Applying Ecological Risk Principles to Watershed Assessment and Management

Considerable progress in addressing point source (end of pipe) pollution problems has been made, but it is now recognized that further substantial environmental improvements depend on controlling nonpoint source pollution. A watershed approach is being used more frequently to address these problems because traditional regulatory approaches do not focus on nonpoint sources. The watershed approach is organized around the guiding principles of partnerships, geographic focus, and management based on sound science and data. This helps to focus efforts on the highest priority problems within hydrologically-defined geographic areas. Ecological risk assessment is a process to collect, organize, analyze, and present scientific information to improve decision making. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sponsored three watershed assessments and found that integrating the watershed approach with ecological risk assessment increases the use of environmental monitoring and assessment data in decision making. This paper describes the basics of the watershed approach, the ecological risk assessment process, and how these two frameworks can be integrated. The three major principles of watershed ecological risk assessment found to be most useful for increasing the use of science in decision making are (1) using assessment endpoints and conceptual models, (2) holding regular interactions between scientists and managers, and (3) developing a focus for multiple stressor analysis. Examples are provided illustrating how these principles were implemented in these assessments.     

Evaluation of Environmental Aspects Significance in ISO 14001

The methodological framework set by standards ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 gives only general principles for environmental aspects assessment, which is regarded as one of the most critical stages of implementing environmental management system. In Estonia, about 100 organizations have been certified to the ISO 14001. Experience obtained from numerous companies has demonstrated that limited transparency and reproducibility of the assessment process serves as a common shortcoming. Despite rather complicated assessment schemes sometimes used, the evaluation procedures have been largely based on subjective judgments because of ill-defined and inadequate assessment criteria. A comparison with some similar studies in other countries indicates a general nature of observed inconsistencies. The diversity of approaches to the aspects’ assessment in concept literature and to the related problems has been discussed. The general structure of basic assessment criteria, compatible with environmental impact assessment and environmental risk analysis has also been outlined. Based on this general structure, the article presents a tiered approach to help organize the assessment in a more consistent manner.     

Risk management: Time for innovative approaches

Risk management practices under the current environmental regulations is a long, complex process that considers scientific, technologic, and management factors to develop various regulatory standards and pollution control measures. Using the mandatory enforcement approach, sometimes referred to as “command-and-control”, a set of preliminary environmental goals, such as better air and water qualities, were achieved. However, the information-intensive nature of the risk management process and the lack of flexibility in conventional regulatory methods to changing economic and technologic realities of the decade has created interest among risk managers to examine some innovative management approaches. Above all, environmental problems of a global scale require novel management methods while striving to achieve the desired environmental goals. As the principal analytical tool in risk management, quantitative risk assessment exerts considerable influence on the risk management process. Therefore, advances in risk management are closely associated with scientific developments that enhance the risk assessment process, particularly those efforts aimed at improving human exposure and toxicity assessments. Market incentives, information dissemination, creative enforcement practices, and interagency and intergovernmental interactions were identified as the key elements of innovative environmental risk management practices. This paper will present an overview of the emerging innovative risk management approaches.     

A Decision Support Framework for Science-Based, Multi-Stakeholder Deliberation: A Coral Reef Example

We present a decision support framework for science-based assessment and multi-stakeholder deliberation. The framework consists of two parts: a DPSIR (Drivers–Pressures–States–Impacts–Responses) analysis to identify the important causal relationships among anthropogenic environmental stressors, processes, and outcomes; and a Decision Landscape analysis to depict the legal, social, and institutional dimensions of environmental decisions. The Decision Landscape incorporates interactions among government agencies, regulated businesses, non-government organizations, and other stakeholders. It also identifies where scientific information regarding environmental processes is collected and transmitted to improve knowledge about elements of the DPSIR and to improve the scientific basis for decisions. Our application of the decision support framework to coral reef protection and restoration in the Florida Keys focusing on anthropogenic stressors, such as wastewater, proved to be successful and offered several insights. Using information from a management plan, it was possible to capture the current state of the science with a DPSIR analysis as well as important decision options, decision makers and applicable laws with a the Decision Landscape analysis. A structured elicitation of values and beliefs conducted at a coral reef management workshop held in Key West, Florida provided a diversity of opinion and also indicated a prioritization of several environmental stressors affecting coral reef health. The integrated DPSIR/Decision landscape framework for the Florida Keys developed based on the elicited opinion and the DPSIR analysis can be used to inform management decisions, to reveal the role that further scientific information and research might play to populate the framework, and to facilitate better-informed agreement among participants.     

