A new method to assess the sustainability performance of events: Application to the 2014 World Orienteering Championship

Nowadays an increasing attention of public and private agencies to the sustainability performance of events is observed, since it is recognized as a key issue in the context of sustainable development. Assessing the sustainability performance of events involves environmental, social and economic aspects; their impacts are complex and a quantitative assessment is often difficult. This paper presents a new quali-quantitative method developed to measure the sustainability of events, taking into account all its potential impacts. The 2014 World Orienteering Championship, held in Italy, was selected to test the proposed evaluation methodology. The total carbon footprint of the event was 165.34 tCO₂eq and the avoided emissions were estimated as being 46 tCO₂eq. The adopted quali-quantitative method resulted to be efficient in assessing the sustainability impacts and can be applied for the evaluation of similar events.     

The challenge of assessing social dimensions of avoided deforestation: Examples from Cambodia

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD +) has moved to the central stage of the climate change debate by being promoted as a significant, cheap, and quick win–win strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby mitigate climate change. In order to be successful in reducing emissions while providing the projected social and environmental co-benefits, REDD + needs to overcome key challenges of insecure forest tenure and inequity in the distribution of benefits. Such challenges threaten to affect the livelihoods and well-being in the local communities and in turn the effectiveness of REDD+. While REDD + programs will affect the participating communities, there is limited knowledge as to what social impacts these projects may bring to the local population. Similarly, assessment of these social dimensions has received little attention until recently, and is consequently out of sync with the realities of REDD + projects.The present paper aims to shed light on the methodological and contextual challenges in the assessment of the social dimensions of REDD+. Some of the main social concerns of REDD + are outlined with an emphasis on the uniqueness and complexity of REDD + interventions. Recently proposed approaches to assess social impacts in REDD + are critically assessed in terms of the diversity of frameworks proposed, choice of social indicators, and data collection requirements. Specifically, these methodological implications are further discussed in the light of the social dimensions and the prescribed regulations of REDD + in a Cambodian context.     

An integrated modelling framework to assess long-term impacts of water management strategies steering soil subsidence in peatlands

Around the world many peatlands are managed unsustainably. Drainage of the peat causes soil subsidence and a range of negative societal impacts. Integrated strategies are required to ensure more sustainable long-term settings, based on impact assessment models that simulate the interrelated dynamics of water management and soil subsidence, and determine the spatial and temporal range of societal impacts. This paper presents an integrated modelling framework that meets these requirements. We used the framework to assess the impacts of a range of water management strategies in Dutch peatlands. Average soil subsidence rates were shown to range from 0.6 to 4.5 mm·y^− 1, resulting in marked differences in societal impacts that affect stakeholders unequally. Moreover, the impacts on real estate damage and water system maintenance revealed inverse trends that result in increasingly unbalanced cost-benefit ratios. The generated insights led the regional water authority to change their current water management strategy, preventing unsustainable future developments. We find the results relevant for improving stakeholders' awareness of long-term impacts of management strategies, and making negotiation processes on goals, means, and possible future pathways more transparent.     

Framework for assessing impacts of pile-driving noise from offshore wind farm construction on a harbour seal population

Offshore wind farm developments may impact protected marine mammal populations, requiring appropriate assessment under the EU Habitats Directive. We describe a framework developed to assess population level impacts of disturbance from piling noise on a protected harbour seal population in the vicinity of proposed wind farm developments in NE Scotland. Spatial patterns of seal distribution and received noise levels are integrated with available data on the potential impacts of noise to predict how many individuals are displaced or experience auditory injury. Expert judgement is used to link these impacts to changes in vital rates and applied to population models that compare population changes under baseline and construction scenarios over a 25 year period. We use published data and hypothetical piling scenarios to illustrate how the assessment framework has been used to support environmental assessments, explore the sensitivity of the framework to key assumptions, and discuss its potential application to other populations of marine mammals.     

Degradation of natural habitats by roads: Comparing land-take and noise effect zone

