VAMLIS GeoCon 2024

Many state transportation projects along DOT-maintained roadways require wetland or stream mitigation. To offset these impacts, developers buy credits in a mitigation bank that hold the corresponding amount of land as conservation lands. This conserved land must match the type of land impacted by the project and have credits available for purchase. Often, state projects are either not located within the service area of a mitigation bank or the mitigation bank does not have the appropriate number or type of credits needed. Lack of available mitigation can result in project delays and unanticipated expenses.

Currently TxDOT does not have a mechanism to determine the amount and types of mitigation required for a project until functional assessments are conducted. Today we’ll discuss a GIS-based Predictive Wetland Mitigation Modeling Toolset for use in future transportation projects. These tools use ArcGIS Pro, ArcHydro, Esri’s Deep Learning Tools, and other geoprocessing tools to predict the amount and type of wetlands existing along transportation corridors where project impacts may occur. Currently the focus is on two pilot HUC8 Watersheds with hopes for expansion statewide in the future.

The Predictive Wetlands Mitigation Modeling Tool can be used to determine the potential project impacts on the wetlands and streams within the project boundary earlier in the project planning process. The tools pre-process the data required for analysis and determine which mitigation bank service areas the proposed impacts would occur within, and the estimated amount of mitigation required. The tools were developed using Python wrapped in a custom ArcGIS Pro add-in to provide a simplified user interface. This allows users to intuitively access each step of the process, where they can review data inputs and predicted features, and dynamically interact with the data.