
SWOLF
James William
Levis - North
Carolina State
University
N/A
Illustrate the use of the framework to analyze the
economic and enviromnental impacts and trade-offs
associated with SWM systems based on future
changes to waste generation, waste composition, and
energy projections; and to analyze the illustrative
results to understand how variations in the energy
system GHG policy, and SWM policy affect optimal
SWM decisions.
not a tool
Doctoral
Thesis - still in
development
Urban Interactive
Studio
Urban Interactive
Studio, LLC
http ://urbaninteractivestudio. com/
Civic engagement tool - disseminating information
about projects or policies to the public, and collecting
feedback; create an online map of local community
attractions;
no output
no output
The Boustead
Model
Boustead
Consulting &
Associates Ltd
N/A

not
transferable
black box
model
Landscape Atlas
USEPA
lUtD:/AvwwxDa.aov/cmaD/html/Dubs/d
ocs/erouodocs/landecol/atlas/atlas.html
Enviromnental assessment of the mid—Atlantic region
of the United States
not a tool
not a software
tool
90

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Local
Sustainability
Planning Tool
Southern
California
Association of
Governments
(SCAG)
htto://rtoscs.scae.ca.eov/Paees/Local-
Sustainabilitv-Plannine-Tool.asox
Sketch planning tool local jurisdictions and members
of the public can utilize to analyze the impact of
different land use scenarios on vehicle ownership,
vehicle miles traveled (VMT), mode-use, and their
associated effects on GHG emissions.
not available
no longer
available/
supported
Scenario Planning
Model (SPM),
Southern
California
Association of
Governments
(SCAG)
htto://www.scae.ca.eov/DataAndTools
/Paees/ScenarioModel.asox
The new SPM will provide local jurisdictions a
powerful and dynamic scenario creation and modeling
tool enabling users to easily create/review/revise local
data, polices, and plans. The Model also lias advanced
analytical capabilities to determine and quantify a
wide range of potential benefits resulting from
alternative transportation and land use strategies.
not available
planned release
Spring 2014
Economic Profile
System - Human
Dimensions
Toolkit
Headwaters
Economics
htto://headwaterseconomics.ore/tools/e
os-hdt
Produces detailed socioeconomic reports of
communities, counties, states, and regions, including
custom aggregations and comparisons. Examines
trends in employment, wages, and proprietors for
agriculture, mining and energy, services, travel and
tourism, government, and timber. Examines land
ownership, land cover, ownership, and residential
development.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output/trade-
off
RUBMRIO -
Random-Utility-
Based
Multiregional
Input-Output
ii
N/A
Land use/transportation models that use an input-
output model to produce results primarily focused on
forecasting economic and trade effects.
not available
little/no info
available, can't
find tool
SPARTACUS -
System for
Planning and
Research in Towns
and Cities for
Urban
Sustainability
LT Consultants
Ltd., Helsinki,
Finland
httt>://www.fhwa.dot.eov/i3lannine/i3ro
cesses/tools/toolbox/soartacus/index.cf
m
European project undertaken to analyze the
implications of urban land use and transportation
policies. The SPARTACUS research project included
model development and policy testing in three
European cities: Helsinki, Naples, and Bilbao. The
project lias successfully demonstrated a number of
analytical approaches that can be used to model
metropolitan-level policies not only in Europe, but in
the United States as well.
not available
no longer
available/
supported
91

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
GreenLITES
New York State
Department of
Transportation
httos://www.dot.nv.eov/i3roerams/eree
nlites
Self-certification program that distinguishes
transportation projects and operations based on the
extent to which they incorporate sustainable choices.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output/trade-
off
TELUS
New Jersey
Institute of
Technology, US
FHWA
htto://www.telus-
national. ore/index. htm
TELUS is a research and innovation program whose
mission is to develop and deploy a fully integrated
information management and decision support system
out of scope
decision
support tool
California Urban
Futures Model
John Landis -
UC Berkeley
N/A
Replicates realistic urban growth patterns and the
impacts of development
policy at various levels of government
not available
little/no info
available, can't
find tool
EPANET
USEPA
httD://\vww.CDa. eov/nrmrl/wswrd/dw/e
Da net.html
Software That Models the Hydraulic and Water
Quality Behavior of Water Distribution Piping
Systems
out of scope
no
sustainability
element
CEMDAP -
Comprehensive
Econometric
Micro-simulator
for Daily Activity-
travel Patterns
Chandra R. Bliat
- UT Austin
lUtD:/Avww.cc.utc\as.cdu/Drof7bhat/FU
LL CEMDAP.htm
Microsimulation implementation of a continuous-time
activity-travel modeling system. It takes as input the
disaggregate agent level socio-demographics, land use
patterns, and transportation system level-of-service
characteristics, and model parameters for a study area
to provide as outputs the detailed individual level
daily activity-travel patterns for all the individuals in
the study area.
not
transferable
not
transferable
A Multiclass
Simultaneous
Transportation
Equilibrium
Model
Mohamad Hasan
Hussain Dashti -
College of
Business
Administration,
Kuwait
University
N/A
Explicitly combined trip generation step, to be a
multiclass model in terms of socio-economic group,
trip purpose, pure and combined transportation modes,
as well as departure time, all interacting over a
physically unique multimodal network.
not
transferable
black box
model, not
available
92