Roads may act as barriers, negatively influencing the movement of animals, thereby causing disruption in landscapes. Roads cause habitat loss and fragmentation not only through their physical occupation, but also through traffic noise. The aim of this study is to provide a method to quantify the habitat degradation including habitat loss and fragmentation due to road traffic noise and to compare it with those of road land-take. Two types of fragmentation effects are determined: structural fragmentation (based on road land-take only), and functional fragmentation (noise effect zone fragmentation, buffer using a threshold of 40 dB). Noise propagation for roads with a traffic volume of more than 1000 vehicles per day was simulated by Calculation of Road Traffic Noise (CRTN) model. Habitat loss and fragmentation through land-take and noise effect zone were calculated and compared in Zagros Mountains in western Iran. The study area is characterized by three main habitat types (oak forest, scattered woodland and temperate grassland) which host endangered and protected wildlife species. Due to topographic conditions, land cover type, and the traffic volume in the region, the noise effect zone ranged from 50 to 2000 m which covers 18.3% (i.e. 516,929.95 ha) of the total study area. The results showed that the habitat loss due to noise effect zone is dramatically higher than that due to road land-take only (35% versus 1.04% of the total area). Temperate grasslands lost the highest proportion of the original area by both land-take and noise effect zone, but most area was lost in scattered woodland as compared to the other two habitat types. The results showed that considering the noise effect zone for habitat fragmentation resulted in an increase of 25.8% of the area affected (316,810 ha) as compared to using the land-take only (555,874 ha vs. 239,064 ha, respectively). The results revealed that the degree of habitat fragmentation is increasing by considering the noise effect zone. We conclude that, although the roads are breaking apart the patches by land-take, road noise not only dissects habitat patches but takes much larger proportions of or even functionally eliminates entire patches.     

Assessing Internet energy intensity: A review of methods and results

Assessing the average energy intensity of Internet transmissions is a complex task that has been a controversial subject of discussion. Estimates published over the last decade diverge by up to four orders of magnitude — from 0.0064 kilowatt-hours per gigabyte (kWh/GB) to 136 kWh/GB. This article presents a review of the methodological approaches used so far in such assessments: i) top–down analyses based on estimates of the overall Internet energy consumption and the overall Internet traffic, whereby average energy intensity is calculated by dividing energy by traffic for a given period of time, ii) model-based approaches that model all components needed to sustain an amount of Internet traffic, and iii) bottom–up approaches based on case studies and generalization of the results. Our analysis of the existing studies shows that the large spread of results is mainly caused by two factors: a) the year of reference of the analysis, which has significant influence due to efficiency gains in electronic equipment, and b) whether end devices such as personal computers or servers are included within the system boundary or not. For an overall assessment of the energy needed to perform a specific task involving the Internet, it is necessary to account for the types of end devices needed for the task, while the energy needed for data transmission can be added based on a generic estimate of Internet energy intensity for a given year. Separating the Internet as a data transmission system from the end devices leads to more accurate models and to results that are more informative for decision makers, because end devices and the networking equipment of the Internet usually belong to different spheres of control.     

Quantifying impact reduction due to avoidance,minimization and restoration for a natural gas pipeline in the Peruvian Andes

We present monitoring methods and quantitative biodiversity data to document components of the mitigation hierarchy. We estimated avoidance, minimization, restoration and impact reduction in quality hectares for the 25 m wide right of way of a 408 km natural gas buried pipeline that crosses 14 Ecological Landscape Units (ELUs) in the tropical Andes of Peru. We found that applying the mitigation hierarchy as part of a comprehensive biodiversity action plan substantially reduced impacts on biodiversity in all habitats studied. Avoidance and right of way minimization contributed to significant impact reduction. We quantified impact reduction during construction and operation on the right of way of the pipeline over a five-year period and found that restoration was the greatest contributor to reducing impacts. We documented that most ELUs have a positive restoration trajectory. We also documented how monitoring over large scale spatial scales, in combination with site-specific monitoring, generated data for management to determine restoration priorities and impact mitigation. A biodiversity action plan that incorporated the mitigation hierarchy and a science-based biodiversity monitoring and assessment program contributed to biodiversity management of the project and played an important role in minimizing and managing impacts.     

Assessing land take by urban development and its impact on carbon storage: Findings from two case studies in Italy

Land take due to urbanization triggers a series of negative environmental impacts with direct effects on quality of life for people living in cities. Changes in ecosystem services are associated with land take, among which is the immediate C loss due to land use conversion. Land use change monitoring represents the first step in quantifying land take and its drivers and impacts. To this end, we propose an innovative methodology for monitoring land take and its effects on ecosystem services (in particular, C loss) under multi-scale contexts. The devised approach was tested in two areas with similar sizes, but different land take levels during the time-span 1990–2008 in Central Italy (the Province of Rome and the Molise Region). The estimates of total coverage of built up areas were calculated using point sampling. The area of the urban patches including each sampling point classified as built up areas in the year 1990 and/or in the year 2008 is used to estimate total abundance and average area of built up areas. Biophysical and economic values for carbon loss associated with land take were calculated using InVEST.Although land take was 7–8 times higher in the Province of Rome (from 15.1% in 1990 to 20.4% in 2008) than in Molise region, our findings show that its relative impact on C storage is higher in the latter, where the urban growth consistently affects not only croplands but also semi-natural land uses such as grasslands and other wooded lands. The total C loss due to land take has been estimated in 1.6 million Mg C, corresponding to almost 355 million €.Finally, the paper discusses the main characteristics of urban growth and their ecological impact leading to risks and challenges for future urban planning and land use policies.     

