Including past and present impacts in cumulative impact assessments

Environmental concerns such as loss of biological diversity and stratospheric ozone depletion have heightened awareness of the need to assess cumulative impacts in environmental documents. More than 20 years of experience with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) have provided analysts in the United States with opportunities for developing successful techniques to assess site-specific impacts of proposed actions. Methods for analyzing a proposed action's incremental contribution to cumulative impacts are generally less advanced than those for project-specific impacts.The President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) defines cumulative impact to include the impacts of past, present and reasonably foreseeable future actions regardless of who undertakes the action. Court decisions have helped clarify the distinction between reasonably foreseeable future actions and other possible future actions. This paper seeks to clarify how past and present impacts should be included in cumulative impact analyses.The definition of cumulative impacts implies that cumulative impact analyses should include the effects of all past and present actions on a particular resource. Including past and present impacts in cumulative impact assessments increases the likelihood of identifying significant impacts. NEPA requires agencies to give more consideration to alternatives and mitigation and to provide more opportunities for public involvement for actions that would have significant impacts than for actions that would not cause or contribute to significant impacts. For an action that would contribute to significant cumulative impacts, the additional cost and effort involved in increased consideration of alternatives and mitigation and in additional public involvement may be avoided if the action can be modified so that its contributions to significant cumulative impacts are eliminated.Managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation under contract DE-AC05-84OR21400 with the US Department of Energy.     

土地利用规划战略环境影响评价浅探

本文在介绍国内外规划环境影响评价发展概况的基础上，提出了土地利用规划环境影响评价的重要意义。初步探讨了土地利用规划战略环境影响评价的范畴、体系、指标体系与评价方法，并建议应深入开展土地利用规划战略环境影响评价理论研究，健全相关制度，尽快出台相关技术规程。     

From policy mix to policy networks: assessing climate and land use policy interactions in Mato Grosso,Brazil

ABSTRACT

In the climate and land use fields, policy mixes are complex in terms of the levels of governance, actors, and roles. They consist of policy instruments that target different actors and address multiple goals across several policy sectors and levels. The analysis of these complex arrangements extends beyond purely technical efficiency criteria, as several sources of tension between instruments may be identified, such as conflicting interests, goals, and approaches to implementation. The proliferation of governance networks complicates the understanding of actors’ interactions, the types of authority influencing the outcomes of policy mixes, and importance of different levels of governance. This article provides a framework to address these analytical challenges, particularly the interconnected networks of policy actors and policy instruments. It draws on polycentric governance literature to analyse how power matters in policy networks. This includes identifying distinct types of power, actors’ position, and variables that explain patterns of conflict, competition, convergence, and divergence in policy choices and outcomes. The framework is applied to the climate and land use policies implemented in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Several methods were used to clarify these variables and to characterise policy mixes being implemented in the region, including social network analysis.     

Water as an economic good

There has been much debate in recent years about whether or not water should be regarded as an 'economic good', and, if so, what this implies. This paper discusses both water resources in general and the more specific issue of domestic water supply within the context of current debates on sustainable development. It addresses some practical and some more philosophical aspects of the matter, and how these relate to the concerns of different international organisations involved in the sector. It argues that water should be regarded as an economic good, but in a broad rather than a narrow, 'economistic' sense.     

我国推动清洁生产的政策机制

针对我国目前推行清洁生产中的实际问题，提出了应由政策建立起综合强制，激励，压力，支持多种作用的政策机制，以推动企业清洁生产持续实施，结合我国具体的条件，建议了近期和远期的实施措施。     

环境影响评价类型的发展

通过对区域环境影响评价（ＲＤＥＩＡ）及累积影响评价（ＣＩＡ）、战略影响评价（ＳＥＡ）的产生原因、概念、研究方法，研究状况等方面的介绍及与项目ＥＩＡ的比较，说明ＲＤＥＩＡ、ＣＩＡ、ＳＥＡ的兴起是实行可持续发展战略的要求．     

完善环境保护强制性政策的探讨

从目前我国实施强制性政策的现实必要性出发，合理界定强制性政策的科学内涵，剖析了其执行不力的症结与难点，探讨进一步完善、强化和实施的若干对策。     

我国环境保护中的公众参与问题研究

阐述了公众参与的内涵和意义，介绍了公众参与在国际法、外国和我国环境立法实践的发展和现状。从参与形式、参与领域、参与过程、参与组织方式和参与基础5个方面分析了我国环境保护中公众参与存在的问题，并从法制保障、参与渠道和公众素养3个层面提出了完善我国环境保护中的公众参与的对策。     

前后对比分析法在战略环境评价中应用初探

分析战略环境评价基本内涵，提出战略环境评价实施框架，并重点分析了评价战略筛选与评价者确定、战略分析、战略环境影响识另与建立评价指标体系、战略环境影响预测与综合评价以及制定战略环境影响减缓措施等关键问题；初步研究了战略环境评价方法，重点研究前后对比 政策评价方法类型、特点及其在战略环境评价中的应用。最后以长春经济技术开发区战略为例进行实证分析。     

城市化进程中战略环境评价的生态学理论基础

城市是一个自然-经济-社会复合生态系统，本文阐述了开展城市化进程中SEA的必然性及二者之间的关系；以可持续发展为核心的城市生态学理念为开展城市化进程的SEA提供了理论基础，同时城市化进程的SEA又是保证城市复合生态系统中生态与经济协调发展的有效工具之一。