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Environmental Impact Assessment (environmental + impact_assessment)
Selected AbstractsMerits of a more integrated approach to environmental assessmentsENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2010Elke Weingarten Abstract Under the maxim of ,better regulation', the European Commission is aiming to simplify and improve the European regulatory framework in order to reduce bureaucracy and to foster economic growth. Against this background, the integration of requirements presents one option for responding to the challenge of carrying out various environmental assessments stipulated by a number of European environmental directives. Although integrative, cross-sectional approaches have been established by some European directives, such as the Directive on Environmental Impact Assessment, the member states currently make little use of these options when implementing the directives into national law. Based on a review of European directives as well as related German regulations, this article outlines an approach for an integrative environmental assessment that aims to enhance the integrative effects and reduce duplication resulting from different environmental assessments. The investigation shows that the different assessment procedures as outlined by European and German legislation can be successfully integrated without necessarily lowering the standards set by these regulations. Given that the relevant directives are binding for all member states, the proposed assessment structure can easily be applied to other member states and, where necessary, modified to suit national requirements. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Consequences of Decentralization: Environmental Impact Assessment and Water Pollution Control in IndonesiaLAW & POLICY, Issue 1 2010ADRIAAN BEDNER After having been one of the most centralized states in the world for more than thirty years, in 2001 Indonesia introduced a sweeping program of decentralization with important consequences for the management of the industrial sector. This article explores whether the decentralization process has led to substantial changes in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and enforcement of water pollution law. Its main findings are that the general division of authority in both fields has become less fragmented and that differences between districts have increased, but, in practice, not so much has changed as one would have expected. For EIA, "horizontal" disputes between sectoral agencies have been supplanted by "vertical" disputes between different levels of government. Monitoring and sanctioning of industrial water pollution have mainly continued within the scheme of the provincial program started under Soeharto's centralized regime, with still few initiatives at the district level. If any, such initiatives are usually driven by public complaints. On the other hand, there are indications that in the longer run the institutional changes may have more significant effects on EIA and enforcement practice. For EIA, these seem to be negative; for enforcement of water pollution regulation this depends much on the situation within a district or a province. [source] Documenting Accountability: Environmental Impact Assessment in a Peruvian Mining ProjectPOLAR: POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2009Fabiana Li Over the past two decades, practices of accountability have acquired a new presence in neoliberal governance and resource extraction in Peru. In the context of mining activity, accountability generally refers to public mechanisms of evaluation and record-keeping through which citizens can make corporations and governments answerable to them. However, I argue that these practices often prioritize mining interests by enabling corporations to define and ultimately enforce standards of performance. This article focuses on a key process in the making of social and environmental accountability in mining projects: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). I show that the form of the documents produced for the EIA (i.e., their required components, as established in legal frameworks) and the process of making them public (participatory meetings and public forums) can take precedence over their content. I examine two aspects of the EIA that make this possible. First, the risks that are identified in the EIA are those that a company deems to be technically manageable based on the solutions and interventions that it has to offer. Second, the participatory process of the EIA creates collaborative relationships among state agents, corporations, NGOs, and communities that strengthen the EIA's claims of accountability while circumscribing the spaces for opposition to a proposed project. [source] Information needs to support environmental impact assessment of the effects of European marine offshore wind farms on birdsIBIS, Issue 2006A.D. FOX European legislation requires Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) of national offshore wind farm (OWF) programmes and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for individual projects likely to affect birds. SEAs require extensive mapping of waterbird densities to define breeding and feeding areas of importance and sensitivity. Use of extensive large scale weather, military, and air traffic control surveillance radar is recommended, to define areas, routes and behaviour of migrating birds, and to determine avian migration corridors in three dimensions. EIAs for individual OWFs should define the key avian species present; as well as assess the hazards presented to birds in terms of avoidance behaviour, habitat change and collision risk. Such measures, however, are less helpful in assessing cumulative impacts. Using aerial survey, physical habitat loss, modification, or gain and effective habitat loss through avoidance behaviour can be measured using bird densities as a proxy measure of habitat