Application of the DPSIR framework to environmental degradation assessment in northern Ghana

In many communities in northern Ghana, the environment has been altered by complex natural and human driven forces with significant impact on the lives of their inhabitants. The need to formulate an improved, holistic and consistent methodological approach to assess the problem is critical for sustainable natural resource management. This paper examines the potential of the DPSIR environmental assessment framework utilizing GIS‐based participatory methodology in the assessment of environmental degradation in northern Ghana. Community truthing tools such as key informant interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation and participatory Geographical Information Systems (GIS) were employed as a means of soliciting societal responses integrated to conventional GIS spatial analysis to measure the indicators of the Driving force–Pressure–State–Impacts–Response (DPSIR) assessment framework. Post classification GIS imagery results show a marked natural vegetation decrease of 634 km2 (42%) of the study area with a corresponding increase of 600 km² (39%) of grasses and built‐up and barren environment in the period of 14 years from 1990 to 2004. This is attributed to extreme climatic conditions and human driven causes such as poverty, population growth, migration and land tenure system. Poverty reduction strategies, amendment of the Mining and Mineral Law (PNDC law 153), improvement of the existing land tenure system and the control of migrants and Fulani herdsmen from neighbouring Burkina Faso were some of the solutions selected by the research participants, to be emphasized in the National Environmental Action Plan (EPA Act 490). This paper concludes that the DPSIR environmental assessment framework is an effective means of organizing complex environmental information to facilitate policy decision making.     

Treatment of risk in environmental impact assessment

Risk assessment and environmental impact assessment have developed as separate traditions. While environmental impact assessment is a broad field that includes all activities that attempt to analyze and evaluate the effects of human and related actions on the environment, risk assessment has been concerned with the relatively well-defined regulatory problems and employs formal quantitative analysis of the probability of specific undesired events, such as cancer. Risk analytic approaches, particularly the explicit treatment of uncertainty, can significantly contribute to environmental assessments. This article discusses the type and sources of uncertainty in environmental assessments, techniques for their quantification, and ways to use uncertainty estimates to calculate probabilities of effects or probabilities of exceeding environmental standards and to determine the need for mitigation or additional research.This article was presented at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Task Force Meeting on Risk and Policy Analysis under Conditions of Uncertainty, Laxenburg, Austria, November 1985.     

Farm management indicators and farm typologies as a basis for assessments in a changing policy environment

This paper focuses on the assessment of farm management indicators and argues that typologies are a necessary tool for comprehensive environmental assessments. In the paper Andersen et al., [(2004a). Farming and the Environment in the European Community--using agricultural statistics to provide farm management indicators. Paper presented at OECD Expert meeting, March 2004, New Zealand. < http:webdomino1.oecd.org/comnet/agr/farmind.nsf/viewHtml/index/$FILE/Anderson_et_al.PDF> (1st of February 2006).] presented at the OECD expert meeting on farm management indicators in New Zealand in March 2004, a set of farm management indicators was presented in the framework of a typology of grazing livestock farming systems in the EU-15 (includes all Member States of the European Union before 2004). The present paper presents new results on farm management indicators within the framework of an extended typology for all farming sectors. It presents an environmentally oriented extension to the EU typology of farms currently used for assessing the situation of farming within the European Union. The extended typology is tested in relation to emerging policy issues such as environmental sustainability and rural viability by analysing some of the farm management indicators suggested in Andersen et al., [(2004a). Farming and the Environment in the European Community--using agricultural statistics to provide farm management indicators. Paper presented at OECD Expert meeting, March 2004, New Zealand. (1st of February 2006).]. Finally, recommendations in relation to the next generation EU farm typology are given.     

