Monitoring and Post-auditing in Environmental Impact Assessment: A Review

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a procedure for predicting environmental impacts of projects prior to their development, while post-auditing seeks to assess the accuracy of such predictions. A literature review examines the need for post-auditing, highlighting several benefits to EIA performance that could arise if the results were effectively used. This reveals that, in practice, post-auditing activities are not widespread, and suggests reasons why this is so. An overview of post-audit findings from a survey of published studies is then presented, and it is concluded that there is much scope for raising the profile of post-auditing in EIA world-wide. Preliminary results from a recent UK post-auditing study based on eight projects are described. Information on impact predictions was gathered and compared with actual impacts. A total of 366 impact predictions were made of which 78% were qualitative in nature; 57% of the predictions were auditable and of these nearly three-quarters were accurate. Reasons for inauditability were ascertained including, for all cases, a lack of data or unsuitable information.     

Auditing the Socio-economic Impacts of a Major Construction Project: The Case of Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station

This paper presents the findings of a post-auditing study which compares the actual and predicted socio-economic impacts (including traffic) of a major power station construction project in the UK. An attempt is made to determine the accuracy of the predictions presented at the public inquiry into the development, drawing on the results of a developer-funded monitoring exercise undertaken for the duration of the eight-year construction programme. The study found that a very high proportion of testable predictions prepared prior to the inquiry could be audited; of these, 60% were either within predicted ranges or accurate to within 20% of predicted values. However, one in seven predictions had errors of more than 50%. The study revealed no consistent bias towards either under- or over-estimation of impacts. The paper explores the reasons for the predictive errors identified in the study; these include a range of project-specific and more generic factors, several of which are likely to be applicable to other large-scale construction projects. The study is particularly useful in the field of EIA because it relates to several weak areas in current practice: the assessment of socio-economic impacts, construction effects, and monitoring and auditing.     

“土壤污染防治面临两大挑战”——专访中国科学院南京分院院长周健民

<正>2016年,国务院印发了《土壤污染防治行动计划》(以下简称"土十条")。这是我国土壤环境管理历史上里程碑式的文件。在中国科学院南京分院院长周健民看来,土壤污染具有长期性、复杂性和潜伏性的特点,所以其修复过程比大气和水污染治理所需技术更为综合、时间更为漫长。"土壤污染治理面临两大挑战:一是土壤污染的底数不清,我们还没建立起详细而完整的地块污染数据库;     

Environmental Impacts of the Use of Ecosystem Services: Case Study of Birdwatching

The main reason for promoting the concept of ecosystem services lies in its potential to contribute to environmental conservation. Highlighting the benefits derived from ecosystems fosters an understanding of humans’ dependence on nature, as users of ecosystem services. However, the act of using ecosystem services may not be environmentally neutral. As with the use of products and services generated within an economy, the use of ecosystem services may lead to unintended environmental consequences throughout the ‘ecosystem services supply chain.’ This article puts forward a framework for analyzing environmental impacts related to the use of ecosystem services, indicating five categories of impact: (1) direct impacts (directly limiting the service’s future availability); and four categories of indirect impacts, i.e., on broader ecosystem structures and processes, which can ultimately also affect the initial service: (2) impacts related to managing ecosystems to maximize the delivery of selected services (affecting ecosystems’ capacity to provide other services); (3) impacts associated with accessing ecosystems to use their services (affecting other ecosystem components); (4) additional consumption of products, infrastructure or services required to use a selected ecosystem service, and their life-cycle environmental impacts; and (5) broader impacts on the society as a whole (environmental awareness of ecosystem service users and other stakeholders). To test the usefulness of this framework, the article uses the case study of birdwatching, which demonstrates all of the above categories of impacts. The article justifies the need for a broader consideration of environmental impacts related to the use of ecosystem services.     

Strategic evaluation of environmental projects in SMEs

This article examines how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can improve their capital investment decisionmaking process for both environmental and general capital projects. It proposes a framework that helps integrate environmental impacts into capital investment decisions, while recognizing SMEs' specific management practices, unique culture, and constraints. The framework presented here is also applicable to independent strategic business units of larger organizations where the capital investment decision process is decentralized. ©2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Environmental impact assessment in ghana-anex post evaluation of the volta resettlement scheme: the case of the Kpong Hydro-electric project