availability. The energetic consequences of avoidance responses and habitat change should be modelled to estimate fitness costs and predict impacts at the population level. Our present ability to model collision risk remains poor due to lack of data on species-specific avoidance responses. There is therefore an urgent need to gather data on avoidance responses; energetic consequences of habitat modification and avoidance flights and demographic sensitivity of key species, most affected by OWFs. This analysis stresses the importance of common data collection protocols, sharing of information and experience, and accessibility of results at the international level to better improve our predictive abilities. [source] Environmental impact assessment: Practical solutions to recurrent problems, part 1ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2005David P. Lawrence First page of article [source] Response Time of Wetland Biodiversity to Road Construction on Adjacent LandsCONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2000C. Scot T Findlay Species loss is unlikely to occur immediately, however. Rather, populations of susceptible species are expected to decline gradually after road construction, with local extinction occurring sometime later. We document lags in wetland biodiversity loss in response to road construction by fitting regression models that express species richness of different taxa ( birds, mammals, plants, and herptiles) as a function of both current and historical road densities on adjacent lands. The proportion of variation in herptile and bird richness explained by road densities increased significantly when past densities were substituted for more current densities in multiple regression models. Moreover, for vascular plants, birds, and herptiles, there were significant negative effects of historical road densities when the most current densities were controlled statistically. Our results provide evidence that the full effects of road construction on wetland biodiversity may be undetectable in some taxa for decades. Such lags in response to changes in anthropogenic stress have important implications for land-use planning and environmental impact assessment. Resumen: La construcción de caminos puede resultar en significativas pérdidas de biodiversidad tanto a escala local como regional debido a la restricción de movimiento entre poblaciones, incremento de la mortalidad, fragmentación de hábitat y efectos de borde, invasión de especies exóticas o mayor acceso de humanos a hábitats silvestres, con lo cual se espera que se incrementen las tasas locales de extinción o disminuyan las tasas locales de recolonización. Sin embargo, es improbable que la pérdida de especies ocurra inmediatamente. Más bien, se espera que las poblaciones de especies susceptibles declinen gradualmente después de la construcción del camino, extinguiéndose localmente poco tiempo después. Documentamos la pérdida de biodiversidad en humedales como respuesta a la construcción de caminos ajustando modelos de regresión que expresan la riqueza de especies de diferentes taxa (aves, mamíferos, plantas, reptiles y anfibios) como una función de las densidades actual e histórica de los caminos en tierras adyacentes. La proporción de variación en anfibios, reptiles y aves incrementó significativamente cuando las densidades históricas fueron sustituidas por densidades actuales en los modelos de regresión múltiple. Más aun, hubo efectos negativos significativos de las densidades de caminos históricas para plantas vasculares, aves, anfibios y reptiles cuando las densidades actuales fueron estadísticamente controladas. Nuestros resultados proporcionan evidencia de que los efectos de la construcción de caminos sobre la biodiversidad de humedales pueden se indetectables para algunos taxa por décadas. Tales rezagos en la respuesta a cambios en el estrés antropogénico tienen implicaciones importantes en la planificación de uso del suelo y la evaluación de impacto ambiental. [source] Connecting EIA to environmental management systems: lessons from industrial estate developments in EnglandCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007Paul Slinn Abstract This paper concerns the relationship between environmental assessment and environmental management systems in the context of recent industrial estate developments. Drawing on environmental statements and interviews with developers, an examination was carried out of the level of good practice in estate design and operation, and the way in which this was influenced by environmental impact assessment and environmental management systems. The study concludes that the environmental impact assessment system worked well within the context of land use planning, but that it failed to facilitate the planning of effective environmental management in practice, with the consequence that the projects examined failed to meet many of the good practice criteria against which they were tested. Finally, several recommendations are made to strengthen continuity between the two. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] International patterns of environmental policy change and convergenceENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2005Per-Olof Busch Abstract The article gives an empirical overview of the international spread of 22 environmental policy innovations. The policy innovations examined in the article include administrative institutions (e.g. environmental ministries, scientific advisory bodies), laws (e.g. soil protection laws, packaging waste laws), instruments of environmental policy integration (e.g. national environmental policy plans, environmental impact assessment), energy taxes and eco-labels. On this empirical basis, recurring patterns in the global spread of environmental policy innovations are identified and linked to specific causal mechanisms through which this change occurs. In particular, the paper demonstrates how and to what extent non-obligatory diffusion, legal harmonization and coercive imposition matter as mechanisms of global environmental policy convergence. