10.2190/TW8L-A25J-2BPU-YT5K TW8LA25J2BPUYT5K 4 An Energy Approach to Ecological Impact Assessment 243 256 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 TW8LA25J2BPUYT5K.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=TW8LA25J2BPUYT5K 3 Edmund J. Cantilli Malcolm Hair Joseph M. Cassin John C. Falcocchio Polytechnic Institute of New York Eco Impact Company, Sayville, New York Adelphi University <p>This paper was prepared to educate the transportation planner/engineer in some of the rudiments of ecology and with the hope of systematizing current approaches to ecological assessment. Considerations of <i>energy</i>, or <i>bio-energetics</i>, have been found to be singularly applicable to transportation impact assessment. This method of evaluating the effects of environmental impacting factors on environmental elements is outlined herein. The method can be applied to the analysis of the ecological impact of all types of activities, and with particular pertinence to transportation.</p><p>The energy theory is based on analysis of the amount of energy which is required by plants or animals or ecosystems or subsystems, to permit their growth or stability to continue. The numerical calculations involved permit quantification of impact effects of transportation facilities.</p> E. D. Odum, <i>Fundamentals of Ecology</i>, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1971. G. M. Woodwell, Short-Circuiting the Cheap Power Fantasy, <i>Scientific American</i>, September 1975. R. H. Whittaker, <i>Communities and Ecosystems</i>, Macmillan, Inc., New York, 1970. E. J. Cantilli and J. C. Falcocchio, Suggested Guidelines for the Analysis and Interpretation of Environmental Effects of Transportation Facilities, <i>Journal of Environmental Systems, 6</i>:2, 1976-77.