What is REF?

The Regional Environmental Framework (REF) is a centralized resource intended to strengthen environmental stewardship in the transportation planning process. The REF helps local planners, agencies, and engineers make informed decisions about transportation projects by providing data and analysis regarding ecological, cultural, and regulated-waste resources across Champaign County. As a preliminary screening tool, the REF allows users to identify compliance-triggering and ecologically vulnerable resources within a project location and incorporate them early into project planning, laying the groundwork for potential National Environmental Policy Act and Illinois Dept. of Transportation (IDOT) environmental review processes.

The REF is made up of several components: the REF Report, the Web-based REF, and the Interactive Web Mapping Tool. The REF began development in May 2019, with its first phase report published in November 2020. The first phase report contains comprehensive documentation on the ecological and compliance-triggering resources within Champaign County supplemented with maps detailing the spatial layout of each feature. The second phase, the Web-based REF, began in January of 2021. This web platform is the Web-based REF, which summarizes data and analyses from the REF Report and makes information more accessible in a user-friendly, online resource. The second phase also includes the development of a composite score within the Interactive Web Mapping Tool which will provide an initial analysis of the potential vulnerability of locations by aggregating attributes of listed environmental features, indicating the relative potential for ecological loss and environmental review for a project in a given area. When used in conjunction, the components of the REF serve as a powerful preliminary screening tool in initial preparation for an environmental review or analysis and improve the overall sustainability of transportation planning throughout the region.