Research Project Description

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Caltrans Statewide Cultural Property Information System

Project Number: 2502

Principal Investigator: Eric Ingbar, Mineta RA, Director - Gnomon Inc.

Research Project:

CALTRANS relies upon its District staff to accomplish day-to-day project scoping and management. In three districts (2, 5, 10) CALTRANS has funded comprehensive inventories of cultural properties in rural rights-of-way. The results of these inventories are stored in two similar information management systems that incorporate desktop databases and geographic information systems. These cover the “spaghetti” of highway rights-of-way subjected to inventory and are shared within District offices but not system-wide.

Institution:
Mineta Transportation Institute

Telephone Number:
(408) 924-7560

Email Address: mti@mti.sjsu.edu

Project Objective:

Because these systems are similar, but slightly different, CALTRANS has not developed a single information management model and tool that can be utilized statewide. This hampers CALTRANS environmental management in several significant ways. First, no global view of CALTRANS performance on environmental commitments or stewardship is possible. Second, each District that contemplates automating cultural resource information is tempted to build its own system, further hampering effective oversight. Third, the proliferation of independent systems makes it difficult to come up with management processes that are consistent, because such processes typically rely upon uniform, timely, data information (about cultural resources, about impacts, about other resources, etc.). Fourth, training agency staff in using electronic tools is very difficult when each office has its own interfaces, applications, and conventions.

This project will address the lack of a statewide data management model for cultural resources in surface transportation settings. It does so in a series of steps:

  • Needs assessment definition (redefinition and confirmation since this builds on prior work)
  • Logical data model revisit, re-formulation and formalization, review
  • Application revisit, re-formulation, specification, and review
  • Prototype (draft) data system roll-out
  • Rapid evaluation of prototype and elaboration of it into final system by rapid iterative testing with CALTRANS staff
  • Training of staff trainers and system managers
  • Oversight of staff training session conducted by CALTRANS staff trainers
  • Presentation of system design and results to multiple DOT’s through on-line project report

Abstract:

This project generates information that is used by CALTRANS staff at the field level: cultural resource specialists, planners, engineers, and maintainers. The nature of the system is that it is a system designed for experts to use. This does not mean that one must be a computer expert to use it, but that the information in it is primarily available and useful to subject matter experts. Although the primary audience of the technical work is cultural resource specialists in the agency, their work affects project feasibility, planning, design, and construction.

Task Descriptions:


1. Needs Assessment and Model Review

2. Specification and Functional Design

3. Development, Prototyping, Conversion

4. Roll-out, Implementation, Training

5. Reporting and Longitudinal Assessment

6. Draft MTI Report

Following submission of the draft final report, the following actions will occur:
Copyedit and preparation of Peer Review Draft
Peer Review and Author’s Response
Final Editing and Pre-Publication
Printer’s Blue line Proof and Final Print
The estimated time for these to occur will be no less than two months.

Total revised budget:
$107,350

Principal Investigator: Eric Ingbar, Mineta RA, Director - Gnomon Inc.

Team Members: Mark D. McCoy, Mineta RA (pending) and Marco Meniketti, Mineta RA (pending).

Students: TBD

Technology Transfer Activities:
Upon publication, pdf and html versions will be available on the Mineta Transportation Institute web site. The project experience and data will be available for community meetings. Authors are encouraged to submit articles based on the research to relevant journals and to present the information to end-users at conferences. MTI anticipates sponsoring a national symposium to distribute the findings of this report.

Potential Benefits of the Project:

Anticipated outcomes include technical products, policy and guidance for their utilization, and an enhanced stewardship by CALTRANS of cultural resources nearby to surface transportation projects.

TRB Keywords:
Environment, Information dissemination, Management,

Primary Subject:
Cultural Resources