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
UMOT - Unified
Mechanism of
Travel
Zahavi -
Mobility
Systems, Inc.
N/A
The Unified Mechanism of Travel (UMOT) model is a
transportation behavior model based around the idea
of unchanging household travel budgets that can be
applied in situations across both space and time.
not available
no longer
available/
supported
CONTRAM -
CONtinuous
TRaffic
Assignment Model
Mott MacDonald
and TRL
N/A
CONTRAM provides the advanced dynamic traffic
modelling features that are needed for applications
such as: Highly congested networks with time varying
traffic flows. Priority lanes for buses, high occupancy
vehicles or HGVs, Fuel consumption and emissions
statistics. Road user charging schemes. Modelling
incidents. Driver information systems
not available
no longer
available/
supported
TCAPP
ICF International
httDs://fhwaaOT>s.fhwa.dot.eov/t>lanwor
ks/
TCAPP is a decision support tool, built from the
experiences of transportation partners and
stakeholders. TCAPP can improve how you develop,
prioritize, and inform transportation plans and
projects, (rebranded to plan works)
out of scope
decision
support tool
HYGIEIA
EPA CDC
N/A
The model's purpose is to examine links between
ecosystem services and human health and well-being
and then to project the possible health outcomes of
various courses of action that a community might take.
HYGIEIA is able to produce time-lapse maps of
health outcomes in different scenarios, representing
predictions across both space and time.
not available
little/no info
available, can't
find tool
Health Economic
Assessment Tool
(HEAT)
WHO
htto://www.heatwalkinscvclins.ors/
This tool is designed to help you conduct an economic
assessment of the health benefits of walking or cycling
by estimating the value of reduced mortality that
results from specified amounts of walking or cycling.
The tool can be used in a number of different
situations, for example: when planning a new piece of
cycling or walking infrastructure; to value the reduced
mortality from past and/or current levels of cycling or
walking, such as to a specific workplace, across a city
or in a country; to provide input into more
comprehensive economic appraisal exercises, or
prospective health impact assessments.
out of scope
out of scope
93

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
URBEMIS -
Urban Emissions
Model
ii
http://www.urbemis.com/index.htm
Software used to calculate air emissions from land use
sources
out dated
no apparent
update since
2008
Community
Energy and
Emissions
Inventory (CEEI)
British Columbia
Ministry of
Enviromnent
lUtDs://\vww. toolkit.be.ca/co mmunitv-
enerev-and-emissions-inventorv-
initiative
The Community Energy and Emissions Inventory
(CEEI) represents energy consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions from community activities
in on-road transportation, buildings and solid waste.
Estimates of land-use change from deforestation
activities and enteric fermentation from livestock
under the Agricultural sector are also available at the
Regional District level.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output/trade-
off
Community Planlt

htto://www.eamificationworldmaaco
m/o ro i c c t/c o m nui n i t v -d 1 a n i t/
Community Planlt is a game that makes planning
playful, and gives everyone the power to shape the
future of their community.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output/trade-
off
LoopDA
National Institute
of Standards and
Technology
htto://www.nist.eov/el/buildine enviro
nmcnt/looDda software.cfm#
This software tool can be utilized to determine the size
of natural ventilation openings necessary to provide
airflow rates that satisfy design objectives based on
minimum ventilation and cooling load requirements,
for example as determined using the Climate
Suitability Tool.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output/trade-
off
Building
Greenhouse
Rating
Sustainable
Energy
Development
Authority -
NSW, Australia
htto://www.absr.com.au
Provides assessments of the greenhouse intensity of
office buildings by awarding a star rating on a scale of
one to five. Buildings identified by the Australian
Building Greenhouse Rating scheme with a high star
rating will be more energy efficient and cheaper to
run and will result in lower greenhouse gas emissions.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output/trade-
off, not
transferable?
Green Energy
Compass
Performance
Systems
Development
htto://r)sdconsultins.com/software/coin
Dass/coiiiDass-tour-coiiiDass-inobilc/
Green Energy Compass analyzes single-family home
energy use patterns in a simple, easy-to-use Web-
based interface. Using building details and energy data
from the home's utility bills, it benchmarks the home
using the EPA's Home Energy Yardstick and provides
reports to identify the best opportunities for saving
energy and money.
not a tool
not a tool - no
output/trade-
off
94

