How and when do I evaluate secondary/indirect and cumulative impacts on the human environment?
Cumulative impacts are the sum of all effects from past, present, or reasonably foreseeable future actions. These effects include alterations to natural and human environments. They can be transportation-related actions or other actions, such as a new commercial area or residential development. Indirect effects are caused by the proposed action and are later in time or farther removed in distance, but still reasonably foreseeable. Like direct impacts, indirect and cumulative impacts should be considered during planning and project development. Although your information can only be as detailed as the available data allows, early consideration of the community context may improve your ability to avoid or minimize effects. If communities are involved early enough, they may be able to help develop reasonable strategies for avoidance, minimization, and mitigation. It can be difficult to evaluate indirect and cumulative effects on communities Changes to communities resulting from the transpo
