Appendix E: Definitions, Abbreviations, and Acronyms
The following terms are used in this guide and defined below.
- Adaptation: “Climate change adaptation” or “climate adaptation” means taking action to prepare for and adjust to both the current and projected impacts of climate change.a
- Carbon dioxide (CO2): The primary greenhouse gas contributing to recent climate change. a
- Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e): Emissions of greenhouse gases multiplied by each gas’s Global Warming Potential. a
- Carbon intensity: The amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of electricity produced.
- Climate change: Changes in global or regional climate patterns attributed largely to human-caused increased levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. a
- Climate change effects: Climate change effects include potential impacts to the completed project that may be caused or exacerbated by climate change; related effects on travel, safety, etc. due to climate-related disruptions; as well as potential impacts of the project on the built and natural environment that may be caused or exacerbated by climate change.
- Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ): An agency created in 1969 by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to implement NEPA. CEQ is within the Executive Office of the President and coordinates the federal government’s efforts to improve, preserve, and protect America’s public health and environment.
- Cumulative effect: The effect on the environment that results from the incremental impact of an action when added to other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of what agency or person undertakes such other actions. [40 CFR 1508.1(g)(3)]
- Direct effects: Effects that are caused by an action and occur at the same time and place. [40 CFR 1508.1(g)(1)]
- Embodied emissions (also known as “embedded emissions”): The total quantity of GHG emissions associated with a material throughout its supply chain, including the extraction of materials from the ground, their transport, refining, processing, assembly, use, and disposal.c
- Environmental justice: The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. a
- Environmental justice communities: Communities that have a higher proportion of people of color and/or who have lower income and are disproportionately impacted by environmental harms like air and water pollution and experience resulting negative health impacts.
- Environmental review: A coordinated interdisciplinary and interagency process, including input from the public as well as from other agencies, to guarantee that all environmental protections are enforced. b
- Equity-focus communities: An umbrella term used to describe individuals and communities that may have been disproportionately impacted by historic investment decisions or be disadvantaged with respect to access to resources. Where “environmental justice communities” usually describes people of color and people of lower income, “equity-focus communities” includes people who have disabilities, single mothers, people who have lower educational attainment, zero-car households, the elderly, the very young, people of different sexual orientation, people of different religious beliefs, and others who may have experienced systemic discrimination. “Equity-focus communities” is an alternative to other terms (e.g., communities of concern, disadvantaged) that may be seen as paternalistic or may support a deficit-based narrative of a diverse community.
- Equity: The consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who have been denied equitable treatment in the past. This includes Black, Latino/Latina/Latinx, Indigenous and Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.
- Fuel-cycle emissions: Overall GHG emissions impacts associated with a fuel, including each stage of its production and use (see “lifecycle”). Stages include feedstock production and transportation, fuel production and distribution, and use of the finished fuel. a
- Global Warming Potential: A measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of CO2. a
- Indirect effects: Effects caused by an action that are later in time or farther removed in distance than direct effects but are still reasonably foreseeable. Indirect effects may include growth inducing effects and other effects related to induced changes in the pattern of land use, population density or growth rate, and related effects on air and water and other natural systems, including ecosystems. [40 CFR 1508.1(g)(2)]
- Induced demand (also known as “induced travel,” “induced traffic,” or “generated traffic”): The increase in travel volume that occurs as a result of a reduction in the time or cost of travel or other improvements to travel conditions. Induced demand is often associated with expanded transportation capacity that reduces congestion and/or travel times.
- Lifecycle emissions: Overall GHG emissions impacts associated with a fuel, material, or process, including each stage of its production and use. a
- Mitigation (of climate change): “Climate change mitigation” refers to actions limiting the magnitude and rate of future climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and/or advancing nature-based solutions. a
- Mitigation (of an action or project’s effects): Mitigation in the context of an environmental evaluation refers to any means to restore and enhance the quality of the human environment and avoid or minimize any possible adverse effects of an action on the quality of the human environment. b
- National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): Limits on atmospheric concentration of six pollutants that cause smog, acid rain, and other health hazards, established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under authority of the Clean Air Act.
