The application of Geographical Information Systems to determine environmental impact significance

This paper presents a new methodology for impact assessment—SIAM (Spatial Impact Assessment Methodology)—which is based on the assumption that the importance of environmental impacts is dependent, among other things, on the spatial distribution of the effects and of the affected environment. The information generated by the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in impact identification and prediction stages of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is used in the assessment of impact significance by the computation of a set of impact indices. For each environmental component (e.g., air pollution, water resources, biological resources), impact indices are calculated based on the spatial distribution of impacts. A case study of impact evaluation of a proposed highway in Central Portugal illustrates the application of the methodology and shows its capabilities to be adapted to the particular characteristics of a given EIA problem.     

Euro Chlor Risk Assessment for the Marine Environment Osparcom Region: North Sea - Trichloroethylene

This risk assessment on trichloroethylene (TRI) was carried out specifically for the marine environment, according to the methodology laid down in the EU risk assessment Regulation (1488/94) and the Guidance Document of the EU New and Existing Substances Regulation (TGD, 1997). The study consists of the collection and evaluation of data on effects and environmental concentrations from analytical monitoring programs in large rivers and estuaries in the North Sea area. The risk is indicated by the ratio of the "predicted environmental concentrations" (PEC) and the "predicted no effect concentrations" (PNEC) for the marine aquatic environment. In total, 19 studies for fish, 30 studies for invertebrates and 14 studies for algae have been evaluated. Both acute and chronic toxicity studies have been taken into account and the appropriate assessment factors have been used to define a PNEC value of 150 µg/l. Most of the available monitoring data apply to rivers and estuaries and were used to calculate PECs. The most recent data (1991-1995) support a typical PEC of 0.1 µg TRI/l water and a worst case PEC of 3.5 µg TRI/l water. The calculated PEC/PNEC ratios give a safety margin of 40 to 1,500 between the predicted no effect concentration and the exposure concentration. Additional evaluation of environmental fate and bioaccumulation characteristics showed that no concern for food chain accumulation is expected.     

The social impact assessment model and the planning process

Social impact assessment developed along with environmental impact assessment during the early 1970s as a methodological tool with which to better understand the consequences of environmental alteration and as an input to environmental impact statements. The idea was that if adverse social, economic, and physical effects of development were known in advance, they could either be mediated or eliminated.For the most part, the assessment of biological and economic impacts has become a required input into every stage in the planning process. However, social changes are not always arrayed alongside economic, biological, and landuse changes in the matrix that leads to the final decision.The major difficulty in the application of SIA process has been in identifying and measuring the social impacts that occur with each project. Even if important social impacts were identified, few procedures have been developed for measuring their significance. When either social costs or benefits to local communities are arrayed against regional and national economic goals, social concerns generally finish a distant second. Social science research must establish that the effects on human populations alone are significant enough to alter the outcome of the decision process.     

A multi-scale qualitative approach to assess the impact of urbanization on natural habitats and their connectivity

Habitat loss and fragmentation are often concurrent to land conversion and urbanization. Simple application of GIS-based landscape pattern indicators may be not sufficient to support meaningful biodiversity impact assessment. A review of the literature reveals that habitat definition and habitat fragmentation are frequently inadequately considered in environmental assessment, notwithstanding the increasing number of tools and approaches reported in the landscape ecology literature.This paper presents an approach for assessing impacts on habitats on a local scale, where availability of species data is often limited, developed for an alpine valley in northern Italy. The perspective of the methodology is multiple scale and species-oriented, and provides both qualitative and quantitative definitions of impact significance. A qualitative decision model is used to assess ecological values in order to support land-use decisions at the local level. Building on recent studies in the same region, the methodology integrates various approaches, such as landscape graphs, object-oriented rule-based habitat assessment and expert knowledge.The results provide insights into future habitat loss and fragmentation caused by land-use changes, and aim at supporting decision-making in planning and suggesting possible ecological compensation.     