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
ICLUS -
Integrated Climate
and Land Use
Scenarios
USEPA
httt>://www.et>a. eov/elobal-
adaDtation/iclus/
The EPA Global Change Research Program's
Integrated Climate and Land Use Scenarios (ICLUS)
project is developing scenarios broadly consistent with
global-scale, peer-reviewed storylines of population
growth and economic development, which are used by
climate change modelers to develop projections of
future climate.
out of scope
out of scope
ECO Lab
DHI
lUtD://\vww.dhiaroiiD.com/iiDload/dhiso
ftwarearchive/shortdescriotions/marine
/MIKE213 FM EL Short Description
.pdf

out of scope
out of scope
ZIA for Buildings
ZIA
httDs://zia4bui ldiims.com/
ZIA's Quick Assessment helps facility owners,
managers and staff understand how well their building
operations and maintenance practices compare to
LEED EB 0+M standards. Input data on a variety of
categories ~ recycling, waste disposal, cleaning,
purchasing, landscaping practices, mechanical
systems, water fixtures ~ and receive a snapshot of
how your facility would measure up if you were to
pursue LEED certification today.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
Autodesk Apps for
LEED Automation
Autodesk
httos://beta.autodesk.com/callout/?calli
d=73AlE2A95B1848FC8E4FE48D12
A4D95A
The Autodesk Apps for LEED® Automation have
direct access to LEED Online and aim to drastically
simplify LEED documentation and project
management. They help the LEED team monitor
tasks, teams, milestones, documents and action items,
while providing insightful and actionable reports,
charts and dashboards.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
Tracker Plus for
LEED
Southfacing
Services Ltd
htto://www.tracker-
ulus.co.uk/index. t>ht)?i3=learn-more
Tracker Plus is a comprehensive, end-to-end
management system for BREEAM, LEED and Code
for Sustainable Homes assessments. Covering the full
assessment process, from project planning and option
appraisal stage to final certification Tracker Plus
streamlines the assessment process, facilitating
interaction between the assessment administrator and
the project team and dramatically reducing
administrative tasks.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
95

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
IES TaP forLEED
Integrated
Enviromnental
Solutions
Limited
httDs://www. icsve.com/so ftwarc/ies-
tao/lccd
IES TaP for LEED 2009 is a secure online
collaborative portal to enhance management of the
LEED workflow. Use IES TaP to streamline, manage
and inform those involved in the LEED Certification
process.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
COMNET Portal
Community
Energy Services
Network
lUtDs://comnct.ora/comnct-Dortal
The COMNET Portal is an online platform used to
collect energy modeling simulation results, perform
quality assurance checks, and submit the results to
organizations and programs that requires energy
modeling information. These include code
jurisdictions, utility efficiency programs and national
ratings such as the US Green Building Council's
LEED program.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
WORKflow Pro
GreenWizard
N/A
WORKflow PRO helps design professionals plan for
green goals, compare and assess products to find the
best options, and submit design credits directly to
LEED Online.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
Greengrade LEED
Management
Software
Textura
Corporation
http ://www2. ereenerade .com/public/
Greengrade® is a collaborative online LEED®
management software tool that allows project teams to
communicate, track and manage LEED project
information. Greengrade significantly simplifies and
streamlines the collection and submission of
information necessary to obtain LEED certification in
the United States and Canada.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
GradeDec
US Federal
Railroad
Administration
htto://sradedec.fra.dot. eov/
A web-based application and decision support tool for
the identification and evaluation of highway-rail grade
crossing upgrades, separations and closures. Designed
for the needs of federal, state and local authority
decision makers, GradeDec.NET employs benefit-cost
methodologies to assess grade crossing investment
alternatives at the corridor level or in a region.
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
HERS-ST
Highway
Economic
Requirements
System - State
Version
US FHWA
htto://www.fhwa.dot.eov/infrastructure
/asstmemt/hersindex.cfm
HERS-ST is an engineering/economic analysis (EEA)
tool that uses engineering standards to identify
highway deficiencies, and then applies economic
criteria to select the most cost-effective mix of
improvements for system-wide implementation.
HERS-ST is designed to evaluate the implications of
alternative programs and policies on the conditions.
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
96

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



performance, and user cost levels associated with
highway systems. The model will provide cost
estimates for achieving economically optimal program
structures, as well as predict system condition and user
cost levels resulting from a given level of investment.


