FHWA’s New FHWA-NHI-142075: Environmental Justice Analysis Starts In Planning Course

FHWA’s new FHWA-NHI-142075: Environmental Justice Analysis Starts in Planning course teaches transportation practitioners to incorporate environmental justice (EJ) principles, conduct EJ analysis, and apply findings in the planning phase of transportation decision-making. The course provides practitioners and their partners with quantitative and qualitative approaches, tools, and resources to meaningfully incorporate EJ considerations into the planning process and its products. They’ll learn how to prioritize investments that meet community needs and aspirations and improve quality of life–especially for communities with environmental justice concerns. Important analytical work and decisions made in planning can inform subsequent phases of the transportation decision-making process through project development, design, construction, and operations.

The target audience for this instructor-led training course includes transportation planners, program managers, environmental protection specialists, and other planning practitioners with an intermediate-level understanding of EJ concepts, processes, and principles. Attendees will represent a range of organizations including state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, and local public agencies whose authorities are closely tied to transportation such as land use, housing, and public health. There is no prerequisite, but FHWA strongly recommends that participants take NHI Course 142074, Fundamentals of Environmental Justice Web-based training (WBT) prior to this course.

Environmental Justice Analysis Starts in Planning Course #142075

This course supports USDOT policy to ensure that traditionally underserved or disadvantaged communities experience more of the benefits and fewer of the burdens of transportation projects. Advancing EJ in the planning phase of transportation decision-making can inform project prioritization and selection and subsequent project development steps.

Learn more by connecting to DOT’s Promising Practices for Meaningful Public Involvement in Transportation Decision-Making document and FAQ on the Use of DOT Funds for Public Involvement. FHWA also offers a free, online, 4-hour FHWA-NHI 142096: Fundamentals of Community Impact Assessment (CIA) course to help transportation practitioners understand the CIA process through meaningful public engagement, dynamic community characterization, quantitative and qualitative data collection, and analysis to shape transportation decisions. For more information, visit the Environmental Justice at FHWA webpage or contact Faith Hall, Office of Human Environment, (202) 366-9055.