An Analytic Network Process approach for the environmental aspect selection problem — A case study for a hand blender

Life Cycle Assessment is a tool to assess, in a systematic way, the environmental aspects and its potential environmental impacts and resources used throughout a product's life cycle. It is widely accepted and considered as one of the most powerful tools to support decision-making processes used in ecodesign and sustainable production in order to learn about the most problematic parts and life cycle phases of a product and to have a projection for future improvements. However, since Life Cycle Assessment is a cost and time intensive method, companies do not intend to carry out a full version of it, except for large corporate ones. Especially for small and medium sized enterprises, which do not have enough budget for and knowledge on sustainable production and ecodesign approaches, focusing only on the most important possible environmental aspect is unavoidable. In this direction, finding the right environmental aspect to work on is crucial for the companies. In this study, a multi-criteria decision-making methodology, Analytic Network Process is proposed to select the most relevant environmental aspect. The proposed methodology aims at providing a simplified environmental assessment to producers. It is applied for a hand blender, which is a member of the Electrical and Electronic Equipment family. The decision criteria for the environmental aspects and relations of dependence are defined. The evaluation is made by the Analytic Network Process in order to create a realistic approach to inter-dependencies among the criteria. The results are computed via the Super Decisions software. Finally, it is observed that the procedure is completed in less time, with less data, with less cost and in a less subjective way than conventional approaches.     

A Strategic Project Appraisal framework for ecologically sustainable urban infrastructure

Actors in the built environment are progressively considering environmental and social issues alongside functional and economic aspects of development projects. Infrastructure projects represent major investment and construction initiatives with attendant environmental, economic and societal impacts across multiple scales. To date, while sustainability strategies and frameworks have focused on wider national aspirations and strategic objectives, they are noticeably weak in addressing micro-level integrated decision making in the built environment, particularly for infrastructure projects. The proposed approach of this paper is based on the principal that early intervention is the most cost-effective and efficient means of mitigating the environmental effects of development projects, particularly macro infrastructure developments. A strategic overview of the various project alternatives, taking account for stakeholder and expert input, could effectively reduce project impacts/risks at low cost to the project developers but provide significant benefit to wider communities, including communities of future stakeholders. This paper is the first exploratory step in developing a more systematic framework for evaluating strategic alternatives for major metropolitan infrastructure projects, based on key sustainability principles. The developed Strategic Project Appraisal (SPA) framework, grounded in the theory of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), provides a means of practically appraising project impacts and alternatives in terms of quantified ecological limits; addresses the neglected topic of metropolitan infrastructure as a means of delivering sustainability outcomes in the urban context and more broadly, seeks to open a debate on the potential for SEA methodology to be more extensively applied to address sustainability challenges in the built environment. Practically applied and timed appropriately, the SPA framework can enable better decision-making and more efficient resource allocation ensuring low impact infrastructure development.     

From proposal to decision: Suggestions for tightening up the “NEPA process”

Although the process of documenting compliance with NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) requires no drastic revisions, it can be managed more rigorously. Suggestions for revision can be grouped under five major steps: 1) getting a complete proposal from the applicant; 2) getting the decision-making process onto the right decision-making path; 3) modifying the applicant's proposal 4) going down a shorter path through the EA/FONSI (environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact) or through categorical exclusion review; and 5) going down the longer path through the EIS. Step 2 is perhaps the most critical, because there a decision must be made whether to write an EA/FONSI or an EIS, on the basis of whether the proposal would “significantly affect … the … environment.” In the past, this decision has not always been made promptly or rigorously. Accordingly, we suggest that the agency responsible for NEPA compliance should develop a system (a “black box”), consisting of a core group of specialists working with an interdisciplinary team, using sophisticated techniques for modeling impacts and directing both their research and their writing according to the concept of significance. By determining more efficiently and reliably whether the impacts of a proposal would be significant, such an approach would improve management of the total process.     

Accounting for Uncertainty in Value Judgements when Applying Multi-Attribute Value Theory

In environmental decisions, analysts commonly face substantial uncertainties around stakeholders’ values judgments. Multi-Attribute Value Theory (MAVT), a family of multi-criteria decision analysis techniques, is applied in participative settings to articulate stakeholders’ values in decision-making. In MAVT, value judgments represent the intensity of individuals’ preferences in a set of objectives, which are operationalized as scaling factors or weights. Different sets of weights may express variation in people’s preferences or value judgments. Unfortunately, there are still important methodological gaps regarding how to incorporate uncertainty and the substantial variation commonly encountered in stakeholders’ preferences. This article presents a model of uncertainty that encompasses the dispersion of value judgments in MAVT. To achieve this goal, we draw on info-gap theory, which provides a mathematically grounded method for exploring sensitivity to preference weights when there are relatively high levels of uncertainties. We experimentally tested the uncertainty model in an environmental decision problem. We found that MAVT can use info-gap analysis to deal with multiple value judgments, avoiding exclusive reliance on nominal expected values to inform decisions. We explored a mechanism to explicitly consider the trade-offs between the performance of alternatives and the level of uncertainty that in any specified context a decision maker is willing to accept. Findings emphasize the potential of MAVT to support environmental management decisions, particularly in situations where multiple stakeholders and their contested value judgments have to be considered simultaneously to explore uncertainties around value trade-offs.     