Freight
Performance
Measures Web
Based (FPMweb)
Tool
US FHWA
httos://www.freiehtt>erformance.ore/fD
mweb/user losinasox
A data processing tool that determines average
operating speeds for trucks that travel on interstate
highways; these averages are calculated using
confidential onboard data from several hundred
thousand trucks. By accessing this system,
transportation data analysts, researchers and other
practitioners can determine where, when and how
efficiently trucks are moving on selected interstate
highways.
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
NBIAS: National
Bridge Investment
Analysis System
US FHWA
httD://\v\v\v. flnva.dot. uov/tDm/resource
s/nbias/
Analytical tool for predicting nationwide bridge
maintenance, improvement, and rehabilitation needs,
as well as other measures of effectiveness over a
multiyear period for a range of budget levels.
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
BrM
US FHWA
httD://aashto\\arcbridac.coin/
Pontis is a software application developed to assist in
managing highway bridges and other structures. Pontis
stores bridge inspection and inventory data based on
the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
National Bridge Inventory System (NBIS) coding
guidelines. The system is designed to support the
bridge inspection process, recommend a bridge
preservation policy, predict future bridge conditions,
and recommend projects to perform on one or more
bridges to derive the most agency and user benefit
from a specified budget.
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
StratBENCOST
National
Cooperative
Highway
Research
Program
(NCHRP)
htto://bca.transr)ortationeconomics.org/
models/stratbencost
StratBENCOST estimates the effects of proposed
highway improvements and performs economic
efficiency analyses. With the amount of required
engineering and design detail held to a minimum, it is
designed to assist in comparing large numbers of
projects in the concept stage
out of scope
out of scope -
cost benefit
analysis tool
97

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Priority Economic
Analysis Tool
(PEAT)
N/A
N/A
Tool to calculate economic benefits and costs for
highway project investments. The tool includes
separate worksheets to analyze highway, bridge,
intersections, and expansion types of investments.
PEAT is designed to help agencies prioritize
competing investment alternatives.
out of scope
out of scope -
economic
model
Interchange
Management
System
(IMScsTM)
Cambridge
Systematics, Inc.
N/A
The Interchange Management System (IMScsTM) is a
web-based application that prioritizes interchanges by
need and evaluates the potential impact and cost-
effectiveness of proposed improvement projects.
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
ITS Deployment
Analysis System
(IDAS)
UFSHWA
lUtDs://oDS. Pima.dot. aoy/traffica rial vsis
tools/idas.htm
IDAS is a sketch planning analysis tool that can be
used to estimate the impacts, benefits and costs
resulting from the deployment of ITS components.
Among the effects calculated are travel time, safety,
and enviromnental benefits, including effects on
criteria pollutant emissions and fuel consumption.
out dated
last updated
2003
Transportation
Economic
Development
Impact System
(TREDIS)
Economic
Development
Research Group,
Inc.
http://tredis.com/
TREDIS is a suite of tools that assesses economic
impacts, benefits and costs of transportation policies,
plans and projects from alternative perspectives.
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
BCA.Net
Transportation
Economics
Board
lUtD://bca.transDortationcconomics.ora/
models/bca-net
A web-based decision support tool that assists Federal,
State and local authority decision-makers in evaluating
the benefits and costs of highway projects. The
BCA.Net system enables users to: manage the data for
an analysis; select from a wide array of sample values;
develop cases corresponding to alternative strategies
for managing highway facilities; evaluate and compare
the benefits and costs of improvements; and, provide
summary indicators for informing resource allocation
decisions.
out of scope
out of scope -
cost benefit
analysis tool
Highway Freight
Logistics
Reorganization
Benefits
Estimation Tool
UFSHWA
htto://oi3s.fhwa.dot.eov/freieht/freieht
analvsis/econ methods/bca losistics/in
dex.htm
The Highway Freight Logistics Reorganization
Benefits Estimation Tool estimates total benefits
associated with highway investment by establishing a
relationship between elasticity of demand
with respect to highway performance, elasticity of
demand with respect to price, a set of other
region-specific variables, and the conventionally
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
98

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



measured freight benefits resulting from travel
time savings and other user benefits.


