The precision and accuracy of U.S. environmental impact statements

A post-project audit was conducted of 239 impacts forecast in an representative cross-section of 29 U.S. environmental impact statements. Results must be qualified because of the imprecision of EIS forecasts and the quality of data available to a retrospective evaluator. Relatively few forecasts were found to be inaccurate and even fewer unanticipated impacts were identified. However, only 30% of the impacts were unqualifiedly close to their forecasts, with almost as many rated accurate principally by virtue of the vagueness of the forecasts.     

Evaluation of the environmental impact assessment system in Iran

EIA in Iran was formally introduced in 1994, but to date little EIA-related research has been undertaken in the country. In this paper, the authors provide an evaluation of the Iranian EIA system, focusing on EIA legislation, administration and process. Data was collected on the basis of a literature review, document analysis and semi-structured interviews. This involved some translation from Persian into English. Evaluation of the findings indicate that Iran has adopted the democratic tools of EIA and SEA, which considering its political context is encouraging. However, currently the Iranian EIA system does suffer from weaknesses such as inadequate screening and scoping, lack of alternative consideration, public participation, EIA implementation and follow-up. The paper proposes some initial recommendations based on international experiences and sets out the direction for future research.     

Reducing the environmental impact of road and rail vehicles

Methods have been developed to measure in situ the dynamic impact of both road and rail vehicles on the infrastructure and the environment. The resulting data sets have been analysed to quantify the environmental impacts in a transparent manner across both modes. A primary concern is that a small number of vehicles are being operated outside safe or regulatory limits which can have a disproportionate large impact. The analysis enables the various impacts to be ranked across both modes so enabling one to discern the benefits of intermodal transport. The impact of various policy options is considered and how to identify vehicles which can be classified as environmentally friendly. This would require European agreement as many heavy goods vehicle operate across country borders.     

Planning theories and environmental impact assessment

The limited and sporadic interaction between EIA and planning theory has meant that EIA has largely failed to benefit from planning theory insights and lessons. Obstacles and dilemmas already encountered and addressed in planning theory are still hampering EIA theory building and practice. An overview of the characteristics, strengths, and limitations of five major planning theories—rationalism, pragmatism, socio-ecological idealism (SEI), political-economic mobilization (PEM), and communications and collaboration (CC) is presented in an effort to ameliorate this problem. EIA parallels to each planning theory and lessons for EIA are identified. Also addressed are the application of planning theories to different context types, overlaps, interconnections and middle ground concepts among theories, the integration of values, ethics, and postmodern perspectives and the potential to construct composite theories.     

Setting boundaries of participation in environmental impact assessment

Public participation processes are touted as an effective way to increase the capacity and legitimacy of environmental assessment and the regulatory process that rely on them. Recent changes to the Canadian environmental assessment process narrowed the criteria for who can participate in environmental assessments from any who were interested to those who were most directly affected. This article examines the potential consequences of this change by exploring other areas of Canadian regulatory law where a similar directed affected test has been applied. This new standard risks institutionalizing the long-understood representational bias confronted by more diffuse interest like environmental protection. Restricting participation to the “directly affected” is far too narrow a test for processes like environmental assessment that are designed to determine the public interest.     

环境监测质量控制技术探讨-准确度控制

阐述了环境监测准确度控制的概念以及常用方法,提出了标准溶液控制的概念和方法,并对质控样控制的合格判断、加标回收率计算修正以及定性加标的应用提出独到见解。     

Documentation of cumulative impacts in environmental impact statements

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations in the United States require federal agencies to apply an environmental impact assessment (EIA) in decision-making related to their actions. One aspect requires an examination of direct, indirect and cumulative impacts (CIs). Historically, cumulative impact assessment (CIA) has been given limited attention in EIA and resultant environmental impact statements (EISs), not because of its lack of importance, but owing to limitations in methodologies and procedures, including documentation consistency. The objectives of this study were to identify deficiencies in the documentation of CIs and CIA in EISs and to formulate appropriate recommendations (potential solutions) related to such deficiencies. The study involved the systematic review of 33 EISs (11 each from the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Forest Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration). The results indicate that improvements have been made in documentation practices since 1990; however, inconsistencies and inadequacies still exist. Therefore, the following recommendations were developed: (1) CIs should be reported in a separate part of the “Environmental Consequences” section, and they should be addressed for each pertinent environmental resource; (2) a summary of CIs should be included; (3) any CIs considered not significant should be mentioned plus the reason(s) for their non-significance; (4) spatial and temporal boundaries addressed within the CIA process should be defined for pertinent environmental resources; and (5) utilized guidelines and methodologies should be described.     

Assessing the impact of environmental regulation and environmental co-governance on pollution transfer: Micro-evidence from China

Pollution transfer is widespread in various countries. If differences in environmental regulation intensity exist across different regions in a country, pollution transfer may occur. Based on data from Chinese enterprises, this study constructs a comprehensive index of environmental regulation and the degree of environmental co-governance at the enterprise level and uses a panel probit model, the two-stage least squares method, and an interaction regression model to assess the effect of environmental regulation and environmental co-governance on pollution transfer. The probability of enterprise migration increases as environmental regulation intensity increases, confirming the pollution transfer effect of environmental regulation. The analysis of the influencing mechanism shows that environmental regulation can reduce the probability of pollution transfer through the “innovation compensation effect” and improve the probability of enterprise migration through the “compliance cost effect”. In addition, under the condition of established environmental regulation, environmental co-governance can reduce the probability of enterprise migration, inhibit the transfer of pollution to nearby areas, and improve the efficiency of environmental governance. This study is conducive to assessing the policy effectiveness of environmental regulation and provides a reference for other countries regarding pollution transfer.     

Consideration of scales in offshore wind environmental impact assessments

Quality of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) has been criticized, in part due to a lack of accounting in these tools for differing spatial and temporal scales inherent in ecological data. In the United States, leases of outer continental shelf blocks for offshore wind projects and their construction and operation plans require EIAs in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the 1978 Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act. This study evaluated consideration of spatiotemporal scales of stressors, receptors (specifically cetaceans), and effects in eight federal offshore wind energy EIAs against 26 criteria extracted from federal regulations. The criteria analysis determined that EIAs do not consistently or comprehensively address spatiotemporal scales with respect to federal requirements. Deficiencies in addressing spatiotemporal scales may result from imprecise regulations, intent to simplify encyclopedic documents, or lack of data resulting in incomplete assessments, inappropriate mitigation actions, and projects delays. Recommendations to improve compliance with federal regulations include making federal guidance binding, focusing on non-trivial impacts of species, tiering information, and incorporating outcomes of marine spatial planning.