Summary Many Third World Countries (TWCs), like Ghana, have not concerned themselves seriously with environmental problems as part of the entire socio-economic development process, until recently. This, for example, can be seen in their environmental policies and the rate at which these now are being made. Not only are environmental issues being considered in the formulation and implementation of new development programmes and projects, but it is being realised that earlier implemented projects need some evaluation,ex post, for possible, correction of past mistakes or, at least, as a source of self-containment. Thus, there has been interest in the impact assessment of past macro-projects as agricultural and resettlement schemes.An attempt is made to apply a simple matrices methodology to theex post evaluation of the Kpong Hydro-electric Project resettlement aspect, based on identified project and environment components. The results show that the impact on the socio- economic life of the settlers is positively greater than the physical and biological impacts. But considering other elements of the programme package and taking a perspective view, the settlers are after all, no better off. In view of the fact that a number of such schemes are now under consideration, it is useful for policy-makers and planners to learn from these lessons.Sam Ofori-Cudjoe is a Lecturer in Geography at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He is currently studying planning research at the Centre for Planning, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He obtained a BA (Hons) in Geography from the Department of Geography, University of Ghana, Legon, in 1978, and a MSc (Regional Planning) from the Department of Planning, University of Science and Technology (UST), Kumasi, Ghana, in 1981.     

Critical analysis of the waste management performance of two uranium production units in Brazil--part I: Poços de Caldas production centre

Waste management strategies in mining projects will depend to a large extent on the characteristics of the operational process, the type of ore and prevailing socio-environmental conditions, amongst other issues. The expenditures required by the management scheme and the implementation of remediation programs will be determined by the extent that the above issues were considered in the planning phase of the project. Several works have been published in the literature concerning the analysis of waste management programs and environmental impacts associated with uranium projects around the world. However, the vast majority do not report a comprehensive assessment integrating the various relationships among operational process, environmental impact, remediation strategy and costs. This study, divided into two papers, presents a detailed critical analysis of the waste management strategies adopted in two uranium production centres in Brazil, i.e., the Poços de Caldas Project (Part I) and the Caetité Project (Part II). The operational processes are described and the environmental impacts of the generated wastes as well as the adopted management strategies and costs are examined. Also, in Part II, a comparison between both production centres is made emphasizing the impacts of environmental and social-economical issues on the overall assessment.     

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF WESTERN WATER DEVELOPMENT1

ABSTRACT: Social scientists were included in the planning and design for an integrated, trans-basin water resource project. Within this complex project, a socioeconomic impact assessment (SIA) concentrated on identifying the social, political, and economic issues and potential impacts inherent in developing a city's water rights. Before the SIA began, some of the development alternatives had already generated widespread hostility and organized opposition from communities within the watershed. The SIA involved residents of affected communities in the study design and project planning. The study found a number of components that constituted the concerns, beliefs, and expectations about perceived, potential impacts that might result from the different alternatives. In most cases these issues constituted threats to valued environmental resources, valued community resources, the social environment, the economic base, and a secure future. The social science component was a key factor in the ultimate decision to pursue a particular alternative which was sensitive to the social and political issues, minimized environmental and socioeconomic impacts, and ultimately had support among the communities potentially affected. The experience from this case study suggests that the approach used can be applied successfully in the planning of other water development projects and result in cooperation from the wide range of interest groups that often present costly obstacles to such projects.     

Landscape ecological assessment: a tool for integrating biodiversity issues in strategic environmental assessment and planning

To achieve a sustainable development, impacts on biodiversity of urbanisation, new infrastructure projects and other land use changes must be considered on landscape and regional scales. This requires that important decisions are made after a systematic evaluation of environmental impacts. Landscape ecology can provide a conceptual framework for the assessment of consequences of long-term development processes like urbanisation on biodiversity components, and for evaluating and visualising the impacts of alternative planning scenarios. The aim of this paper was to develop methods for integrating biodiversity issues in planning and strategic environmental assessment in an urbanising environment, on landscape and regional levels. In order to test developed methods, a case study was conducted in the region of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and the study area embraced the city centre, suburbs and peri-urban areas. Focal species were tested as indicators of habitat quality, quantity and connectivity in the landscape. Predictive modelling of habitat distribution in geographic information systems involved the modelling of focal species occurrences based on empirical data, incorporated in a landscape ecological decision support system. When habitat models were retrieved, they were applied on future planning scenarios in order to predict and assess the impacts on focal species. The scenario involving a diffuse exploitation pattern had the greatest negative impacts on the habitat networks of focal species. The scenarios with concentrated exploitation also had negative impacts, although they were possible to mitigate quite easily. The predictions of the impacts on habitats networks of focal species made it possible to quantify, integrate and visualise the effects of urbanisation scenarios on aspects of biodiversity on a landscape level.     