Life-cycle impacts of wind energy development on bird diversity in Norway

While wind energy remains a preferred source of renewable energy, understanding the full spectrum of impacts are vital to balance climate-related benefits against their costs to biodiversity. Environmental impact assessments often fail to assess cumulative effects at larger spatial scales. In this respect, life cycle assessments are better suited, but have to date mainly focused on greenhouse gas emissions and energy accounting. Here, we adapt a recent global life-cycle impact assessment (LCA) methodology to evaluate collision, disturbance and habitat loss impacts of onshore wind energy development on bird species richness in Norway. The advantage of a local model for Norway is that it enables employing species distribution models to more accurately estimate the potential distribution area of species. This facilitates more realistic site- and species-specific assessments of potential impacts within a local scale but excludes habitat ranges outside Norway. Furthermore, a new characterization factor was developed for potential barrier effects. Larger onshore wind-power plants overall had greater site-specific potentially disappeared fractions (PDF) of species, while smaller plants were less efficiently located with greater impacts per GWh. Overall, Norwegian wind-power plants were sited least efficiently (PDF/GWh) regarding indirect habitat loss (2.186 × 10⁻⁹) and disturbance (1.219 × 10⁻⁹), followed by direct habitat loss (0.932 × 10⁻⁹), and finally collisions (0.040 × 10⁻⁹) and barriers (0.310 × 10⁻⁹). Vulnerability differed among bird groups with seabirds, raptors and waterfowl emerging as the most impacted groups (e.g. 5.143 × 10⁻⁹, 3.409 × 10⁻⁹ and 3.139 × 10⁻⁹ PDF/GWh for disturbance, respectively); highlighting the sympatric distribution of their habitats and the majority of Norway's onshore wind-power plants. Current practice has not succeeded in avoiding sites with higher impacts for birds, fuelling conflicts surrounding environmental concerns of onshore wind energy development in Norway. Operative LCA models can help decision-makers assessing localized life-cycle environmental impacts to support environmental-friendly wind energy production in specific regions.     

Carbonation and CO2 uptake of concrete

This study developed a reliable procedure to assess the carbon dioxide (CO₂) uptake of concrete by carbonation during the service life of a structure and by the recycling of concrete after demolition. To generalize the amount of absorbable CO₂ per unit volume of concrete, the molar concentration of carbonatable constituents in hardened cement paste was simplified as a function of the unit content of cement, and the degree of hydration of the cement paste was formulated as a function of the water-to-cement ratio. The contribution of the relative humidity, type of finishing material for the concrete surface, and the substitution level of supplementary cementitious materials to the CO₂ diffusion coefficient in concrete was reflected using various correction factors. The following parameters varying with the recycling scenario were also considered: the carbonatable surface area of concrete crusher-runs and underground phenomena of the decreased CO₂ diffusion coefficient and increased CO₂ concentration. Based on the developed procedure, a case study was conducted for an apartment building with a principal wall system and an office building with a Rahmen system, with the aim of examining the CO₂ uptake of each structural element under different exposure environments during the service life and recycling of the building. As input data necessary for the case study, data collected from actual surveys conducted in 2012 in South Korea were used, which included data on the surrounding environments, lifecycle inventory database, life expectancy of structures, and recycling activity scenario. Ultimately, the CO₂ uptake of concrete during a 100-year lifecycle (life expectancy of 40 years and recycling span of 60 years) was estimated to be 15.5%–17% of the CO₂ emissions from concrete production, which roughly corresponds to 18%–21% of the CO₂ emissions from the production of ordinary Portland cement.     

Differential recovery of habitat use by birds after wind farm installation: A multi-year comparison

Onshore wind farms remain one of the most widely used technologies for the production of renewable energy. These are known to affect birds through disturbance or collision. Most research focus on the impact of wind farms on raptors or other large bird species, especially those of conservation concern. However, limited information exists on the effect of wind farms on small birds. Recovery of large versus small bird populations impacted by wind farms is also largely unstudied. A reason for this is the lack of long-term datasets based on standardized, systematic assessments. We monitored birds in the vicinity of a wind farm in an upland habitat in southern Spain (Malaga province), immediately after installation and 6.5 years post-construction. During both study periods, we observed 11 raptor and 38 non-raptor species (including 30 passerines). We found differences in recovery rates between raptors and non-raptors. Raptors showed an upturn in numbers but non-raptor abundance fell significantly.Greater attention should be paid to the recovery of wildlife after initial impact assessments than at present. This study confirms that regulatory authorities and developers should consider the likely impacts of wind farms on small bird populations. Mitigation measures focused particularly on non-raptor species should be considered and implemented as a means to reduce these negative effects.     