A critique of the performance of EIA within the offshore oil and gas sector

The oil and gas sector is a key driver of the offshore economy. Yet, it is also associated with a number of unwanted environmental impacts which potentially threaten the long term economic and environmental viability of marine ecosystems. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) can potentially make a significant contribution to the identification and management of adverse impacts through the promotion of evidence based decision making. However, the extent to which EIA has been embraced by key stakeholders is poorly understood. On this basis, this paper provides an initial evaluation of EIA performance within the oil and gas sector. The methodology adopted for the paper consisted of the structured review of 35 Environmental Statements (ESs) along with interviews with regulators, operators, consultants and advisory bodies. The findings reveal a mixed picture of EIA performance with a significant number of ESs falling short of satisfactory quality and a tendency for the process to be driven by compliance rather than best practice.     

Regulation of pesticide discharge into surface and groundwater under uncertainty: A model for environmental risk‐profitability tradeoffs and policy selection

The presence of contaminants in environmental media as well as the desire to maintain a high level of economic activity has led to an important and difficult decision‐making problem for both public policy decision makers and the general public. In one sense, all of the interested parties are likely to be concerned about the potential health risks posed by the presence of contaminants in environmental media and the need to design/implement policies for their mitigation and/or removal. At the same time, however, there also appear to be concerns about the cost of these policies. These costs could be measured in terms of the potential losses in economic activity that are likely to occur when a policy is adopted. The policy can be selected from a range of alternatives, with the choice being driven in part by the stakeholders represented in the policy decision problem. In this case, two general goals might be considered: minimizing environmental risk and minimizing the economic impact of the policy considered. These two objectives are likely to be viewed as conflicting goals, and the nature of the tradeoffs between them must be taken into account in the policy selection process. This paper presents the development of a zero–one weighted goal programming model that can be used to select a preferred policy that minimizes surface and groundwater contamination as well as the economic costs of environmental policy selection. A safety rule model is developed first and then extended to the zero–one weighted goal programming formulation. The stochastic aspects of these structures are emphasized throughout. The paper also addresses a number of issues related to implementation of the model.     

大气环境高灵敏光谱探测技术

大气环境高灵敏光谱探测技术是以光与环境相互作用为基础发展起来的学科交叉方向,使用光学的方法和手段来探知研究环境问题。大气环境高灵敏光谱探测技术能够实现从现场瞬态灵敏探测到污染时空分布等不同尺度的遥测,从而获得大气污染"点-线-面"的时空变化规律,由于光谱探测技术具有多组分、非接触、无采样、高灵敏度、大范围快速以及遥测等特点,已经成为国际上大气环境监测技术的主要方向之一。大气环境高灵敏光谱技术在污染源、工业园区、空气质量以及区域污染等监测方面都有很广泛的应用。针对化工园区复杂的环境污染问题,光谱探测技术可以高灵敏、非接触地获取多种污染物浓度特征,掌握化工园区污染时空分布状况,为化工园区的大气污染治理提供有效支撑;针对京津冀、长三角等地区大气重污染过程的核心问题,大气环境高灵敏光谱探测技术通过地基组网观测,车载/机载平台移动观测等三维立体监测手段获取重点区域污染物的生成、转化过程以及重污染过程的形成机制,为区域大气污染成因追溯、污染控制措施评估提供科学的数据和技术支撑。高灵敏光谱探测技术在大气环境领域的成功应用,为污染源、化工园区和重点区域的环境综合诊断和治理奠定了技术基础。     

Application of data envelopment analysis in environmental impact assessment of a coal washing plant: A new sustainable approach