Reducing life-cycle environmental impacts: An industry survey of emerging tools and programs

Corporate environmental practices have been evolving quite rapidly in recent years, as consumers express their preferences for environmentally friendly products and practices, as manufacturers look “upstream” and inquire into their suppliers' environmental practices due to liability and marketing concerns, and as company operating costs increase as a result of new environmental regulations. New corporate efforts are made to anticipate (rather than respond to) outside environmental pressures, to internalize costs, and to find strategic opportunities or competitive advantages based on company or product environmental performance. This article describes a survey and research project designed to explore one aspect of these evolving corporate practices—the use of analytical tools and associated programs, such as life-cycle assessment and design-for-environment—by companies to account for impacts throughout a product'S life-cycle.     

Comparing Green and Grey Infrastructure Using Life Cycle Cost and Environmental Impact: A Rain Garden Case Study in Cincinnati,OH

Green infrastructure (GI) is quickly gaining ground as a less costly, greener alternative to traditional methods of stormwater management. One popular form of GI is the use of rain gardens to capture and treat stormwater. We used life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare environmental impacts of residential rain gardens constructed in the Shepherd's Creek watershed of Cincinnati, Ohio to those from a typical detain and treat system. LCA is an internationally standardized framework for analyzing the potential environmental performance of a product or service by including all stages in its life cycle, including material extraction, manufacturing, use, and disposal. Complementary to the life cycle environmental impact assessment, the life cycle costing approach was adopted to compare the equivalent annual costs of each of these systems. These analyses were supplemented by modeling alternative scenarios to capture the variability in implementing a GI strategy. Our LCA models suggest rain garden costs and impacts are determined by labor requirement; the traditional alternative's impacts are determined largely by the efficiency of wastewater treatment, while costs are determined by the expense of tunnel construction. Gardens were found to be the favorable option, both financially (~42% cost reduction) and environmentally (62‐98% impact reduction). Wastewater utilities may find significant life cycle cost and environmental impact reductions in implementing a rain garden plan.     

Forest Biodiversity Monitoring for REDD+: A Case Study of Actors’ Views in Peru

The climate change mitigation mechanism Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD+) is currently being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Integrating biodiversity monitoring into REDD+ facilitates compliance with the safeguards stipulated by the UNFCCC to exclude environmental risks. Interviews with actors engaged in REDD+ implementation and biodiversity conservation at the national and sub-national level in Peru (n = 30) and a literature review (n = 58) were conducted to pinpoint constraints and opportunities for monitoring effects of REDD+ management interventions on biodiversity, and to identify relevant biodiversity data and indicators. It was found that particularly sub-national actors, who were frequently involved in REDD+ pilot projects, acknowledge the availability of biodiversity data. Actors at both the national and sub-national levels, however, criticized data gaps and data being scattered across biodiversity research organizations. Most of the literature reviewed (78 %) included indicators on the state of certain biodiversity aspects, especially mammals. Indicators for pressure on biodiversity, impacts on environmental functions, or policy responses to environmental threats were addressed less frequently (31, 21, and 10 %, respectively). Integrating biodiversity concerns in carbon monitoring schemes was considered to have potential, although few specific examples were identified. The involvement of biodiversity research organizations in sub-national REDD+ activities enhances monitoring capacities. It is discussed how improvements in collaboration among actors from the project to the national level could facilitate the evaluation of existing information at the national level. Monitoring changes in ecosystem services may increase the ecological and socioeconomic viability of REDD+.     

Incentives and outcomes: Evaluation of a Swedish environmental subsidy programme

This paper empirically evaluates a Swedish government subsidy to environmental sustainability, the Local Investment Programme (LIP). During the programme period, 1998 – 2002, more than 670 million was granted to 1814 different municipal projects, making it the largest Swedish subsidization to ecological sustainability to date. For the 682 projects evaluated here, it was found that the projects were rewarded smaller subsidies than granted. To explain the gap between granted and rewarded subsidies, the gap was decomposed into a quantity effect, depending on the quantified environmental and employment outcomes of the projects, and a price effect, depending on the government's valuation of these outcomes. Whereas no statistically significant quantity effect was found, there was a large statistically significant price effect, indicating that the government paid the municipalities less than promised in the granting decision.     

Partnerships for Local Environmental Action: Observations on the First Two Years of Rural Action for the Environment

Rural Action for the Environment is a key element of the UK Government's 'Action for the Countryside' initiative. It has two main elements: the provision of advice, training, information and grants to local communities; and the formation of county based networks of environmental organizations to provide the necessary support infrastructure to local projects. This paper suggests that Rural Action is a laudable attempt to move towards a more 'enabling' style of operation which may ultimately result in a significant increase in the level of interest and involvement in environmental action. However, it has also highlighted a number of important problems which are likely to afflict all future attempts to encourage local communities to formulate and carry out sustainable environmental improvements in their areas. Particular difficulties result from the need to reconcile the multiple and possibly contradictory objectives of different agencies, the problems of engaging the interest of local people, the time and other resource constraints faced by those who seek to implement such initiatives and the political imperative to achieve action on the ground as rapidly as possible. Each of these issues will need to be addressed by future schemes if widespread involvement in locally determined environmental action is to be secured.     