Cleaning up the big muddy: A meta-synthesis of the research on the social impact of dams

Scholars have been exploring the social impacts of dams for over 50 years, but a lack of systematic approaches has resulted in many research gaps remaining. This paper presents the first systematic review of the literature on the social impacts of dams. For this purpose, we built a sample of 217 articles published in the past 25 years via key word searches, expert consultations and bibliography reviews. All articles were assessed against an aggregate matrix framework on the social impact of dams, which combines 27 existing frameworks. We find that existing literature is highly biased with regard to: perspective (45% negative versus 5% positive); dam size (large dams are overrepresented); spatial focus (on the resettlement area); and temporal focus (5–10 years ex-post resettlement). Additionally, there is bias in terms of whose views are included, with those of dam developers rarely examined by scholars. These gaps need to be addressed in future research to advance our knowledge on the social impact of dams to support more transparency in the trade-offs being made in dam development decisions.     

Cross-border cooperation in inner Scandinavia: A territorial impact assessment

The use of territorial impact assessment procedures is gaining increasing relevance in the European Union policy evaluation processes. However, no concrete territorial impact assessment tools have been applied to evaluating EU cross-border programmes. In this light, this article provides a pioneering analysis on how to make use of territorial impact assessment procedures on cross-border programmes. More specifically, it assesses the main territorial impacts of the Inner Scandinavian INTERREG-A sub-programme, in the last 20 years (1996–2016). It focuses on its impacts on reducing the barrier effect, in all its main dimensions, posed by the presence of the administrative border. The results indicate a quite positive impact of the analysed cross-border cooperation programme, in reducing the barrier effect in all its main dimensions. The obtained potential impact values for each analysed dimension indicate, however, that the ‘economy-technology’ dimension was particularly favoured, following its strategic intervention focus in stimulating the economic activity and the attractiveness of the border area.     

No evidence of a threshold in traffic volume affecting road-kill mortality at a large spatio-temporal scale

Previous studies have found that the relationship between wildlife road mortality and traffic volume follows a threshold effect on low traffic volume roads. We aimed at evaluating the response of several species to increasing traffic intensity on highways over a large geographic area and temporal period. We used data of four terrestrial vertebrate species with different biological and ecological features known by their high road-kill rates: the barn owl (Tyto alba), hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Additionally, we checked whether road-kill likelihood varies when traffic patterns depart from the average. We used annual average daily traffic (AADT) and road-kill records observed along 1000 km of highways in Portugal over seven consecutive years (2003–2009). We fitted candidate models using Generalized Linear Models with a binomial distribution through a sample unit of 1 km segments to describe the effect of traffic on the probability of finding at least one victim in each segment during the study. We also assigned for each road-kill record the traffic of that day and the AADT on that year to test for differences using Paired Student's t-test. Mortality risk declined significantly with traffic volume but varied among species: the probability of finding road-killed red foxes and rabbits occurs up to moderate traffic volumes (< 20,000 AADT) whereas barn owls and hedgehogs occurred up to higher traffic volumes (40,000 AADT). Perception of risk may explain differences in responses towards high traffic highway segments. Road-kill rates did not vary significantly when traffic intensity departed from the average. In summary, we did not find evidence of traffic thresholds for the analysed species and traffic intensities. We suggest mitigation measures to reduce mortality be applied in particular on low traffic roads (< 5000 AADT) while additional measures to reduce barrier effects should take into account species-specific behavioural traits.     

EIA: A splintering,exploding discipline with a massive new constituency

After serving 18 years as Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Impact Assessment Review, the author observes that the period 1997–2014, the discipline of EIA: splintered, exploded and saw the rise of the developing-world authors. Publishing has also changed, with shifts from quantity to quality, the rise of open access, and an ever-increasing shortage of reviewers.     