JobMOD2
UFSHWA
httDs://\DOStrcl. com/content/blo s/U ser
%20Manual.doc
J0BM0D2 is a model that makes quantitative
estimates of the total employment income and jobs
supported by federally funded highway improvement
projects.
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
Social Cost of
Alternative Land
Development
Scenarios
(SCALDS)
Parsons
Brinckerhoff
Quade and
Douglas Inc.; US
FHWA
httos://www.fhwa.dot.sov/scalds/scald
s.html
The model estimates monetary and non-monetary
costs associated with urban land development at the
metropolitan scale. The full cost accounting
framework uses average cost data, derived from a
variety of national studies, as the default values for the
calculation of costs.
not available
still in beta
stage
Screening for ITS
(SCRITS)
UFSHWA
htto://www.fhwa.dot.sov/steam/scrits.h
tin
SCRITS (SCReening for ITS) is a spreadsheet
analysis tool for estimating the user benefits of
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). It is intended
as a sketch-level or screening-level analysis tool to
allow practitioners to obtain an initial indication of the
possible benefits of various ITS applications
out of scope
out of scope -
no element of
sustainability
TranSight
Regional
Economic
Model, Inc
lUtD://\vww. rcmi.com/Droducts/transiah
t
tool for evaluating the total economic effects of
changes to transportation systems.
out of scope
out of scope -
economic
model
Vehicle Emissions
Modeling
Georgia Tech
htft)://stresearchnews.satech.edu/resho
r/rh-SDr99/tr-emis.html
The Mobile Emission Assessment System for Urban
and Regional Evaluation (MEASURE) estimates
vehicle production of carbon monoxide, volatile
organic compounds and oxides of nitrogen in space
and time. MEASURE differs from the U.S.
Enviromnental Protection Agency's current model in
that it estimates vehicle emissions as a function of
vehicle operating modes - such as cruise and idle -
rather than average vehicle speeds.
out dated
not updated
since 1999
99

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Sea, Lake, and
Overland Surges
from Hurricanes
(SLOSH)
National Weather
Service
htft>://www.nhc.noaa.eov/suree/slosh.t>
hp
Estimate storm surge heights resulting from historical,
hypothetical, or predicted hurricanes by taking into
account the atmospheric pressure, size, forward speed,
and track data. These parameters are used to create a
model of the wind field which drives the storm surge.
out of scope
out of scope
Coastal Resilience
2.0
The Nature
Conservancy
htto://www.coastalresilience.org/
Allows you to examine storm surge, sea level rise,
natural resources and economic assets. It also allows
you to develop risk reduction and restoration
solutions.
out of scope
out of scope
Housing and
Transportation
Affordability
Index
Center for
Neighborhood
Technology
http://htaindex.cnt.ore/#2
The H+T Index provides a comprehensive view of
housing affordability, one that includes the cost of
housing and transportation at the neighborhood level.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
AWAST - Aid in
the Management
of Municipal Solid
Waste Treatment
Methods for a
Global and
Sustainable
Approach
ICLEI
N/A
The product module is a simulation software to be
used in municipal decision-making processes for
evaluating waste management systems and scenarios.
The software is based on best practices in process
analysis and simulation, including energetic and
economic aspects, of the whole management system:
collection, transport, recycling, biological treatment,
thermal treatment, landfill.
out dated
transferability
not updated
since 2008
Methodology for
the Analysis of
Solid Waste
(S.WA.-T00I)
ICLEI
htto://www.wastesolutions.ors/index.r)
ho?id=tools#c291
The methodology describes an approach for the
representative sampling of the 'residual solid waste'1
fraction of that portion of municipal solid waste
described as "daily household and commercial
waste"2. It also includes an approach for the manual
sorting and analysis of such waste to determine the
following: Waste Characterization (composition);
Waste Quantification (amount produced) based on
waste composition
no output
no
output/trade-
off
Life Cycle
Assessment tools
for Integrated
Waste
Management
ICLEI
htto://www.iwar.tu-
darmstadt.de/iwarinstitut/index.de.isB
The "Life cycle assessment tools for the development
of integrated waste management (LCA-IWM)
strategies for cities and regions with rapid growing
economies" are being currently developed and will
consist of a waste prognostic model, which will allow
the prediction of future waste generation, and a
sustainability assessment tool. The latter will enable
not
transferable
transferability?
website in
German
100

-------
Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



the economic, enviromnental and social assessment of
various waste management scenarios.


ORMA Tool: A
tool to simulate
the design of an
Eco-Industrial
Park
ICLEI
N/A
Coordinated by the Citta delle Langhe, the
Optimization of Resource use and Waste Management
in an Eco Industrial Park (ORMA) project created a
simulation of an eco-industrial park in an area with
low industrial development, based on Material Flow
Analysis, Life Cycle Analysis and statistical entropy
analysis. An innovative waste treatment plant was
integrated in the simulation to optimize and control
flows of materials, energy and waste.
not available
not available?
website not
found
A Handbook on
the
implementation of
Pay-As-You-
Tlirow as a tool for
urban waste
management
ICLEI
httos ://books. soo sle .com/books/about/
Handbook on the I mole mentation of
Pav as.html?id=dOaJtsAACAAJ
The Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) Handbook offers a
synthesis of the research findings in a useful and
understandable format for policy makers,
municipalities and other entities that consider variable
rate pricing as an option in urban management and
planning.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
Cascadia
Scorecard
Sightline
Institute
lUtD:/Avww.siahtlinc.ora/DiibtvDc/scorc
card/
The Cascadia Scorecard is Sightline's sustainability
report card for the Pacific Northwest.
not a tool
not a tool -
scorecard,
transferability
LCA-LAND
Technical
University of
Denmark,
Department of
Manufacturing
Engineering
N/A
The model is useful for estimation of emissions from
waste products disposed in landfills
not available
cannot locate
tool
WISARD (Waste -
Integrated Systems
Assessment for
Recovery and
Disposal
UK Enviromnent
Agency,
Pricewaterhourse
Coopers
Ecobilan Group
N/A
WISARD is a life cycle assessment tool to analyze the
enviromnental effects of managing household or
municipal waste. It can be adapted to review other
waste streams by varying the component mix within
the waste stream in the tool and by using specific
elements of the household waste stream to
approximate to other components such as the inert
not available
not available? /
transferability
101