The main problem of traditional methods of environmental impact assessment (EIA) is that in most of the existing algorithms and methods, such as Leopold, Folchi and RIAM, the main attention is to the destructive effects of the proposed plan, and the advantages of the industrial project are less noticeable. This has led to a permanent challenge between environmental organizations and industrial stakeholders. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a new approach of assessing the industrial units. Besides, it considers the positive economic and social impacts of the project and provides a comprehensive assessment of the industrial unit. With this approach, the environmental impacts of an industrial unit have been considered as “inputs” and its positive economic and social impacts considered as the “outputs” of the DEA models. Therefore, the problem of impact assessment changes into a DEA model. In the present study, the Alborz Sharghi Coal washing plant in northern Iran has been considered as a case study for implementing the DEA-EIA approach, and 19 plant activities and 11 environmental components have been used to evaluate the environmental effects of the plant. To solve the EIA problem, two commonly used DEA approaches, called CRS (constant returns to scale) and VRS (variable returns to scale), have been used. The DEA results identified the critical environmental components of the plant that should be considered seriously. Also, drawing the “potential improvement” diagram in the DEA method is an effective tool for determining the high risk activities of the factory and applying them in development plans. Besides, using the VRS model with maximize-output approach showed that some of the plant activities had the most differences with optimal mode and these components should be considered in future development plans. Finally, it can be concluded that, assessing the environmental impacts of the mineral industries with VRS maximize-output approach, is closer to the concept of sustainable development and cost-benefit analysis.     

A model for the sustainable selection of building envelope assemblies

The aim of this article is to define an evaluation model for the environmental impacts of building envelopes to support planners in the early phases of materials selection. The model is intended to estimate environmental impacts for different combinations of building envelope assemblies based on scientifically recognised sustainability indicators. These indicators will increase the amount of information that existing catalogues show to support planners in the selection of building assemblies.To define the model, first the environmental indicators were selected based on the specific aims of the intended sustainability assessment. Then, a simplified LCA methodology was developed to estimate the impacts applicable to three types of dwellings considering different envelope assemblies, building orientations and climate zones. This methodology takes into account the manufacturing, installation, maintenance and use phases of the building. Finally, the model was validated and a matrix in Excel was created as implementation of the model.     

Selection of suitable alternatives to reduce the environmental impact of road traffic noise using a fuzzy multi-criteria decision model

Road traffic noise is one of the most significant environmental impacts generated by transport systems. To this regard, the recent implementation of the European Environmental Noise Directive by Public Administrations of the European Union member countries has led to various noise action plans (NAPs) for reducing the noise exposure of EU inhabitants. Every country or administration is responsible for applying criteria based on their own experience or expert knowledge, but there is no regulated process for the prioritization of technical measures within these plans. This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision methodology for the selection of suitable alternatives against traffic noise in each of the road stretches included in the NAPs. The methodology first defines the main criteria and alternatives to be considered. Secondly, it determines the relative weights for the criteria and sub-criteria using the fuzzy extended analytical hierarchy process as applied to the results from an expert panel, thereby allowing expert knowledge to be captured in an automated way. A final step comprises the use of discrete multi-criteria analysis methods such as weighted sum, ELECTRE and TOPSIS, to rank the alternatives by suitability. To illustrate an application of the proposed methodology, this paper describes its implementation in a complex real case study: the selection of optimal technical solutions against traffic noise in the top priority road stretch included in the revision of the NAP of the regional road network in the province of Almeria (Spain).     

A qualitative method proposal to improve environmental impact assessment

In environmental impact assessment, qualitative methods are used because they are versatile and easy to apply. This methodology is based on the evaluation of the strength of the impact by grading a series of qualitative attributes that can be manipulated by the evaluator. The results thus obtained are not objective, and all too often impacts are eliminated that should be mitigated with corrective measures. However, qualitative methodology can be improved if the calculation of Impact Importance is based on the characteristics of environmental factors and project activities instead on indicators assessed by evaluators. In this sense, this paper proposes the inclusion of the vulnerability of environmental factors and the potential environmental impact of project activities. For this purpose, the study described in this paper defined Total Impact Importance and specified a quantification procedure. The results obtained in the case study of oil drilling in Colombia reflect greater objectivity in the evaluation of impacts as well as a positive correlation between impact values, the environmental characteristics at and near the project location, and the technical characteristics of project activities.     

