Cumulative impact assessment in environmental planning: A coastal wetland watershed example

Several theoretical, analytical, and institutional difficulties have impeded the development and application of the assessment of cumulative environmental impacts. Watershed development on coastal wetlands offers an ideal context for evaluating the land disturbance target approach to cumulative impact assessment. A model land use planning system involving a time series approach was developed for Elkhorn Slough in California. The approach included four major components: evaluation of erosion susceptibility, measurement of land disturbance, establishment of a land disturbance target, and a comparison of existing and target land disturbance values. Further research is needed to test the transferability of the approach in a wide range of coastal watersheds and to verify the applicability of the methods to other cumulative impact problems.     

Subnational government and EIA in the developing world: Bureaucratic strategy and political change in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil

EIA has been instituted in developing countries in the last decade largely in response to outside pressures. Governments have been quick to initiate reforms rather than jeopardize projects that might be key to national development plans. At the subnational level, most projects are not financed by foreign aid. The application of EIA at this level is often the result of pressure exerted on policy elites by the bureaucracy. This paper describes the reorganization of environmental protection agencies in the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. This reorganization provided the setting for a bureaucratic initiative on EIA. The authors also analyze two cases in which EIA was applied unsatisfactorily and comment on the political realites of implementing EIA at the subnational level.     

EIA training courses organized by the centre for environmental management and planning,University of Aberdeen: An analysis of experience

In 1980, the World Health Organization (Regional Office for Europe) invited The Centre for Environmental Management and Planning (CEMP) to organize a two-week training course on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to provide a comprehensive introduction to EIA with emphasis on methods and techniques for impact identification, prediction and assessment. Not suprisingly the topic of environmental health impact assessment was to be a major focus. Since 1980, the course has been held each year at the University of Aberdeen. An analysis of participation in the course during its first five years yields several impressions about the success of this training effort and the ways in which it might be improved.     

Environmental impact assessment in the association of southeast Asian Nations

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has agreed that environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources are essential for sound economic development. The Environmental Impact Assessment is viewed as an important management tool and an ASEAN Experts Group on the Environment has been working for several years on a model especially adapted to the region and also on case studies of the implementation of EIA. Progress so far has been frustratingly slow due to misunderstanding, a lack of ecological data, inadequate trained manpower and institutional shortcomings for compliance. The author advocates collaboration on an ASEAN model for performing EIA as a means of accelerating acceptance and implementation. The concept of Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management is proposed as a prototype.     

Estimating air quality impacts

LEONARD ORTOLANO has written a textbook, Environmental Planning and Decision Making, that is ideal for introducing undergraduates to the field of environmental planning. His three chapters on environmental impact assessment (from 16 chapters overall) present a range of impact assessment methods in a helpful decision-making context. Specific techniques for considering biological factors in planning, evaluating the visual qualities of the environment, assessing noise impacts, assessing air quality impacts, and assessing impacts on water resources are also covered in five additional chapters. Professional planners and engineers should find this introduction to the approaches employed by specialists of various kinds helpful. With the permission of the publisher, John Wiley and Sons, we here reprint Chapter 15, “Estimating Air Quality Impacts,” from Ortolano's excellent book. This straightforward presentation of a six-step process for establishing the air quality impacts of proposed development projects is a model of clarity.     

Environmental impact assessment: The work of the OECD

This report describes the work of an international group that is supported in part by the Dutch Ministry for Environment and is chaired by Frans Evers, the Ministry's Deputy Director-General for Environmental Protection.     

The siting puzzle: Balancing economic and environmental gains and losses

Traditional approaches to the siting of potentially hazardous but regionally necessary facilities are often ineffective and lead to drawn-out legal disputes ultimately satisfactory to none of the parties. Research at MIT over the last decade has indicated five factors that may solve the siting puzzle. Application of these principles do not guarantee that a decision will not be disputed but may enhance the possibility of a wise and durable agreement.     

The influence of race and gender on perceptions of community impact

Since 1968, research in public transportation planning has included an increasing number of analyses of the perceptions and attitudes of people who use and live in proximity to the systems (Nash and Hille 1968, McMillan et al. 1969, Wachs 1976). The results of the study reported here suggest that race and gender may explain more about attitudes toward the community impact of a transit system than do the levels of user satisfaction with the system. The implication for future research in this area is that surveys employing “satisfaction” and “importance” as indicators may not be using appropriate indices of evaluation. This study reports the results of a 1980 attitude survey of the perceptions of black and white men and women living within a two-block corridor along the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) east line in Atlanta, Georgia. The research supports the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Transit Impact Monitoring Program (TIMP). The survey used a stratified random sample technique to identify 100 households in which in-home interviews were subsequently conducted. A further stratified sampling procedure designated the gender and age of persons to be interviewed. The analysis included the isolation of responses by gender and race and used the chi-square statistic at the 0.05 significance level. The results identity differences in responses of males and females, blacks and whites.     

Theory and practice of EIA implementation: A comparative study of three developing countries

This article offers a conceptual framework for analyzing institutional processes and performance outcome of EIA implementation for developing countries. Eight classes of participants in the EIA process are identified: (1) responsible agency; (2) action proponent; (3) preparer; (4) review agency; (5) rule-setting agency; (6) concerned agencies; (7) general public; and (8) licensing agency. Five types of performance outcome are suggested that may follow the introduction of EIA into a national planning system. These include EIA as (1) a fully internalized element of the planning process, (2) a support for a position of advocacy for the environment, (3) a process of adjustment among conflicting goals, (4) a process to remedy prior environmental damage, and (5) a perfunctory endorsement of public or private actions. Using these categories, the EIA system of the Philippines, Korea, and Brazil are analyzed. Three aspects of EIA implementation are compared: national development planning and environmental goals; institutional structure; and performance evaluation. Based on this analysis, the author concludes that while EIA in developing countries is being hampered in its early stages by institutional factors, there are some specific policies that, if adopted by national governments and international aid agencies, would enhance the integration of EIA into the planning and decision-making process and make EIA a more effective tool for environmental protection in the developing world.