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection



waste streams associated with construction and
demolition waste.


EcoMundo X-pro
EcoMundo
N/A
LCA of product designers
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
BREEAM - BRE
Environmental
Assessment
Method
Building
Research
Establishment
htft>://www.bre.co.uk/t>aee.isi3?id=829
BREEAM (BRE Enviromnental Assessment Method)
is the leading and most widely used environmental
assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard
for best practice in sustainable design and lias become
the de facto measure used to describe a building's
enviromnental performance.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
LCA Calculator
ICDC
lUtD://\vww. lcacalculator.com/
The LCA Calculator is fast, user-friendly, life cycle
analysis software, that helps designers and engineers
to understand, analyze and compare enviromnental
impacts of their products to help make 'greener'
design decisions.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
PROSA - Product
Sustainability
Assessment.
Oeko-Institut
lUtD://\vww.Drosa.ora/indc.\.DliD'.'id=24
9
LCA for product designers
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
CCaLC - Carbon
Calculations over
the Life Cycle of
Industrial
Activities
University of
Manchester
http://www.ccalc.ore.uk/index.php
The CCaLC tools enable quick and easy estimations
of the carbon footprints. They provide powerful means
for reducing and managing carbon footprints of
products, processes or supply chains. All the tools
follow the internationally accepted life cycle
methodology as defined by ISO 14044 and PAS2050.
They are simple to use by non-experts and all come
with comprehensive databases, including the
Ecoinvent database.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
102

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
LEGEP
WEKA MEDIA
GmbH & Co.
KG
htto://leeeade/?lane=en
LEGEP is a tool for integrated life-cycle analysis. It
supports the planning teams in the design,
construction, quantity surveying and evaluation of
new or existing buildings. The LEGEP database
contains the description of all elements of a building
(based on DIN 276); their life cycle costs (LCC) based
on DIN 18960 and on the calculation rules of the
German DGNB andBNB Sustainability Certification.
not
transferable
transferability
ECO-it
PRe Consultants
httt>://www.t>re-sustainabilitv.com/eco-
it
ECO-it allows you to model a complex product and
most of its life cycle in a few minutes. ECO-it
calculates the enviromnental load, and shows which
parts of the product's life cycle contribute most. With
this information you can target your creativity to
improve the enviromnental performance of your
product.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
Carbonistics
Bluehorse
Associates
littD://\v\v\v.carbonostics.com/
Carbonistics is a suite of online, user-friendly carbon
accounting and product lifecycle assessment
applications that deliver actionable information
helping food companies make better decisions about
their brands and businesses.
out of scope
out of scope -
food
VOC Tool
Pius
httD://\\\\\\.Dius-
info.de/en/oius info Dool/tools/voc-
tool/index.html
Strategy for reducing the use of solvents in the
manufacturing process
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
Integrum
Integrum
Management
Systems Pty
Limited
htto://www.intesruinsvstems.com/intes
rum/
Real time incident and action management and
reporting, investigation management, risk &
compliance management, controlled document
management, audit management (and scheduling),
contractor management, raining and performance
management
out of scope
out of scope
Regis 2.2
sinum AG
littD:/Av\v\v.sinum.com/indc.\.DliD?id=4
3&L=1
Measure, control and communicate enviromnental
performance
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
103

