The significance of Environmental Agencies in the Environmental Impact Assessment process

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Monitoring ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Entire Society ◽  
Environmental Agencies

Currently, every country is striving to realize development for its people. Thus, to achieve this the construction of various projects are necessary for the realization of socioeconomic and political development of any country. However, the development of the projects is associated with various environmental challenges that may affect the entire society and the environment. Thus, to cater that there is the need for conducting Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that is a tool used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project before decision-making. To achieve the EIA process, there are Environmental Agencies (EAs) that are designed for dealing with all environment-related issues in the relevant country. Thus, this paper aims at providing the key significances provided by the EAs in the EIA process. The following significances are discussed in this paper: formulation of policies, laws and regulations related to EIA; authorization and certification of the experts or firms of expert for EIA process; registration and screening of the projects for EIA; reviewing Environmental Impacts Statements or reports; preparation of the EIA certificates for approval or disapproval of the projects; conducting environmental monitoring and auditing; and monitoring of the implementation of the decommissioning.

scholarly journals ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT: METHODS OF DECISION MAKING

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-93
Author(s):  
Ya. O. Adamenko
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Comparative Assessment ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Analysis Of Alternatives

The paper discusses decision-making methods for the comparative assessment of alternatives in environmental impact assessment. The suggested framework for a systematic approach to the comparative assessment of alternatives in decision-making management involves multi-criteria utility theory; analytical hierarchy approach; multi-criteria alternatives ranking; and choice under uncertainty. The proposed decision-making methods mainly concern comparing alternatives and selecting the best one. Considerably often, criteria for evaluating alternatives are contradictory or use different methods and rating scales, which is the main problem for solving multi-criteria problems. The article also considers the steps for generation and analysis of alternatives and suggests the alternatives analysis procedure. The author’s experience proves that experts sometimes fail to provide a preferred alternative that would meet all conditions of multi-criteria analysis; therefore, it is necessary to return to the previous stage of the environmental impact assessment process, i.e. reducing negative impacts. All this brings out the need to develop a new scientific basis, to generate a new set of alternative environmental protection proposals, and to carry out the procedure for selecting the preferred alternative from the outset. After the preferred alternative, in compliance with all environmental protection needs, is selected, and the agreement on the best alternative is reached, experts can undertake a comprehensive environmental impact assessing.  The author suggests methods for the comparative assessment of the preferred alternative in environmental impact assessment, each having its merits and demerits and critically examines them in the article. The suggested procedure provides experts’ with decision-making methods of the comparative assessing alternatives in environmental impact assessment.

Health determinants in Canadian northern environmental impact assessment

Polar Record ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Bronson ◽  
Bram F. Noble
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Limited Attention

The need to address the human health implications of northern development is well founded, and the role of health determinants in environmental impact assessment is increasingly recognised; however, there is limited understanding of the nature of health determinants and current practices in northern project assessment and decision making. This paper reports on a study of the nature and use of health determinants in Canadian northern environmental impact assessment, and discusses the key challenges to, and opportunities for, improved practice. Four themes emerged from this study. First, the consideration of health is limited to physical environments and the physical determinants of health, with limited attention to broader social and cultural health determinants. Second, when health is considered in northern project impact assessments such considerations rarely carry forward to post-project approval monitoring of health determinants and evaluation of health impact management programmes. Third, while there is general consensus that health determinants should be an integral part of northern impact assessment, there exist different expectations of the role of health determinants in project evaluation and decision making due in large part to different understandings and interpretations of health. Finally, a broader conceptualisation of health and health determinants in northern environmental impact assessment is required; one that takes into consideration northern cultures and knowledge systems, and is adaptive to local context, geography and life cycles.

AMBEMAR-DSS: A Decision Support System for the Environmental Impact Assessment of Marine Renewable Energies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xabier Guinda ◽  
Araceli Puente ◽  
José A. Juanes ◽  
Francisco Royano ◽  
Felipe Fernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Renewable Energies ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Modeling Tools

The high energy demand and the threat of climate change have led to a remarkable development of renewable energies, initially through technologies applied to the terrestrial environment and, recently, through the awakening of marine renewable energies. However, the development of these types of projects is often hampered by failure to pass the corresponding environmental impact assessment process. The complexity of working in the marine environment and the uncertainties associated with assessing the impacts of such projects make it difficult to carry out objective and precise environmental impact assessments. AMBEMAR-DSS seeks to establish a basis for understanding and agreement between the different stakeholders (project developers, public administrations, environmental organizations and the public in general), in order to find solutions that allow the development of marine renewable energies, minimizing their environmental cost. For this purpose, a DSS is proposed which, based on cartographic information and using objective and quantifiable criteria, allows comparative assessments and analyses between different project alternatives. The analytical procedures used by the system include, among others, hydrodynamic modeling tools and visual impact simulators. In addition, impacts on marine species are assessed taking into account intrinsic ecological and biological aspects. The magnitude of the impacts is quantified by means of fuzzy logic operations and the integration of all the elements is carried out by an interactive multi-criteria analysis. The results are shown in tables, graphs and figures of easy interpretation and can be also visualized geographically by means of a cartographic viewer. The system identifies the main impacts generated in the different phases of the project and allows establishing adequate mitigation measures in search of optimized solutions. The establishment of the assessment criteria has been based on the abundant, but dispersed, scientific literature on the various elements of the system and having the opinion of experts in the various fields. Nevertheless, the DSS developed constitutes a preliminary basis on which to build and improve a system with the input of researchers, promoters and experts from different disciplines.

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