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Environmental Guidelines for Power Plants in India and Other NationsENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2001Subrato Sinha The emissions guidelines for power plants in India are comparable to those of many other developed and developing nations, and in some cases are more stringent. But India's environmental impact assessment and enforcement practices need to be improved. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Information needs to support environmental impact assessment of the effects of European marine offshore wind farms on birdsIBIS, Issue 2006A.D. FOX European legislation requires Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) of national offshore wind farm (OWF) programmes and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for individual projects likely to affect birds. SEAs require extensive mapping of waterbird densities to define breeding and feeding areas of importance and sensitivity. Use of extensive large scale weather, military, and air traffic control surveillance radar is recommended, to define areas, routes and behaviour of migrating birds, and to determine avian migration corridors in three dimensions. EIAs for individual OWFs should define the key avian species present; as well as assess the hazards presented to birds in terms of avoidance behaviour, habitat change and collision risk. Such measures, however, are less helpful in assessing cumulative impacts. Using aerial survey, physical habitat loss, modification, or gain and effective habitat loss through avoidance behaviour can be measured using bird densities as a proxy measure of habitat availability. The energetic consequences of avoidance responses and habitat change should be modelled to estimate fitness costs and predict impacts at the population level. Our present ability to model collision risk remains poor due to lack of data on species-specific avoidance responses. There is therefore an urgent need to gather data on avoidance responses; energetic consequences of habitat modification and avoidance flights and demographic sensitivity of key species, most affected by OWFs. This analysis stresses the importance of common data collection protocols, sharing of information and experience, and accessibility of results at the international level to better improve our predictive abilities. [source] Assessing and predicting the relative ecological impacts of disturbance on habitats with different sensitivitiesJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2007J. G. HIDDINK Summary 1Methods for assessing habitat sensitivity to human impacts are needed to gauge the sustainability of existing impacts, develop spatial management plans and support meaningful environmental impact assessments. These methods should be quantitative, validated, repeatable and applicable at the scales of impact and management. 2Existing methods for assessing the sensitivity of marine habitats to human impacts have tended to rely on expert judgement and/or scoring systems. They are neither validated, quantitative nor repeatable. 3We have developed a method that meets the criteria for assessing the sensitivity of seabed habitats to physical disturbance, and delineating and mapping habitat sensitivity at large spatial scales (>105 km2). The method assumes that sensitivity is related to the recovery time of production or biomass, as predicted using a size-based model that takes account of the effects of natural disturbance. 4As trawling disturbance is a major and widespread direct human impact on shelf seas, this was used as an example of anthropogenic physical disturbance. We mapped habitat sensitivity to trawling in 9-km2 boxes across an area of 125 000 km2 in the North Sea. 5Habitat sensitivities varied widely, and a trawling frequency of 5 year,1 in the least-sensitive habitat had the same ecological effect as a trawling frequency of 0·3 year,1 in the most-sensitive habitat (based on production). When trawling effort was held constant but redirected to the least-sensitive habitats, the existing impacts on production and biomass were reduced by 36% and 25%, respectively. 6Synthesis and applications. The method described in this paper enables managers to predict the implications of changing patterns of human impact on seabed habitats when establishing spatial management plans. In the context of fisheries management, this will support the identification and selection of fishing grounds that minimize the adverse ecological effects of fishing; the selection of closed areas (both representative and highly sensitive); the comparison of management options that might reduce the overall environmental impacts of fishing; and any future steps towards the application of environmental impact assessment in advance of fishery development. [source] Review of aquaculture, its regulation and monitoring in ScotlandJOURNAL OF APPLIED ICHTHYOLOGY, Issue 4-5 2000A. R. Henderson Summary The aquaculture industry in Scotland is primarily located on the western and northern coasts of Scotland where geographical and hydrographic conditions suit the species cultured. The regulation and monitoring of the industry has adapted and grown with the industry. Over 10 years, production has increased 10-fold and the efficiency of the industry has improved along with husbandry and management techniques although major disease problems have occurred. Planning and siting controls have recently been reviewed incorporating new EC legislation on environmental impact assessment. Environmental protection and end product quality are achieved through complex legislation demanding licences to discharge waste products and the application of strict quality standards and targets to both the product and its growing and receiving environment. Monitoring programmes are well established to ensure compliance with