Natural environmental impact assessment: A rational approach

A method is presented which combines environmental indices and estimates of inputs from various land uses to aid in environmental impact assessments. Unweighted pair/group cluster analyses are used to obtain relationships between easily observable environmental indices, such as vegetation types, soils, and geology, based on their mutual recurrence. These relationships are shown by using an ordination technique which shows the nature of complex impacts on a natural system. Results are used to develop anenvironmental effects sequence diagram based on known scientific and engineering principles and observed natural relationships. The diagram may be used in conjunction with land use data to estimate the possible magnitude of impacts on the pre-existing system which may result from such land use. Several examples are developed which quantify inputs from various land uses and which compare them with environmental inputs including point source and non-point source liquid and atmospheric emmissions, land modifications, and resource consumption. Known average values are used and a separate comparison is made in describing the vast differences between the project phases of construction versus longterm operation. A hypothetical environmental impact assessment is given for a small residential development in Chambers County, Texas, U.S. of A.     

Evaluating Holistic Environmental Consequences of Brownfield Management Options Using Consequential Life Cycle Assessment for Different Perspectives

Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or underused sites whose reuse necessitates some sort of intervention. These sites are largely urban and are frequently contaminated. Brownfield management options can be associated with three types of environmental consequences: those resulting from changes in the site’s environmental quality (primary impacts); those resulting from the actual intervention stage (secondary impacts); and, if the vocation of the site changes, those resulting from effects on regional land use (tertiary impacts). Different stakeholders and decision-making contexts will place a different importance on each of these types of impacts. This article proposes a framework for comparing brownfield management options in regard to these three types of environmental impacts and for interpreting these results from different perspectives. The assessment framework is based on consequential life cycle assessment (LCA), which is shown to provide environmental information on the three types of impacts. The results for a case study are presented, where a “rehabilitation” option allowing residential redevelopment is compared to an “exposure minimization” option not resulting in the site being reused. Calculated primary and tertiary impacts are favorable to the rehabilitation option, whereas secondary impacts are favorable to the exposure minimization option. A ternary diagram presents the favorable option for different stereotypical perspectives. Tertiary impacts are much greater than secondary impacts, and consequently all perspectives that consider tertiary impacts favor rehabilitation. The perspective that considers primary and secondary impacts receives conflicting information. The ternary diagram, showing results for all perspectives, could possibly be useful for consensus-building among stakeholders.     

The Contribution of Environmental Assessment to Sustainable Development: Toward a Richer Empirical Understanding

It has long been suggested that environmental assessment has the potential to contribute to sustainable development through mechanisms above and beyond informing design and consent decisions, and while theories have been proposed to explain how this might occur, few have been subjected to rigorous empirical validation. This research advances the theoretical debate by building a rich empirical understanding of environmental assessment’s practical outcomes, from which its potential to contribute to sustainable development can be gauged. Three case study environmental assessment processes in England were investigated using a combination of data generated from content analysis, in-depth interviews, and a questionnaire survey. Four categories of outcomes are delineated based on the research data: learning outcomes; governance outcomes; attitudinal and value changes; and developmental outcomes. The data provide a robust critique of mainstream theory, with its focus on design and consent decisions. The article concludes with an examination of the consequences of the context-specific nature of environmental assessment practices in terms of developing theory and focusing future research.     

采掘行业环境影响评价制度存在问题的探讨

环境影响评价是环境管理的重要组成部分,为我国的环境管理决策提供重要依据。但在实际工作中,我国的环境管理工作仍然存在一定的问题。本文结合采掘行业的特点,分别从法律层面、设计层面和环境影响评价层面等三个方向进行分析,结合发现的问题提出建议,力求从不同的角度完善相关制度和技术要求。从而使采掘行业的环境管理能全面涵盖采掘行业开发过程,最大程度地减少采掘行业开发过程中的环境影响,完善采掘行业环境影响评价制度,对我国采掘行业生态环境的改善及环境影响评价法制建设起到一定的借鉴意义。     

Pragmatics of Policy: The Compliance of Dutch Environmental Policy Instruments to European Union Standards

