scholarly journals Environmental Impact of Construction Products on Aquatic Systems—Principles of an Integrated Source–Path–Target Concept

Water ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
Ute Schoknecht ◽  
Olaf Tietje ◽  
Nicole Borho ◽  
Michael Burkhardt ◽  
Mirko Rohr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Target Concept ◽  
Transport Pathways ◽  
Construction Products ◽  
Integrated Concept

Buildings exposed to water can release undesirable substances which, once transported to environmental compartments, may cause unwanted effects. These exposure pathways need to be investigated and included in risk assessments to safeguard water quality and promote the sustainability of construction materials. The applied materials, exposure conditions, distribution routes and resilience of receiving compartments vary considerably. This demonstrates the need for a consistent concept that integrates knowledge of emission sources, leaching processes, transport pathways, and effects on targets. Such a consistent concept can serve as the basis for environmental risk assessment for several scenarios using experimentally determined emissions. Typically, a source–path–target concept integrates data from standardized leaching tests and models to describe leaching processes, the distribution of substances in the environment and the occurrence of substances at different points of compliance. This article presents an integrated concept for assessing the environmental impact of construction products on aquatic systems and unravels currently existing gaps and necessary actions. This manuscript outlines a source–path–target concept applicable to a large variety of construction products. It is intended to highlight key elements of a holistic evaluation concept that could assist authorities in developing procedures for environmental risk assessments and mitigation measures and identifying knowledge gaps.

Environmental impact assessment and control of pharmaceuticals: the role of environmental agencies

2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.E. Adler ◽  
J. Koschorreck ◽  
B. Rechenberg
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Ethinyl Estradiol ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Federal Environment Agency ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
And Control ◽  
Environmental Agencies

In 2005, the new legislation for pharmaceuticals came into effect. Since then environmental risk assessments are required for all new marketing authorisation applications. The German Federal Environment Agency has been assessing the environmental impact of 136 veterinary and 134 human pharmaceuticals. The authorisation of pharmaceuticals has shown that the authorisation of some groups of substances have to be combined with risk mitigation measures. Environmental risks may also arise from those pharmaceuticals which were authorised before the environmental risk assessment was added to the requirements of authorisation. Four examples of “existing” pharmaceuticals, i.e. diclofenac, ethinyl estradiol, ivermectin, and florfenicol are highlighted in this article. Risk management options for veterinary and human pharmaceuticals are discussed.

scholarly journals The Importance of Environmental Factors in the Planning of Container Terminals: The Case Study of the Port of Augusta

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 2153
Author(s):  
Nadia Giuffrida ◽  
Maja Stojaković ◽  
Elen Twrdy ◽  
Matteo Ignaccolo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Container Terminal ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
Container Terminals ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Clean Environment ◽  
Different Levels

Container terminals are the main hubs of the global supply chain but, conversely, they play an important role in energy consumption, environmental pollution and even climate change due to carbon emissions. Assessing the environmental impact of this type of port terminal and choosing appropriate mitigation measures is essential to pursue the goals related to a clean environment and ensuring a good quality of life of the inhabitants of port cities. In this paper the authors present a Terminal Decision Support Tool (TDST) for the development of a container terminal that considers both operation efficiency and environmental impacts. The TDST provides environmental impact mitigation measures based on different levels of evolution of the port’s container traffic. An application of the TDST is conducted on the Port of Augusta (Italy), a port that is planning infrastructural interventions in coming years in order to gain a new role as a reference point for container traffic in the Mediterranean.

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.

IMPROVING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) PROCESS IN MALAYSIA

2015 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maisarah Makmor ◽  
Zulhabri Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Document Review

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a planning tool to identify, predict and evaluate potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures in the early stages of proposed projects. Although EIA has been implemented in Malaysia for over 25 years, the EIA practices have yet to achieve the parameters of effective environmental management and sustainable development. Hence, this research aims to improve the EIA process in Malaysia. Three objectives were utilised in this research which are to recognise the fundamentals of EIA process and procedures applied in Malaysia, to analyse the issues in relation to the EIA preparation and submission conducted in Malaysia and to propose a set of recommendations to further improve the current EIA process in Malaysia. Mixed methods approach was embarked composed of qualitative instruments via document review and semi-structured interviews and quantitative instrument utilising questionnaire survey. Key issues on the EIA process in Malaysia were gathered from qualitative data collected. Analysis of data collected resulted to recommendations on the key issues regarding EIA. 25 proposed recommendations to improve the EIA process were contextualised and validated via questionnaire survey. Ergo, this research established an improved EIA process in Malaysia towards sustainable development to ameliorate the EIA practices in Malaysia. 