the legislation. The complexity of issues the industry now poses for regulation and monitoring have challenged traditional views and required new techniques to be developed, for example, mathematical modelling to set environmental targets for some medicines. A national approach has been needed which will benefit the industry and the regulators and allow focus to be brought to wider issues requiring research and development. [source] Assessing and predicting the relative ecological impacts of disturbance on habitats with different sensitivitiesJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2007J. G. HIDDINK Summary 1Methods for assessing habitat sensitivity to human impacts are needed to gauge the sustainability of existing impacts, develop spatial management plans and support meaningful environmental impact assessments. These methods should be quantitative, validated, repeatable and applicable at the scales of impact and management. 2Existing methods for assessing the sensitivity of marine habitats to human impacts have tended to rely on expert judgement and/or scoring systems. They are neither validated, quantitative nor repeatable. 3We have developed a method that meets the criteria for assessing the sensitivity of seabed habitats to physical disturbance, and delineating and mapping habitat sensitivity at large spatial scales (>105 km2). The method assumes that sensitivity is related to the recovery time of production or biomass, as predicted using a size-based model that takes account of the effects of natural disturbance. 4As trawling disturbance is a major and widespread direct human impact on shelf seas, this was used as an example of anthropogenic physical disturbance. We mapped habitat sensitivity to trawling in 9-km2 boxes across an area of 125 000 km2 in the North Sea. 5Habitat sensitivities varied widely, and a trawling frequency of 5 year,1 in the least-sensitive habitat had the same ecological effect as a trawling frequency of 0·3 year,1 in the most-sensitive habitat (based on production). When trawling effort was held constant but redirected to the least-sensitive habitats, the existing impacts on production and biomass were reduced by 36% and 25%, respectively. 6Synthesis and applications. The method described in this paper enables managers to predict the implications of changing patterns of human impact on seabed habitats when establishing spatial management plans. In the context of fisheries management, this will support the identification and selection of fishing grounds that minimize the adverse ecological effects of fishing; the selection of closed areas (both representative and highly sensitive); the comparison of management options that might reduce the overall environmental impacts of fishing; and any future steps towards the application of environmental impact assessment in advance of fishery development. [source] INDIVIDUAL-BASED MODELS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF SHOREBIRD POPULATIONSNATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 1 2008JOHN D. GOSS-CUSTARD Abstract Individual-based models (IBMs) predict how animal populations will be affected by changes in their environment by modeling the responses of fitness-maximizing individuals to environmental change and by calculating how their aggregate responses change the average fitness of individuals and thus the demographic rates, and therefore size of the population. This paper describes how the need to develop a new approach to make such predictions was identified in the mid-1970s following work done to predict the effect of building a freshwater reservoir on part of the intertidal feeding areas of the shorebirds Charadrii that overwinter on the Wash, a large embayment on the east coast of England. The paper describes how the approach was developed and tested over 20 years (1976,1995) on a population of European oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus eating mussels Mytilus edulis on the Exe estuary in Devon, England. The paper goes on to describe how individual-based modeling has been applied over the last 10 years to a wide range of environmental issues and to many species of shorebirds and wildfowl in a number of European countries. Although it took 20 years to develop the approach for 1 bird species on 1 estuary, ways have been found by which it can now be applied quite rapidly to a wide range of species, at spatial scales ranging from 1 estuary to the whole continent of Europe. This can now be done within the time period typically allotted to environmental impact assessments involving coastal bird populations in Europe. The models are being used routinely to predict the impact on the fitness of coastal shorebirds and wildfowl of habitat loss from (i) development, such as building a port over intertidal flats; (ii) disturbance from people, raptors, and aircraft; (iii) harvesting shellfish; and (iv) climate change and any associated rise in sea level. The model has also been used to evaluate the probable effectiveness of mitigation measures aimed at ameliorating the impact of such environmental changes on the birds. The first steps are now being taken to extend the approach to diving sea ducks and farmland birds during the nonbreeding season. The models have been successful in predicting the observed behavior and mortality rates in winter of shorebirds on a number of European estuaries, and some of the most important of these tests are described. These successful tests of model predictions raise confidence that the model can be used to advise policy makers concerned with the management of the coast and its important bird populations. [source] A molecular diagnostic for identifying central African forest artiodactyls from faecal pelletsANIMAL CONSERVATION, Issue 1 2010S. Ntie Abstract Small to medium-sized central African forest artiodactyls constitute a diverse yet heavily hunted group composed primarily of species within the genera Cephalophus, Neotragus, Tragelaphus and Hyemoschus. Of these genera, Cephalophus is the richest with as many as seven sympatric species known to occur in central African forests. However, differentiating species from their faeces or from tissue where the whole carcass is unavailable is very difficult. In order to develop a robust molecular diagnostic for species identification, a database of mitochondrial cytochrome b (553 bp) and control region (,675 bp) sequences was compiled from all forest Cephalophus species and other similarly sized, sympatric Tragelaphus, Neotragus and Hyemoschus species. Reference phylogenies from each marker were then used to recover the identity of sequences obtained from unknown faecal samples collected in the field. Results were then compared to determine which region best recovered species identity with the highest statistical support. