Application of environmental risk assessment for strategic decision-making in coastal areas: case studies in China |
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| Authors: | Kan-Kan Wu |
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| Institution: | 1. Research Center for the Marine Environment Administration and Development Strategy, The Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration of People's Republic of China, Xiamen, P.R. China;2. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University (Xiang'an Campus), Xiamen, P.R. China |
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| Abstract: | Environmental risk assessment (ERA) is a powerful technical tool for analyzing potential and extreme adverse environmental impacts, and has found wide application in supporting decision-making processes over the last two decades. However, to date there has been no interrelated application of ERA to support the processes of strategic decision-making (SDM), especially in coastal areas. In this paper, we attempt to verify the feasibility of the proposed integrated ERA–SDM approach and its methodology by applying it to two case studies (in Xiamen Bay and Luoyuan Bay) of the principal coastal functional zoning (PCFZ, a kind of SDM and similar to the coastal and marine spatial planning in western). The results show that the integrated ERA–SDM approach could integrate ERA into the entire SDM process, directly support the PCFZ, and avoid or mitigate dire environmental risk that can be introduced by SDM processes. |
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| Keywords: | environmental risk assessment strategic decision-making process principal coastal functional zoning Xiamen Bay Luoyuan Bay China |
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