Managing the Impacts of Human Activities on Fish Habitat: The Governance, Practices, and Science

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Habitat Management ◽  
Fish Habitat ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Habitat Features ◽  
Science Advice ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Management Approaches

<em>Abstract.</em>—The landscape for policy and management of fish habitat is changing. The historic focus on evaluating environmental impact assessments for large projects, and issuing (or not) permits for small projects is being supplanted by new expectations for habitat managers and policy makers. Many of these new expectations are rooted in the adoption of an ecosystem approach to management of diverse human activities, including fisheries, in aquatic ecosystems, combined with a growing emphasis on integrated management of those human activities, in turn aided by spatial planning and spatial management approaches in many fields. These new expectations placed on habitat managers and policy makers create the need for expanded support from a new blending of habitat and population sciences. Historically, it may have been sufficient to use science advice based on relative indices of habitat quality and carefully assembled expert opinion as the basis for many tasks in habitat policy and management. Such tools now must be augmented by much more quantitative science advice, to allow for setting operational objectives for managing habitats, assessing the quality and quantity of critical or essential habitat for protected or exploited fish populations, conducting risk assessments of projects and mitigation measures, making siting decisions about marine protected areas and other spatial zoning measures, and many other tasks in which habitat managers and policy makers must participate. Science advice now must be able to quantify the relationships between habitat features and population status and productivity, as well with community properties such as resilience and vulnerability. This advice has to capture the uncertainty in the relationships and data sources, in forms that fit comfortably into risk assessments. Tools for forward projection of the habitat consequences of management options are needed, as are tools for cost-benefit analyses of tradeoffs among different types of habitats for different groups of aquatic species. None of these analytical challenges is beyond the scope of modern statistical and modelling capabilities, and current ecological concepts. Few of them can be met by existing tools and data-bases however. Moreover, many of the conceptual approaches to aquatic habitat management have been imported from terrestrial habitat management. They may have served adequately for management of riverine and marine benthic habitats, but some of the fundamental conceptual starting points are being questioned for marine and lacustrine habitats more generally. The paper brings out both some promising opportunities and some difficult challenges for the science needed to support contemporary habitat management and policy.

scholarly journals Quantitative environmental risk assessments in the context of marine spatial management: current approaches and some perspectives

2014 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 1022-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Stelzenmüller ◽  
H. O. Fock ◽  
A. Gimpel ◽  
H. Rambo ◽  
R. Diekmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Analysis ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Risk Evaluation ◽  
Bayesian Belief Network ◽  
Risk Identification ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Belief Network ◽  
Spatial Management

Abstract Marine spatial planning (MSP) requires spatially explicit environmental risk assessment (ERA) frameworks with quantitative or probabilistic measures of risk, enabling an evaluation of spatial management scenarios. ERAs comprise the steps of risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation. A review of ERAs in in the context of spatial management revealed a synonymous use of the concepts of risk, vulnerability and impact, a need to account for uncertainty and a lack of a clear link between risk analysis and risk evaluation. In a case study, we addressed some of the identified gaps and predicted the risk of changing the current state of benthic disturbance by bottom trawling due to future MSP measures in the German EEZ of the North Sea. We used a quantitative, dynamic, and spatially explicit approach where we combined a Bayesian belief network with GIS to showcase the steps of risk characterization, risk analysis, and risk evaluation. We distinguished 10 benthic communities and 6 international fishing fleets. The risk analysis produced spatially explicit estimates of benthic disturbance, which was computed as a ratio between relative local mortality by benthic trawling and the recovery potential after a trawl event. Results showed great differences in spatial patterns of benthic disturbance when accounting for different environmental impacts of the respective fleets. To illustrate a risk evaluation process, we simulated a spatial shift of the international effort of two beam trawl fleets, which are affected the most by future offshore wind development. The Bayesian belief network (BN) model was able to predict the proportion of the area where benthic disturbance likely increases. In conclusion, MSP processes should embed ERA frameworks which allow for the integration of multiple risk assessments and the quantification of related risks as well as uncertainties at a common spatial scale.

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