A Critical Review of Environmental Impact Statements in Sri Lanka with Particular Reference to Ecological Impact Assessment

This article critically reviews environmental assessment (EA) practices in Sri Lanka, with a particular focus on ecology. An overview is provided of the domestic and international influences which have shaped the administrative process which is currently a two-tiered scheme. An Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) provides a preliminary screening tool, prior to the requirement for a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). A comprehensive survey of Sri Lankan national archives showed that 463 EAs were completed in the period 1981–2005, with the bulk of these in the more populated Western and North Western Provinces. Two-thirds were IEE surveys, while the remaining third advanced to full EIA. A representative sample of 130 EAs (both IEEs and full EIAs) spanning a broad range of project types, scales, and environmental settings was selected to evaluate the quality of the ecological investigations within the published environmental impact statements (EISs). These were assigned into five classes of “explanatory power”, on the basis of their scientific content in relation to survey, analysis, and reporting of ecological interests. Within most EISs, the ecological impact assessment (EcIA) was restricted to the lowest two categories of ecological assessment, i.e., tokenistic presentation of reconnaissance-level species lists without further analysis of the development implications for individual organisms or communities. None of the assessments reviewed provided statistically rigorous analysis, which would be required if ecological impact studies are to include quantitative and testable predictions of impact, which could then be followed up by appropriate post-impact monitoring programs. Attention to key local issues such as biodiversity or ecosystem services, which also have strong social dimensions in the developing world, was also notably underrepresented. It was thus concluded that despite the existence of a sound legislative framework in Sri Lanka, the analysis contained within EISs generally fails to convey meaningful information to the relevant stakeholders and decision makers involved in protecting ecological interests and promoting sustainable development. The introduction of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is considered an important tool to strengthen the institutional capacity of Sri Lankan government to implement current regulations and, in particular, to combat the cumulative effects of incremental development.     

Monitoring and Post-auditing in Environmental Impact Assessment: A Review

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a procedure for predicting environmental impacts of projects prior to their development, while post-auditing seeks to assess the accuracy of such predictions. A literature review examines the need for post-auditing, highlighting several benefits to EIA performance that could arise if the results were effectively used. This reveals that, in practice, post-auditing activities are not widespread, and suggests reasons why this is so. An overview of post-audit findings from a survey of published studies is then presented, and it is concluded that there is much scope for raising the profile of post-auditing in EIA world-wide. Preliminary results from a recent UK post-auditing study based on eight projects are described. Information on impact predictions was gathered and compared with actual impacts. A total of 366 impact predictions were made of which 78% were qualitative in nature; 57% of the predictions were auditable and of these nearly three-quarters were accurate. Reasons for inauditability were ascertained including, for all cases, a lack of data or unsuitable information.     

Road Developments in the UK: An Analysis of Ecological Assessment in Environmental Impact Statements Produced between 1993 and 1997

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been required for certain proposed road developmentsin the UK since EC Directive (85/337) was implemented in 1988. The extent to which the requirements of the EIA Directive are met with respect to ecological issues has been explored in earlier reviews of road statements (Treweek et al., 1993) and of UK environmental impact statements (EISs) in general (Thompson et al., 1997). This paper describes the results of a further review of 40 EISs produced between 1993 and 1997 and also examines recent changes in the political context for EIA of proposed road developments,including developments in UK transport policy and the UK biodiversity process. The results of the review suggest that the ecological assessment of proposed road developments has improved in some respects, but also highlights the persistence of many shortcomings identified in earlier reviews. The reasons for ongoing failure to address these issues are explored. Key findings include a marked improvement in the extent of reference to consultation with statutory consultees and an increase in the proportion of EISs reporting the results of new ecological surveys. However, while potential ecological impacts were discussed in all the EISs reviewed, many still failed to predict the full range of potential ecological impacts.     

浅议环境影响评价的有效性

环境影响评价制度实施过程中还存在着一些不足和问题,笔者分析了影响环评有效性的因素,探讨了提高环境影响评价有效性的途径。     

Monitoring Environmental Impact in the Upper Sonoran Lifestyle: A New Tool for Rapid Ecological Assessment

Characterized by expensive housing, high socioeconomic status, and topographic relief, Upper Sonoran Lifestyle communities are found primarily along the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area. Communities like these sprawl into the wildlands in the United States Southwest, creating a distinct urban fringe. This article, through locational comparison, introduces and evaluates a new field assessment tool for monitoring anthropogenic impact on soil–vegetation interactions along the well-maintained multi-use recreational trails in Upper Sonoran Lifestyle region. Comparing data from randomly selected transects along other multi-use trails with data from a control site revealed three key indicators of anthropogenic disturbances on soil–vegetation interactions: soil disturbance, vegetation disturbance, and vegetation density. Soil and vegetation disturbance displayed an average distance decay exponent factor of −0.60, while vegetation density displayed a reverse decay average of 0.60. Other important indicators of disturbance included vegetation type, biological soil crusts, and soil bulk density. The predictive ability of this new field tool enhances its applicability, offering a powerful rapid ecological assessment method for monitoring long-term anthropogenic impact in the Upper Sonoran Lifestyle, and other sprawling cities along the WUI.     