- National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Federal law enacted in 1970 that requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions. a
- Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL): A collaborative and integrated approach to transportation decision-making that 1) considers environmental, community, and economic goals early in the transportation planning process, and 2) uses the information, analysis, and products developed during planning to inform the environmental review process. b
- Resilience (or resiliency): Resilience or resiliency is the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions.d
- Upstream emissions: GHG emissions impacts associated with a fuel before the final stage of use of the finished fuel (i.e., in feedstock production and transportation and fuel production and distribution).
Abbreviations and Acronyms
| AASHTO | American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials |
| ACS | American Community Survey |
| AEO | Annual Energy Outlook |
| AFDC | Alternative Fuels Data Center |
| AFLEET | Alternative Fuel Life-Cycle Environmental and Economic Transportation |
| APTA | American Public Transportation Association |
| BRIC | Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities |
| BRT | Bus rapid transit |
| CAFE | Corporate Average Fuel Economy |
| CARB | California Air Resources Board |
| CE (or CatEx) | Categorical Exclusion |
| CEJST | Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool |
| CEQ | Council on Environmental Quality |
| CEQA | California Environmental Quality Act |
| CMAQ | Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality |
| CMIP | Coupled Model Intercomparison Project |
| CNG | Compressed natural gas |
| CSZ | Cascadia Subduction Zone |
| CTPP | Census Transportation Planning Products |
| DEC | Department of Environmental Conservation |
| DEIS | Draft Environmental Impact Statement |
| DOT | Department of transportation |
| EA | Environmental Assessment |
| EER | Energy efficiency ratio |
| EERPAT | Energy and Emissions Reduction Policy Analysis Tool |
| EIS | Environmental Impact Statement |
| EJ | Environmental justice |
| EMFAC | Emission factor |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Agency |
| EQRB | Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge |
| EV | Electric vehicle |
| FEIS | Final Environmental Impact Statement |
| FEMA | Federal Emergency Management Agency |
| FHWA | Federal Highway Administration |
| FONSI | Finding of No Significant Impact |
| FTA | Federal Transit Administration |
| GCRP | Global Change Research Program |
| GHG | Greenhouse gas |
| GREET | Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies |
| ICE | Infrastructure Carbon Estimator |
| IPCC | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |
| LDV | Light-duty vehicle |
| LODES | Longitudinal Employer Households Dynamics Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |
| LRTP | Long Range Transportation Plans |
| MEPA | Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act |
| MICE | Minnesota Infrastructure Carbon Estimator |
| MOVES | Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator |
| MPG | Miles per gallon |
| MPO | Metropolitan Planning Organizations |
| MSAT | Mobile source air toxics |
| NAAQS | National Ambient Air Quality Standards |
| NCA | National Climate Assessment |
| NEPA | National Environmental Policy Act |
| NHDOT | New Hampshire Department of Transportation |
| NHTSA | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration |
| NTD | National Transit Database |
| PEL | Planning and Environmental Linkages |
| PROTECT | Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation |
| QCEW | Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |
| ROD | Record of Decision |
| ROW | Right of way |
| SEPA | State Environmental Policy Act |
| SoVI | Social Vulnerability Index |
| STIP | State Transportation Improvement Program |
| STOPS | Simplified Trips-on-Project Software |
| TCRP | Transit Cooperative Research Program |
| TEDB | Transportation Energy Data Book |
| TIP | Transportation Improvement Program |
| TRS | Transportation Resilience and Sustainability |
| TxDOT | Texas Department of Transportation |
| USGS | United States Geological Survey |
| VDOT | Virginia Department of Transportation |
| VMT | Vehicle-miles traveled |
| VRM | Vehicle revenue-miles |
| WSDOT | Washington State Department of Transportation |
Sources
a U.S. EPA. “Climate Change.” https://www.epa.gov/climate-change
b FHWA. “Environmental Review Toolkit.” https://www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/nepa/nepa_projDev.aspx
c Circular Ecology. “Embodied Carbon Assessment.” https://circularecology.com/embodied-carbon.html
d FHWA. “FHWA Order 5520 – Transportation System Preparedness and Resilience to Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events.” https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/legsregs/directives/orders/5520.cfm