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
EQWin
EQWin Software
Inc. (formerly
Gemteck
Enviromnental
Software Ltd.)
lUtD://\vww.ca\vi n-inc.com/
EQWin focuses in depth on the requirements for
collecting, analyzing, storing and interpreting sample
data from enviromnental monitoring programs where
samples are taken periodically at specified points
(stations) and measured for a wide variety of physical
and chemical parameters. The software lias powerful,
flexible, easy-to-use approaches to data import, data
analysis, reporting and export. It has advanced
exceedance reporting features. It is also ideal for very
long-term data retention, making baseline and
historical data as accessible as current data.
no output
no
output/trade-
off
IDEMAT
Delft University
of Technology
litto ://www. idemat. nl/
IDEMAT is a tool for material selections in the design
process. It provides a database with technical
information about materials, processes and
components and allows the user to compare
information.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
LLamasoft GHG
Emissions
Modeling
LLamasoft Inc.
littt>s://www.llamasoft.com/ereenhouse
-eas-emissions-ehe-modeline-
software.html
Calculate a supply chain network's carbon footprint.
Determine the most cost-effective network that will
meet a user-defined GHG emissions cap or percent-
reduction target. Incorporate carbon offsets into cost
and footprint calculations to optimize carbon offset
purchases
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
Life Cycle
Assessment
Process Index
Software -
LCAPIX
KM Limited
http://www.kmlmtd.com/index.html
The LCAPIX Module provides a standalone software
application which can analyze processes on a product
basis, determine enviromnental load centers, and allow
for development of a comprehensive database. The
database contains relevant process information in an
easily storable, exchangeable, and analytical format.
The software can support multiple internal industrial
systems.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
openLCA
GreenDelta
GmbH
http://www.openlca.ore/home
openLCA is a free, professional Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) and footprint software with a
broad range of features and many available databases
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
104

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Windchill LCA
PTC
lUtD://\vww. tristar.com/Droducts/Dtc-
windcliill/windcliill-lca/
PTC Windcliill LCA empowers manufacturers to scale
the production and usage of Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA) data and reports across the enterprise. Now you
can efficiently assess the enviromnental impact of all
parts and products, and analyze the potential impact of
design alternatives throughout the product
development process to fuel innovation and design for
the enviromnent.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
ECONOMIC
INPUT-OUTPUT
LIFE CYCLE
ASSESSMENT
(EIO-LCA)
Carnegie Mellon
httir/Avww.ciolca.nct/
The Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment
(EIO-LCA) method estimates the materials and energy
resources required for, and the enviromnental
emissions resulting from activities in our economy. A
user-friendly on-line tool to quickly and easily
evaluate a commodity or service, as well as its supply
chain.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
e3 Emission
Calculator
Logistics
DFGE - Die
Carbon Footprint
Experten
N/A
The e3 emission calculator standardizes the process of
detecting your emissions and can be easily
incorporated in your existing corporate structure. The
transparent and validated methodology allows you to
comply already today with the standards of tomorrow.
not
transferable
transferability
VantagePoint:
Carbon Scenario
Planning Tool
Carbon Descent
litto ://www. carbondescent. ors.uk/oase
sAantascDoint.htinl
This piece of software is designed specifically for
local and regional authorities to develop climate
change mitigation strategies in a rigorous and
authoritative manner.
out of scope
out of scope -
climate change
Autonomic
USDOE,
Argonne
National
Laboratory
htto://www.transr)ortationanl.sov/inod
elins simulation/PSAT/autonomie.htm
1
Autonomie lias been designed to be used as a single
tool throughout the different phases of Model Based
Design of the Vehicle Development Process (VDP).
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
PSAT & PSAT-
Pro
USDOE,
Argonne
National
Laboratory
htto://www.transr)ortationanl.sov/inod
elins simulation/PSAT/index.html
PSAT, one of the major tools of DOE has been used
for numerous studies to assist DOE in identifying
future research directions regarding plug-in hybrid
electric vehicles (HEVs) as well as Plug-in HEVs.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
105

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
VISION -
USDOE,
Argonne
National
Laboratory
lUtD://\vww.transDortation.anl.aov/mod
elins simulation/VISION/index.htinl
The VISION model has been developed to provide
estimates of the potential energy use, oil use and
carbon emission impacts of advanced light- and
heavy-duty vehicle technologies and alternative fuels
through the year 2050. The model consists of two
Excel workbooks: A Base Case of US highway fuel
use and carbon emissions to 2050 and a copy (of the
Base Case) that can be modified to reflect alternative
assumptions about advanced vehicle and alternative
fuel market penetration.
out of scope
out of scope -
market
research tool
TDM Evaluation
Model
McTrans Center,
University of
Florida
httos://www.fhwa.dot. eov/ENVIRON
MENT/air aualitv/confonnitv/research
/transDortation control measures/einis
sions analvsis techniaues/descrirrtions
tdm evaluation model, cfm
The purpose of the TDM Model is to provide
information on the probable impact of various Travel
Demand Management strategies. It allows the user to
review a wide range of possible TDM actions, alone or
in combination as realistic programs.
out dated
not updated
since 1993
TCM/Commuter
Choice Model
USEPA
N/A
The TCM/Commuter Choice Model is a spreadsheet-
based software program developed for the EPA. It is
designed specifically to analyze the travel and
emission impacts of employer-based voluntary travel
demand management strategies.
out of scope
out of scope
TCM
Analyst/EPA
TCM
Methodology
Texas
Transportation
Institute (TTI)
N/A
The TCM Analyst is a spreadsheet-based sketch-
planning tool to estimate the emissions benefits of
Transportation Control Measures.
not available
no longer
available
Quick-HOV
University of
Florida -
McTrans
N/A
Quick-HOV is a set of procedures and a software
model for predicting and evaluating the impacts of
HOV lanes on person travel, vehicle travel, auto
occupancy, congestion delay, air quality, and fuel
consumption.
not available
no longer
available
Simplified Method
for Analysis of
Regional Travel
(SMART)
Illinois DOT
N/A
The SMART (Simplified Method for Analysis of
Regional Travel) Model was developed in the Chicago
area to support air quality conformity modeling and is
compatible with regional modeling datasets. It could
be modified for similar application in other
metropolitan areas.
not
transferable
transferability
106