Benchmarking environmental and economic impacts from the HSR networks considering life cycle perspectives

This paper unprecedentedly benchmarks the environmental and economic impacts of notable High-speed rail (HSR) networks. The goals are to (i) point out the environmental impacts from the HSR networks and (ii) evaluate the whole life cycle cost of HSR systems. The emphasis of this study is placed on five HSR networks from five countries to depict the effectiveness of sustainable transport policies in each particular country. Both life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) models are adopted for a new critical framework capable of benchmarking the lifecycle sustainability of HSR networks. The new findings exhibit that CRC's system is the leader in energy-saving, who consumes only 67.55 GJ/km yearly, and emits lowest CO₂ at an amount of 77,532.32 tCO₂/km annually. These impressive results are stemmed from key enabling policies related to eco-friendly rolling stock design, sustainable construction, and green energy grids. With respect to the LCC analysis, the SCNF network takes advantage in the economy of scale and unleashes the lowest cost among other networks. It estimates that the SNCF network spends approximately 1,990,599.51 £/km annually at a % discount rate. The implications of these finding are discussed that the initial project has a high chance to be successful on economic than the late project due to an influence of the time value of money.     

Identifying the lifecycle ODP and GWP effects of the refrigerants from household air-conditioners in Macau

Recent decades have witnessed increased public awareness of refrigerants, due to their significant global warming potential (GWP) and ozone depletion potential (ODP). Using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, this study estimates and predicts the potential GWP and ODP of refrigerants over the entire life cycle of household air conditioners during 1998–2035 in Macau. The results show that the total environmental impacts of refrigerants were 2.19 ± 0.63 t CFC-11 eq. and 111.62 ± 17.44 Kt CO₂ eq. in 2018, respectively. If uncontrolled, cumulative emissions of ODP and GWP will rise to approximately 15.54 ± 2.63 t CFC-11 eq. and 1.31 ± 0.21 Mt. CO₂ eq. between 2019 and 2035. Specifically, ODP effects experienced a historical peak of 3.24 ± 0.54 t CFC-11 eq. in 2013, and GWP effects peaked at 128.05 ± 20.83 Kt CO₂ eq. in 2014. Furthermore, the GWP contribution in the use stage decreased from 88% in 2002 to 11% in 2028, while the end-of-life stage will gradually become the dominant stage of GWP effects. Under the most optimistic scenario (S4), the reduction rates of ODP and GWP will be 44% ± 12% and 38% ± 14%, respectively, compared to the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario in 2035, and will realize zero ODP emissions by 2032 (2 years earlier than the BAU). In the future, the management and disposal of large-scale electronic waste need to be further improved for the effective control of refrigerants in Macau.     

25 years of the UK EIA System: Strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats

This paper offers a review of the UK EIA system, providing insights into its evolution and reflecting on perceptions of effectiveness of the EIA system. The work adopts a similar approach used by Glasson in 1999, where he provided a review of the first 10 years of EIA in the UK, complimented by a SWOT analysis. In conducting the SWOT analysis, the authors make use of (1) a UK EIA survey which was conducted in 2011; (2) an interactive session organised at a 2013 workshop at the University of Liverpool on 25 years of the EU EIA Directive; and (3) a systematic literature review of publications since 1999. The results indicate that the internal factors (i.e. strengths and weaknesses) of the EIA system have not actually changed much in the last 15 years. Changes are more apparent for the external factors, especially with regards to opportunities. However, EIA may be suffering from a mid-life crisis at this point and a lot may be owing to perceptions towards EIA which may be influenced and inversely related to the length of experience in EIA. This opens up avenues for further research in the area.     

Towards sustainable settlement growth: A new multi-criteria assessment for implementing environmental targets into strategic urban planning

For nearly one decade, the German political and research-agenda has been to a large extent determined by the ongoing question of how to limit the expansion of settlement areas around cities in order to preserve natural resources, make settlement growth more sustainable and to strengthen the re-use of existing inner-urban areas (see a.o. Kötter et al. 2009a, 2010; Schetke et al. 2009, 2010b). What is already under discussion within the international literature are the recommendations of the German Council for Sustainability to quantitatively reduce the daily greenfield consumption from the current rate of over 100 ha per day to a rate of 30 ha per day in 2020 and to bring urban infill development up to a ratio of 3:1 with greenfield development (German Council for Sustainability, 2004).). This paper addresses the added value beyond those abstract political targets and presents an innovative, multi-criteria assessment (MCA) of greenfield and infill sites to evaluate their sustainability and resource efficiency. MCA development and its incorporation into a Decision Support System (DSS) were accomplished by utilising a stakeholder-driven approach. The resulting tool can be applied in preparing and revising land-use plans. The paper presents the concept and the development process of the MCA-DSS. Test runs with planners prove that the evaluation of potential housing sites using individually weighted environmental indicators helps to identify those strategies of housing development that accord most closely with sustainability goals. The tests further show that the development of greenfield sites generally exhibits less sustainability than that of infill sites.