Reaching Out to Tribal Communities: Lessons Learned and Approaches to Consider

When transportation safety decision-making is desired, the involvement and engagement with a community is essential. A streamlined delivery of a project or program is more likely to occur when active dialogue and an exchange of ideas occurs in advance and occurs frequently. This is particularly important in tribal communities, who value sustained relationships and represent the focus population of this study. The research team, on six separate occasions, met with local and regional tribal leaders to explore and discuss transportation safety needs within and outside tribal communities, as well as discern the recommended approaches to foster ongoing dialogue about these needs. In all cases these discussions closely correlated with existing research studies or activities; transportation safety and equity is not seen as separate from other tribal foci and community needs. Specific recommendations to consider, in no particular order, included the following: invest respectfully enough time for people to talk; tribes think long-term and consider the impact of any decision from a long-term viewpoint so an iterative process and re-sharing of ideas is critical; the power of decision is in the hands of the tribe and its members; do not lump tribes together as each tribe is sovereign and unique and every community should be expected to think differently; all tribes are unique as is the environmental and social context; to disseminate information widely and iteratively, do so when there is a large group or event; be sure to understand the Tribal governance, decision making, and organizational structure; know who is the tribal Chairman or Chairwoman; and develop an emic and etic understanding of the community

Access Update, August 2010

Monthly newsletter for the Iowa Department of Public Healt

The Role of Transportation in Campus Emergency Planning, MTI Report 08-06

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina created the greatest natural disaster in American history. The states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama sustained significant damage, including 31 colleges and universities. Other institutions of higher education, most notably Louisiana State University (LSU), became resources to the disaster area. This is just one of the many examples of disaster impacts on institutions of higher education. The Federal Department of Homeland Security, under Homeland Security Presidential Directive–5, requires all public agencies that want to receive federal preparedness assistance to comply with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which includes the creation of an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). Universities, which may be victims or resources during disasters, must write NIMS–compliant emergency plans. While most university emergency plans address public safety and logistics management, few adequately address the transportation aspects of disaster response and recovery. This MTI report describes the value of integrating transportation infrastructure into the campus emergency plan, including planning for helicopter operations. It offers a list of materials that can be used to educate and inform campus leadership on campus emergency impacts, including books about the Katrina response by LSU and Tulane Hospital, contained in the report´s bibliography. It provides a complete set of Emergency Operations Plan checklists and organization charts updated to acknowledge lessons learned from Katrina, 9/11 and other wide–scale emergencies. Campus emergency planners can quickly update their existing emergency management documents by integrating selected annexes and elements, or create new NIMS–compliant plans by adapting the complete set of annexes to their university´s structures

Community Health Indicators in Southern Nevada

Community design and access to services are essential components of healthy and sustainable communities. The purpose of this manuscript is to evaluate Southern Nevada with respect to community design and access, including both positive and negative traits, and to suggest realistic changes that could be made to improve these conditions. The region’s network of parks and open space recreation areas is one of its strongest assets. Clark County enjoys over 42 million acres of federal and state lands which offer a large variety of recreational opportunities. The region has an extensive trail system, with a total of 179 miles of off road and multiuse trails, as well as over 300 miles of biking infrastructure. There are 39 recreational facilities and 24 libraries throughout the region. There are, however, fewer park acres per capita than the nationally recommended level and disparate access to those parks for low income census tracts. Southern Nevada has some significant issues related to food access, with 16 food deserts in Clark County and over 17% of the population, and 26.9% of children, experiencing food insecurity. There are a total of 289 grocery stores, supermarkets, and club stores, 593 convenience stores, and 1,089 fast food outlets (USDA ERS, 2012). Of all restaurants in Clark County, 59% are classified as fast food. In 2012 Nevada ranked second in the nation for violent crimes and Clark County ranked third within the state. Based on the existing conditions, a number of goals and strategies aimed at creating a healthy and sustainable community were developed as part of the Southern Nevada Regional Plan for Sustainable Development (SNvRPSD); a single, integrated and consolidated plan that will promote and guide sustainable regional development in Southern Nevada over the next 20 years

Naturally Occurring Asbestos in Alaska and Experiences and Policy of Other States Regarding its Use

INE/AUTC 09.0

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Inside Magazine, May 2010

Iowa Department of Transportation Newsletter. INSIDE Magazine is developed to help keep all Iowa DOT employees informed about critical issues affecting them, recognize DOT employees for their excellent service and share interesting aspects in the lives of our co-workers