环评：经济与生态环境和谐发展的关键

环评,通俗地说就是分析项目建成投产后可能对环境产生的影响,并提出污染防治对策和措施。它与经济和生态环境的和谐发展息息相关。自《中华人民共和国环境影响评价法》（以下简称《环评法》）实施以来,我国在环评方面取得哪些进步？在实际的环评工作中存在哪些问题？在新的历史时期,尤其在当前经济危机的阴霾下,如何开展环评工作？如何借鉴国外的环评经验来改进我们的工作？这些都是值得探讨的话题。为此,我们邀请安徽省环保局的有关人员,对上述问题给予解读。     

环境影响评价中生物多样性的影响评价探析

环境影响评价分为规划环境影响评价和建设项目环境影响评价。由于两种环境评价类型的发展情况不同,其生物多样性影响评价的发展情况也有所不同。根据其特点概括分析了生物多样性影响评价的现状,包括评价原则和评价方法,指出不足之处,并初步提出了评价指标的筛选。     

环境技术的环境影响评价(EIA)

本文介绍了环境技术环境影响评价的程序、步骤和方法。     

Critical Impact Assessment of Organic Agriculture

Based on its productionguideline, organic agriculture has set foritself the goals of minimizing all forms ofpollution and maintaining sustainability of thefarming system. By striving for these goals,organic farming meets the demands of anincreasing number of consumers who are criticalof conventional production methods. This papergives an overview of the present state of theart in the different issues. Possibilities ofand limitations in performing the self-aimedgoals under the basic standards of organicagriculture are discussed. Concerningenvironmental protection, in general, the riskof adverse environmental effects is lower withorganic than with conventional farming methods,though not necessarily so; with reference tosoil fertility and nutrient management, organicfarming is suited to improve soil fertility andnutrient management markedly on the farm level;regarding biodiversity, comparison studies showthat organic farming has more positive effectson biodiversity conservation; in relation toproduct quality, under the basic standards oforganic farming, there is no sufficientevidence for a system-related effect on productquality due to the production method.     

PROFILE: Integrating Sustainability and Environmental Impact Assessment

/ Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been identified as an important instrument for facilitating sustainability. However, to do so requires the integration of sustainability into EIA theory and practice. The sustainability concept is a valid and important environmental management perspective. However, many issues and obstacles need to be addressed further if the concept is to be translated into practical strategies. Sustainability can potentially infuse EIA with a clearer sense of direction, an ethical foundation, a mechanism for establishing priorities and assessing choices, and a means of linking EIA to other environmental management instruments. Conceptually, EIA and sustainability can be integrated, but frameworks should be refined, adpated to context, and linked to related initiatives. Sustainability should be explicitly incorporated into EIA legislation, guidelines, and institutional arrangements. An experimental approach to testing, assessing, and sharing experiences is suggested.A framework is first presented that defines and characterizes the sustainability concept. A further framework is then described for integrating sustainability into EIA at the conceptual level. The integration of sustainability and EIA at the regulatory level is next addressed through an overview of sustainability initiatives in EIA requirements in Canada. The Canadian examples include many promising initiatives but these and other experiences will need to be monitored, shared, and integrated into comprehensive environmental management strategies. Finally, means of incorporating sustainability into each activity in the EIA planning process are identified.KEY WORDS: Sustainability; Environmental impact assessment     

提高环境影响评价质量的几点看法

本文对如何提高环境评价质量提出了一些看法。作者指出,应使环境评价工作具有针对性、实用性和科学性,并强调做好工程分析和事故评价的重要意义。     

Sustainable Development and Environmental Impact Assessment in Egypt: Historical Assessment

The achievement of sustainable development demands the integration of environment and development. To achieve sustainable development requires a close collaboration and cooperation between environmentalists and the decision-makers. The evidence is that in developing countries (Egypt, as an example) the gap is widening rather than closing. Intensive research programs are needed, for instance in the field of sustainable development and urban environmental management, to narrow that gap. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has become a management tool for achieving acceptable forms of environmentally sound development and sustainability; at best it is proving nothing more than a permit to move a project ahead.It is recommended that indicators for sustainable development and their progress be fully monitored. Performance indicators should always be established, not only for project implementation, but also during and after the implementation process to make sure that all mitigation measures are satisfactorily implemented. This can be achieved by linking the license granting authority for action to the actual implementation of these measures. To secure the environmental sustainability of an environmental project, it is also important to have the EIA document as an integral part of the license application document, and to make it available to inspectors during their necessarily frequent inspection visits.     