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
TSIS-CORSIM
University of
Florida -
McTrans
litto ://mctrans. ce .ufl. edu/featured/TSIS
/Version6/index. htm
Evaluate the impacts of changes in traffic volumes and
transportation network characteristics (capacity, signal
timing, etc.) on traffic flow patterns (vehicle speeds,
acceleration and delay).
out of scope
out of scope -
traffic
engineering
Bus Replacement
Spreadsheet
COMSIS,
Pennsylvania
DOT, Cambridge
Systematics
N/A
The bus replacement spreadsheet estimates the
emission impacts of one-for-one replacements within
an existing bus fleet, or purchases of vehicles not
dedicated to specific service improvements. The
methodology can assess the replacement of older
diesel buses with new diesel or alternative fuel buses.
out dated
last updated
1998
Idle Reduction
Tools
Argonne
National
Laboratory
htto://www.transr)ortationanl.sov/ensi
nes/idlins tools.html
help drivers and organizations characterize the time
they idle in order to identify the most cost-effective
ways to improve their idling profile.
out of scope
out of scope -
economic
model
SWIM (Solid
Waste Integrated
Management
Model)
Transport
Research Centre
- RMIT
University
Melbourne
N/A
to provide a structure for systems analysis of solid
waste management problems at the municipal level. It
can assist decision makers to evaluate the economic
and enviromnental impacts of various waste
management options.
not available
availability /
transferability
CENTURY
Natural Resource
Ecology
Laboratory at
Colorado State
University
htto ://www. nrel. colostate.edu/oroi ects/
centurv/
The CENTURY model is a general model of plant-soil
nutrient cycling which is being used to simulate
carbon and nutrient dynamics for different types of
ecosystems including grasslands, agricultural lands,
forests and savannas. It is composed of a soil organic
matter/ decomposition submodel, a water budget
model, a grassland/crop submodel, a forest production
submodel, and management and events scheduling
functions.
out of scope
out of scope
WastePlan
Tellus Institute
N/A
WastePlan is a user-friendly computer program
designed to facilitate integrated solid waste
planning and analysis. With WastePlan, an integrated
solid waste management system can be "built" right
on your computer screen. The system can be as
comprehensive and detailed as the user desires
depending upon the amount of operational and
financial information input into the program.
not available
no longer
available /
supported
107

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Name
Developer
Website
Function
Simplified
Reason
Rejected
Full
Description of
Rejection
Waste Analysis
Software Tool for
Environmental
Decisions
(WASTED)
N/A
N/A
It is a computer-based model that uses life-cycle
assessment (LCA) methodology to estimate material
flows and enviromnental impacts of municipal solid
waste management.
not available
no longer
available /
supported
EcoScan 3.0
TNO Industrial
Technology
htto://www.eco scan.nl
EcoScan 3.0 analyzes the enviromnental impact and
cost of products. The software tool can be used by
managers and engineers who implement EcoDesign in
real life product development.
out of scope
out of scope -
manufacturing/
design tool
IVAM LCA Data
4
IVAM Research
and Consultancy
on Sustainability
htto://www.ivam.uva.nl/index.t>hi3?id=
lcadatabase&L=l
The IVAM database is a database for enviromnental
life cycle assessment (LCA). It consists of about 1350
processes, leading to more than 350 materials. The
data can be used for LCA applications in various
sectors
not available
no longer
available /
supported
OptiCx
Optimum Energy
LLC
litto: //ootimumenerevco .com/
Streamline HVAC system operations, reduce carbon
emissions, and achieve sustainability targets.
out of scope
doesn't affect
decisions in the
planning phase
108

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