Threatened Species Conservation in New South Wales,Australia: A Review of the Value of the Eight-part Test

The Threatened Species Conservation (TSC) Act, introduced in 1995, represents a significant attempt to conserve and restore biodiversity within the state of New South Wales, Australia. This Act aims to integrate land use planning and environmental impact assessment legislation by placing increased responsibility on applicants, proponents, consent and determining authorities, and the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, in the fields of environmental planning, development control and biodiversity conservation. The TSC Act introduced a set of eight factors which have to be considered by decision makers in determining whether a development is likely to have a significant effect upon threatened species, populations, ecological communities or their habitats (the threatened biota) as listed in the Act. These eight factors are commonly referred to as the 'eight-part test'. Fifty environmental impact statements (EISs) containing eight-part tests for development proposals were obtained. The adequacy of scoping and survey exercises, the number of species identified and afforded the eight-part test, and the actual responses to each of the eight factors contained within the test, using a series of criteria, were ascertained. Sixty per cent provided an adequate scoping exercise; 6% of the surveys for flora species, and none for fauna species carried out, were adequate in terms of identifying all threatened species on the development site. Seven hundred and thirty-seven species listed in the Act were identified, 36% of which were omitted from the eight-part test procedure. The eight sections of the eight-part test were completed to a varying degree of adequacy, with none of the EISs completing all eight sections satisfactorily. Both section 4 (regarding the impacts of a development in terms of habitat isolation) and section 8 (regarding the distribution of species potentially affected by a development) were inadequately completed in all 50 EISs.     

日本的城市环境问题及其改善过程：政策和规划视角研究

日本是亚洲最先城市化的国家,目前已有86%的人口生活在城市行政区范围内。在城市化的进程中,日本曾出现过各种各样的环境问题,经过半个多世纪的努力,现在的城市生活环境不仅得到根本改善,而且在资源循环利用和低碳社会建设等方面也做出引人注目的成绩。本文从日本城市规划制度和环境政策演变角度,分阶段介绍自1950年以来的城市环境问题、环境法律和有关城市规划建设的政策,逐步展开日本改善城市生活环境、保护地球自然环境的过程,尤其注重从生态城市到低碳社会转型发展的最近政策动向。     

高质量绿色发展形势下环境统计的问题与建议

环境统计是环境保护的一项重要基础性工作。推动我国经济实现高质量绿色发展,更需要调整和建立新的环境统计指标体系,科学衡量中国经济增长的质量,评判中国经济增长的短板。本文在回顾国内外环境统计发展历程的基础上,针对当前高质量绿色发展形势,分析了环境统计工作中存在的统筹制度缺乏、统计指标不完善、统计数据质量不高、统计体系法律法规不健全等问题。最后从完善环境统计方法体系、建立监测统计数据收集和审核机制、建立和完善环境投资统计体系三方面提出有针对性的对策与建议。本文可为完善我国环境统计制度和政策、提高环境统计科学准确性提供决策支持,为推动我国经济向高质量绿色化发展奠定坚实基础。     

不同规模民用机场项目主要环境影响对比分析

按照在民航运输系统中所起的作用划分，我国民用机场可分为枢纽机场、干线机场和支线机场。由于建设规模、航空业务量不同，各类机场环境影响的范围、程度和特点也不尽相同。通过对国内机场建设项目环境影响的案例和相关研究成果进行总结，从声环境、环境空气、生态、水环境、固体废物等方面对比分析了不同规模机场的环境影响的特点，为机场选址、设计、规划等提供参考。     

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON NEW YORK CITY'S WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM1

ABSTRACT: It has been well established that the greenhouse gas loading of the atmosphere has been increasing since the mid 19th century. Consequently, shifts in the earth's radiative balance are expected with accompanying alterations to the earth's climate. With these anticipated, and perhaps already observable, changes in both global and regional climate, managers of regional water resources seek insight to the possible impacts climate change may have on their present and future water supplies. The types and degrees of impacts that climate change may have on New York City's water supply system were assessed in a study of a watershed at Allaben, New York. Hypothetical scenarios of future climate and climate change projections from three General Circulation Models (GCMs) were used in conjunction with the WatBal hydrological model and the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) to ascertain how runoff and soil moisture from this watershed may change in a warmer climate. For the worst case predictions, the results indicate that within the century of the 2000s, the watershed's air temperature may increase up to about 11°F, while its precipitation and runoff may decrease by about 13 and 30 percent, respectively. If this watershed is typical of the others within the New York City water supply system, the system's managers should consider implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies in preparation for the worst of these possible future conditions.