Method for planning, communicating and evaluating projects that impact the environment
First Claim
1. A method for providing an electronic environmental document, including project information about:
- an environment-modifying natural event or construction project (“
project”
);
a natural, constructed, or socioeconomic feature in the area of the project (“
setting”
);
a change to the setting brought about by the project (“
impact”
);
or a feature designed to ameliorate a potential environmental impact of the project (“
mitigation”
);
comprising the steps of;
(a) receiving project information about the project, setting, impact or mitigation;
(b) providing an electronic document preparation guide in response to the information;
(c) receiving environmental information requested in the document preparation guide; and
(d) publishing the electronic environmental document, including at least some of the environmental information, for environmental study, evaluation or planning.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for electronically planning, evaluating, representing and communicating environmental information about site characteristics and the impact of proposed activities, through visualization, modeling and/or decision support modules, which support the shared public and private evaluation of project alternatives for improved environmental management decisions. In an embodiment of the present invention, a method for providing an electronic environmental project document comprises the steps of receiving project information regarding an environmental project, indexing the information by attaching metadata, providing a document preparation guide in response to the project information, receiving information requested in the document preparation guide, preparing an electronic environmental project document and employing software to visualize, model and/or provide decision support. In another embodiment of the present invention, environmental project impacts are visualized through the use of graphs, tables, icons, photos, video and/or animation and forecasting and backcasting models are employed to support the development of consensus solutions.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method for providing an electronic environmental document, including project information about:
- an environment-modifying natural event or construction project (“
project”
);
a natural, constructed, or socioeconomic feature in the area of the project (“
setting”
);
a change to the setting brought about by the project (“
impact”
);
or a feature designed to ameliorate a potential environmental impact of the project (“
mitigation”
);
comprising the steps of;(a) receiving project information about the project, setting, impact or mitigation;
(b) providing an electronic document preparation guide in response to the information;
(c) receiving environmental information requested in the document preparation guide; and
(d) publishing the electronic environmental document, including at least some of the environmental information, for environmental study, evaluation or planning. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
- an environment-modifying natural event or construction project (“
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27. A method for evaluating an environmental project, comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving project information regarding an environmental project;
(b) providing a document preparation guide in response to the project information;
(c) receiving environmental information requested in the document preparation guide;
(d) publishing an electronic environmental project document including the environmental information;
(e) receiving comments regarding the environmental project document;
(f) forecasting an environmental impact in response to the environmental information;
(g) backcasting alternative project characteristics to achieve a desired project;
(h) searching a data base to obtain environmental information for the environmental project;
(i) obtaining a plurality of issues of concern having respective values; and
,(j) determining a consensus preference of project alternatives in response to weighted issues of concern and values. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. A method for accessing environmental information via the Internet, comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving environmental information regarding a proposed environment-modifying project, including information about;
an environment-modifying natural event or construction project (“
project”
);
a natural, constructed, or socioeconomic feature in the area of the project (“
setting”
);
a change to the setting brought about by the project (“
impact”
);
or a feature designed to ameliorate a potential environmental impact of the project (“
mitigation”
);
(b) storing at least some of the environment information with metadata;
(c) receiving a request via the Internet for requested environmental information, the requested information being the environmental information itself or any information associated with metadata or other information derived at least in part from the environmental information;
(d) relating keywords, specific values or other user-specified indicators to metadata and environmental information to facilitate retrieval of requested environmental information; and
(e) retrieving the requested environmental information. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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Specification