About EST

The Environmental Screening Tool (EST) supports agency participation and community involvement throughout Florida's Efficient Transportation Decision Making (ETDM) process. This application provides tools to input and update information about transportation projects, perform standardized analyses, gather and report comments about potential project effects, and provide information to the public. It brings together information about a project and provides analytical and visualization tools that help synthesize and communicate that information. It is used throughout the ETDM Process to:

• Integrate data from multiple sources into an easy to use, standard format
• Analyze the effects of proposed projects on the human and natural environment
• Communicate information effectively among Environmental Technical Advisory Team (ETAT) representatives and to the public
• Store and report results of the ETAT review effectively and efficiently
• Maintain project records, including recommendations and responses, throughout the project life cycle

The EST integrates Internet mapping technology, relational database management systems and geographic information systems (GIS). This integration was implemented using industry-standard platform-independent development tools such as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), Hibernate, Velocity, Javascript, and Extensible Markup Language (XML). The EST is deployed as a web-based application in order to minimize system requirements on the users' desktop computers. The application is deployed at the University of Florida in conjunction with the Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL). FGDL is a repository of GIS data gathered from federal, state, and local governments.