环境影响评价中的公众参与

介绍了环境影响评价中公众参与的发展和现状,论述了公众参与在环境影响评价中的地位作用,分析了我国环境影响评价中公众参与存在的问题,并从宏观法制保障、公众环境素质和技术操作程序三个层面提出了完善公众参与制度和提高公众参与有效性的对策.     

Ecological Impact Assessment in Data-Poor Systems: A Case Study on Metapopulation Persistence

Legislation on the protection of biodiversity (e.g., European Union Habitat and Bird Directives) increasingly requires ecological impact assessment of human activities. However, knowledge and understanding of relevant ecological processes and species responses to different types of impact are often incomplete. In this paper we demonstrate with a case study how impact assessment can be carried out for situations where data are scarce but some expert knowledge is available. The case study involves two amphibian species, the great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) and the natterjack toad (Bufo calamita) in the nature reserve the Meinweg in the Netherlands, for which plans are being developed to reopen an old railway track called the Iron Rhine. We assess the effects of this railway track and its proposed alternatives (scenarios) on the metapopulation extinction time and the occupancy times of the patches for both species using a discrete-time stochastic metapopulation model. We quantify the model parameters using expert knowledge and extrapolated data. Because of our uncertainty about these parameter values, we perform a Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis. This yields an estimate of the probability distribution of the model predictions and insight into the contribution of each distinguished source of uncertainty to this probability distribution. We show that with a simple metapopulation model and an extensive uncertainty analysis it is possible to detect the least harmful scenario. The ranking of the different scenarios is consistent. Thus, uncertainty analysis can enhance the role of ecological impact assessment in decision making by making explicit to what extent incomplete knowledge affects predictions.     

氟化学工业项目环境影响评价的特点

本文在给出氟特性的基础上,分析了国际和国内氟化学工业发展的背景和趋势,氟化学工业的环境影响评价关注了从全球的到局部的生态环境问题,有其特殊的重点和内容,文章指出产业政策分析、生物监测、产品结构和产业链分析等氟化工项目环境影响评价的特点,结合其生产工艺和产品,提出了氟化工项目环境影响评价的重点。     

Environmental Impact Assessment and Management: An Underexplored Relationship

In this paper the existing body of theory is reviewed to highlight the need for further attention to be paid to the EIA/management relationship. In particular it is shown that the majority of the literature to date has concentrated on the influence of EIA leading up to and including the decision to proceed or not with the proposed action. Less attention has been paid to the extension of the influence of EIA beyond this point to inform the process of ongoing environmental management. This relationship is then explored by reference to the Western Australian EIA system. One of the strengths of this system is its focus upon the implementation and management of proposed developments. The outcome of EIA is generally an approval to proceed with the development subject to meeting a suite of environmental design and management objectives.     

我国现行环境影响评价制度面临的问题与对策

环境影响评价制度在我国经过近30年的发展与完善,在有效加强环境管理,从源头上防止环境污染和生态环境破坏方面起到了重要作用。但从现实看,其并未能从根本上遏制我国生态环境的恶化,各级政府的发展观、环境职能部门的独立性和公正性、评价机构的中立性、环境报告编制的技术性缺失和环境影响评价制度的缺憾等问题都严重制约着环境影响评价的作用发挥,只有解决这些问题,通过完善制度、科学评价,公正审批和有效监督才能让环境影响评价真正成为环境的守护神,实现经济社会发展与自然的和谐。     

The Development of Environmental Action Plans: Turning Statements into Actions

The Midlands Region of the Environment Agency has developed a management system, in the form of an Environmental Action Plan (EAP) to ensure that the constraints and mitigation measures identified in the Environmental Statement document are delivered on the ground. The reasons are considered for developing such procedures and examples are provided of the environmentalobjectives and targets which lie at the heart of the new procedures. The EAP is designed to provide a summary of the environmental constraints, adverse effects and their associated mitigation measures, and monitoring requirements, in an easily accessible document for both technical and non-technical readers.     

城市规划环境影响评价指标体系综述

城市规划是实施城市可持续发展战略的重要载体。城市规划环境影响评价的内容应集中体现在评价指标体系上。本文首先将城市规划环评指标分为总体规划和下位规划(专业规划、详细规划)两个层面,再分别系统论述城市总体规划和专业规划环评指标体系主要内容和结构,指出当前城市规划环评指标体系建立、内容、实施、总体与下位规划协调等方面的问题,奠定城市规划环评指标体系研究基础并为未来研究指明方向。