The purpose of this project is to develop an investment analysis model that integrates the capabilities of four types of analysis for use in evaluating interurban transportation system improvements. The project will also explore the use of new data warehousing and mining techniques to design the types of databases required for supporting such a comprehensive transportation model. The project consists of four phases. The first phase, which is documented in this report, involves development of the conceptual foundation for the model. Prior research is reviewed in Chapter 1, which is composed of three major sections providing demand modeling background information for passenger transportation, transportation of freight (manufactured products and supplies), and transportation of natural resources and agricultural commodities. Material from the literature on geographic information systems makes up Chapter 2. Database models for the national and regional economies and for the transportation and logistics network are conceptualized in Chapter 3. Demand forecasting of transportation service requirements is introduced in Chapter 4, with separate sections for passenger transportation, freight transportation, and transportation of natural resources and commodities. Characteristics and capacities of the different modes, modal choices, and route assignments are discussed in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 concludes with a general discussion of the economic impacts and feedback of multimodal transportation activities and facilities.

Across the nation, there are opportunities to improve coordination among transportation modal agencies, including aviation, transit, ports, highway, rail, pedestrian, and bicycle modes. Virginia's statewide multimodal transportation planning effort VTrans2025 addresses multimodal coordination of transportation investments in the state. Virginia's Secretary of Transportation submitted a final report of the VTrans2025 effort to the Virginia General Assembly in November 2004. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate an analytical methodology that could aid efforts such as this to coordinate and prioritize multimodal investments. The methodology developed can help decision makers to identify and prioritize proposed multimodal investment networks (MINs). These are large-scale coordinated investments in transportation projects across modes. The body of this report describes relevant literature and provides an overview of the developed methodology: (1) prioritization of the MINs, and (2) statistical comparison of modal plans. The analytical methodology developed will be of interest to multimodal transportation planning efforts across the nation, particularly where there is a need for systematic evidence-based approaches to coordinating the efforts of modal transportation agencies. Most data in the report are presented solely for purposes of demonstrating the methodology. The methodology developed in this project fosters improved coordination in planning and programming transportation investments across modal agencies. The potential benefits of the methodology include identification of lower-cost investment alternatives when considering multiple modes relative to considering only single modes to meet a particular travel demand; selection and programming of multimodal solutions that have the highest performance relative to the available or required levels of investment; and increased transparency and accountability of the multimodal agencies for the uses of funding that can be allocated across multiple transportation modes. The costs of implementing the methodology developed in this study are minimal and include one-time training of staff of the modal agencies in the use of the identification and priority-setting methodology and software demonstrated in the current study; and regular interaction and dialogue among the staff of the modal agencies that are involved in the identification and prioritization of investments across modes

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 544: Environmentally Sensitive Channel- and Bank-Protection Measures examines environmentally sensitive channel- and bank-protection measures and includes recommended design guidelines for their application and a selection system for helping to determine the most appropriate channel- and bank-protection measure. The selection system is presented as an interactive software program entitled "Greenbank," which can be found on the accompanying CD-ROM (CRP-CD-58). The selection system software (CRP-CD-58) is available for download in an ZIP format.