Despite a general decrease in Dutch environmental emission trends, it remains difficult to comply with European Union (EU) environmental policy targets. Furthermore, environmental issues have become increasingly complex and entangled with society. Therefore, Dutch environmental policy follows a pragmatic line by adopting a flexible approach for compliance, rather than aiming at further reduction at the source of emission. This may be politically useful in order to adequately reach EU targets, but restoration of environmental conditions may be delayed. However, due to the complexity of today’s environmental issues, the restoration of environmental conditions might not be the only standard for a proper policy approach. Consequently this raises the question how the Dutch pragmatic approach to compliance qualifies in a broader policy assessment. In order to answer this question, we adapt a policy assessment framework, developed by Hemerijck and Hazeu (Bestuurskunde 13(2), 2004), based on the dimensions of legitimacy and policy logic. We apply this framework for three environmental policy assessments: flexible instruments in climate policy, fine-tuning of national and local measures to meet air quality standards, and derogation for the Nitrate Directive. We conclude with general assessment notes on the appliance of flexible instruments in environmental policy, showing that a broad and comprehensive perspective can help to understand the arguments to put such policy instruments into place and to identify trade-offs between assessment criteria.     

PROFILE: Indigenous Institutions and Environmental Assessment: The Case of Ghana

/ The search for sustainable development provides the impetus forexamining the role of indigenous institutions and their ecological knowledgein environmental assessment and local sustainability. This paper attempts totrace the evolution of environmental assessment in Ghana. Focusing on theAshanti Region, the paper further discusses the nature and operations ofindigenous institutions, their ecological knowledge, beliefs, practices, andsocial norms that are relevant to environmental assessment process in thecountry. Some of the challenges that emerge from the discussions arehighlighted. There is a need to establish environmental assessment andcooperative management boards that would include representatives ofindigenous institutions. In addition, the introduction of technicaldictionaries and training manuals based on indigenous ecological knowledgeand their humane environmental practices will further improve theenvironmental assessment process in Ghana.KEY WORDS: Environmental assessment; Indigenous institutions; Indigenousecological knowledge; Sustainable development; Environmental assessmentboards     

Environmental indicators for communication of life cycle impact assessment results and their applications

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is performed to quantitatively evaluate all environmental impacts from products, systems, processes and services. However, LCIA does not always provide valuable information for choosing among alternatives with different specifications, functionalities and lifetimes. The objectives of this study are (1) to propose environmental indicators to evaluate environmental efficiency and value qualitatively and quantitatively on the basis of analogies to financial and economic indicators, and (2) to present the application of the indicators. Incremental evaluation using a reference is employed to obtain the environmental indicators. The environmental efficiency indicators are conceptually based on the ratios of reduced environmental burdens returned to environmental burdens required: environmental return on investment, environmental payback period and environmental internal rate of return. The environmental value indicator is the sum of all reduced and required environmental burdens: i.e., environmental net present value. All the environmental indicators can be used to compare and rank the environmental efficiencies or values of alternatives. The environmental efficiency indicators can be applied to a new environmental labeling. The concept of eco-efficiency labeling is developed by combining the environmental efficiency indicators with financial indicators. A case study is performed to illustrate the necessity and importance of the environmental indicators. These environmental indicators can help easily communicate LCIA results in the field of environmental management.     

Environmental management in an international consumer goods company

Many management processes and tools can provide companies with information to support their environmental decision making. Risk assessment, environmental auditing, life cycle assessment and environmental reporting are but a few examples. Each of these has typically evolved independently as the need for it has arisen. Today, however, this abundance of tools can lead to confusion: What is the exact objective of each tool? How do they differ? Are some ‘better’ than others? Should they be used in parallel, sequentially or in place of each other? More importantly, how do they fit together into a coherent environmental management framework that will ensure sound environmental and economic decision making in a company? This paper seeks to answer these questions. It describes the overall environmental framework that has been developed internally within Procter & Gamble and which allows the company to make coherent economically and environmentally sound decisions, in both the short- and long-term.     