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) were also assessed as an alternative method for rapid species identification. Of the methods examined, tree-based analyses built on a geographically comprehensive database of control region sequences was the best means of reliably recovering species identity from central African duikers. However, three sister taxa appear indistinguishable (Cephalophus callipygus, Cephalophus ogilbyi and Cephalophus weynsi) and not all species were monophyletic. This lack of monophyly may be due to incomplete lineage sorting commonly observed in recently derived taxa, hybridization or the presence of nuclear translocated copies of mitochondrial DNA. The high level of intra-specific variation and lack of robust species-specific diagnostic sites made an RFLP-based approach to duiker species identification difficult to implement. The tree-based control region diagnostic presented here has many important applications including fine-scale mapping of species distributions, identification of confiscated tissue and environmental impact assessments. [source] Marine fish diversity on the Scotian Shelf, CanadaAQUATIC CONSERVATION: MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, Issue 4 2003Nancy L. Shackell Abstract 1.Marine life in offshore regions has not been fully censused, yet related conservation policy relies on our ability to identify areas of high biodiversity. 2.We assessed the census of marine finfish on the Scotian Shelf, Northwest Atlantic using data collected during annual research vessel surveys between 1970 and 2000. The species accumulation curve did not reach an asymptote reflecting that new species continued to be discovered throughout the survey period. Only 0.12% of the area of the Scotian Shelf has been sampled since 1970. 3.Since 1974, when over 50% of the species had been discovered, the community composition has been relatively constant. However, the dominance structure has changed dramatically as reflected in the geographic contraction of the formerly abundant, large-bodied piscivores concomitant with the geographic expansion of their prey species. 4.The region is under-sampled, and species' distribution and abundance are changing. A precise estimate of diversity is elusive. As an alternative, we searched for physical correlates of finfish diversity to identify its possible surrogates. Surrogates have potential both as a method for understanding process and as a tool for conservation management. We examined the effect of area and depth range on species richness. High species richness was associated with larger areas and greater depth range at large spatial scales. 5.Highly diverse areas include the Bay of Fundy, the Eastern Gully, the slopes, Western Bank and the northeastern shelf. Until now, the northeastern shelf has been under-appreciated as a highly diverse area. Such information will be important for environmental impact assessments as well as selection of ,sensitive' or protected areas. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A collaborative approach to the environmental assessment process prior to oil exploration activities offshore the Falkland IslandsAQUATIC CONSERVATION: MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, Issue 1 2002Liz Hopkins Abstract 1.Operating Companies awarded acreage in the Falkland Islands First Offshore Licensing Round began exploration for oil and gas in 1996. Appropriate environmental management is an important aspect of exploration activities in any new frontier area and the Falklands Islands were no exception. Operators with drilling commitments established the Falklands Operators Sharing Agreement (FOSA), which included an Environmental Workgroup (EWG) to take responsibility for the environmental issues associated with exploration activities. 2.The EWG was established early in the exploration programme and commissioned a number of specific environmental studies relating to the offshore environment of the Islands. The data made available by this research provided a valuable input to the assessment of potential environmental impacts from the planned exploration activities. By undertaking environmental impact assessments prior to exploration activities FOSA were able to identify and adopt operational and management controls to ensure potential environmental impacts were, where possible, minimized or avoided. 3.The EWG also provided the main point of contact with the regulators on environmental matters and through the Falkland Islands Exploration & Production Environmental Forum facilitated consultation with government departments such as Fisheries, and other stakeholders such as Falklands Conservation. 4.The co-operative approach taken by the operators with regard to the environmental management of the exploration activities offshore the Falkland Islands is considered to have been very successful. The most obvious benefits were through the shared resources resulting in financial savings, however, other benefits have included, avoiding duplication of effort, the promoting of ,working togetherness' and a reduced burden on consultees. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||