Computer-aided rapid environmental impact assessment

Environmental impact assessment of a project attempts to bring about compatibility between ecology and economics. A computer-aided, quantitative and rapid methodology for environmental impact assessment is presented in this paper. The cost of abatement of deleterious environmental impacts is one of the factors used to identify the best project option from environmental and cost considerations. The methodology is based on the three basic steps of environmental impact assessment vis-à-vis identification, prediction, and evaluation. Several models and predictors for different environmental components are incorporated in the computer program. An evaluation method is presented based on mathematical functions for value function graphs for different aesthetic, environmental, and health risks.     

Waste management modeling by MARKAL model: A case study for Basilicata Region

Air pollution is one of the most pressing environmental problems which affects likewise urban, industrial and rural areas. Environmental planners, regulators and decision makers need reliable, scientifically based tools to find out strategies for controlling air pollution in a cost-effective way, taking into account the whole productive system. In this framework the basic elements of energy-environmental planning have to be extended to include also waste processing technologies amongst the usually considered pollution sources. Bottom-up optimizing models, based on linear programming techniques and customized for specific cases, represent a powerful tool in energy-environmental management. This paper focuses on the integrated modeling of material flows and energy system performed on a local scale case study (Basilicata Region, Southern Italy) using the linear programming model IEA-MARKAL. We have evaluated the feasibility of the model in representing the waste management system to estimate the environmental impact of the waste processing technologies in the context of the whole productive system. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to emphasize the connections between tariffs, waste disposal technologies assessment and atmospheric emissions. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Life cycle assessment of a railway tracks substructures: Comparison of ballast and ballastless rail tracks

The increase of train speed and axle load is an essential goal to make the railway transport more and more competitive for passengers and freights. On this basis, the unevenness of the railway track is crucial for the safety of the railway due to the high speed of the vehicle. Although ballasted tracks represent by far the most used railway track substructure, in recent years the modernization process has led the development of the ballastless track substructures.In deciding between the use of ballasted or ballastless track substructure there are many important technical, economical and environmental factors that have to be addressed. Based on the above, the principal objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental impact of different railway track substructures including ballast, cast-in sleeper and embedded track systems on the short, medium and long term. To accomplish this task, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out throughout the entire life cycle of the railway infrastructure by using the ReCiPe (H) method. Although such approach is commonly included in the environmental assessment of building products and buildings, it was rarely applied in the analysis of the environmental impacts of railway track substructure.Thus, the result of these LCA showed that ballasted tracks cause the lowest environmental impact for service lives of up to 75 years. On the other hand, the embedded track beds cause the highest environmental impacts, regardless of their service life. The highest contributor for the environmental impacts of the track beds was the steel production.The results of this study will provide relevant environmental information for engineers and decision makers to select the most adequate railway track substructures for addressing issues related to the pursuit of sustainable development.     

Multi-criteria decision analysis with probabilistic risk assessment for the management of contaminated ground water

Traditionally, environmental decision analysis in subsurface contamination scenarios is performed using cost–benefit analysis. In this paper, we discuss some of the limitations associated with cost–benefit analysis, especially its definition of risk, its definition of cost of risk, and its poor ability to communicate risk-related information. This paper presents an integrated approach for management of contaminated ground water resources using health risk assessment and economic analysis through a multi-criteria decision analysis framework. The methodology introduces several important concepts and definitions in decision analysis related to subsurface contamination. These are the trade-off between population risk and individual risk, the trade-off between the residual risk and the cost of risk reduction, and cost-effectiveness as a justification for remediation. The proposed decision analysis framework integrates probabilistic health risk assessment into a comprehensive, yet simple, cost-based multi-criteria decision analysis framework. The methodology focuses on developing decision criteria that provide insight into the common questions of the decision-maker that involve a number of remedial alternatives. The paper then explores three potential approaches for alternative ranking, a structured explicit decision analysis, a heuristic approach of importance of the order of criteria, and a fuzzy logic approach based on fuzzy dominance and similarity analysis. Using formal alternative ranking procedures, the methodology seeks to present a structured decision analysis framework that can be applied consistently across many different and complex remediation settings. A simple numerical example is presented to demonstrate the proposed methodology. The results showed the importance of using an integrated approach for decision-making considering both costs and risks. Future work should focus on the application of the methodology to a variety of complex field conditions to better evaluate the proposed methodology.     

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.