环境风险评价构架的探讨

本文归纳并概括了国际上和我国环境风险评价的一般构架，从环境风险评价、安全评价、健康评价、生态评价、最大可信灾害事故及最大可接受水平等几个方面对我国环境风险评价一般构架进行了探讨，分析了我国环境风险评价构架中存在的问题，提出了进一步完善我国环境风险评价一般构架的方法，并辅以了案例分析。     

A Framework for Understanding and Improving Environmental Decision Making

This paper presents a framework for understanding and improving public sector environmental decision making. Within the framework, four interrelated components are discussed: (1) the environmental and cultural context-understanding this context includes understanding what people consider to be environmental problems, the goals and values that they bring to environmental problems and decision processes, specialized and common knowledge about environmental problems, and the institutional settings within which problems are addressed; (2) planning and appraisal activitiesthese activities include forecasting and monitoring exercises, evaluations of past decisions, and decisions that processes ought to be launched to solve specific environmental problems; (3) decision-making modes-these include six typical ways of conducting an environmental problem-solving process, modes which, in the framework, are called emergency action, routine procedures, analysis-centred, elite corps, conflict management and collaborative learning; (4) decision actions-these include five generic steps that are undertaken, formally or intuitively, in virtually any decision-making situation: issue familiarization; criteria setting; option construction; option assessment; and reaching a decision. In the course of describing the framework, we show a decision-making process can be adapted to incorporate sustainability concerns, including fostering sustainable environmental and social systems, meeting obligations to future generations, and searching for robust and reasonable (rather than rigidly optimal) decisions. The framework also helps to illuminate intriguing questions regarding institutional responsibility, decision process complexity and paradigms for environmental decision making.     

Environmental impact assessment: An international evaluation

Experiences with environmental impact assessment (EIA) in a number of countries are discussed in the light of both explicit and implicit goals and objectives. Adequate environmental information is not always available to decision makers because of failure to apply EIA to all relevant decisions, the continuing inadequacies of prediction and evaluation techniques, the failure to consider alternatives adequately, and the bias of some EISs. EIA frequently results in changes to proposals and may result in stricter environmental management conditions in some cases, but some people regard it as a failure because it has not stopped development. Generally, EIA leads to better integration of environmental factors into project planning. Open procedures and freedom of information encourage responsiveness to EIA procedures, which can be weakened by discretionary powers and lack of access to the courts by public interest groups. However, legal standing may have side effects that offset its advantages. EIA can encourage cooperation and coordination between agencies but does not ensure them. Similarly, it can have a limited role in coordinating interstate and international policies. In the long term, the success of EIA depends on adequate monitoring, reassessment, and enforcement over the life of the project. EIA has generally opened up new opportunities for public participation, and may help to reduce conflict. EIA procedures need to be integrated with other environmental protection and development control programs, and various means exist for reducing its cost to developers and the public.     

A non-parametric distance-based method using all available indicators for integrated environmental assessment – a case study of the Mid-Atlantic Region,USA

The paper presents a multivariate measure useful for integrated environmental assessments. It is a weighted distance measure applied to metric data but based on nonparametric statistical procedures. The proposed measure allows all environmental indicators to be used directly without any reduction in dimension (e.g. as in principal component analysis) nor losing variance while being able to tolerate possible non-normality of the indicators, as well as non-linear relationships among them. Results of the hypothetical example and the Mid-Atlantic case study show that the proposed measure is suitable and valuable for integrating multiple indicators into a single index, an important task in integrated environmental assessment.     

The role and functioning of environmental assessment: theoretical reflections upon an empirical investigation of causation

Environmental assessment is an intriguing policy phenomenon: it is employed in an ever-increasing range of contexts the world-over, yet research indicates it rarely efficiently or effectively achieves its principal purpose of promoting sustainable development. Increasingly, practical limitations in the effectiveness of environmental assessment are attributed to its theoretical shortcomings, particularly in relation to the conception of causation. This research advanced debate on environmental assessment by examining the theoretical implications of an empirical analysis of its causal operation in purposefully selected cases. The causal models derived from the research data illustrate the diversity of mechanisms through which environmental assessment can contribute to sustainability, and provide an insight into the complexity and contextuality of causation in the empirical realm. The research findings also highlight a multiplicity of societal expectations concerning environmental assessment's contribution to sustainable development. It is concluded that the interplay of non-rational variables (such as power, agency, experiences and expectations) necessitates the pursuit of a reflexive accommodation of purposes, methods and context in environmental assessment practices.