Abstract
Design, implementation, and operation of any project are affected by the environment where it is developed; at the same time, the project will influence the environment, since during its life cycle it can cause an impact on it. This impact can lead to social, economic, and environmental results. Directive 2014/52/EU, on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, reflects the obligation for the project promoter to consider, in the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of the project, their vulnerability (exposure and resilience) to major accidents and/or disasters, evaluating both the risk and their effects on the environment, in case these major accidents and/or disasters appear. The IEC 31.010:2019 Risk management—Risk assessment techniques standard defines 45 risk appreciation techniques that are useful when analysing the risks, in general. The objective of this paper is to review these 45 techniques, and establish which ones can be used for the assessment of accidents or disasters required in the specific environmental impact assessment process to accomplish with the regulation. After the revision, the authors propose five risks appreciation techniques that could be used for the assessment of major accidents and or disasters in projects for which EIA has to be carried out.
Highlights
The process of economic globalisation, together with the development of new technologies and population growth in the second half of twentieth century, has caused several environmental problems that have had effects far beyond national boundaries, becoming worldwide problems
The application or the method or technique can be traceable, verifiable, and replicable. With these characteristics about the selection of techniques for risk appreciation, considering their application in an Environmental Impact Study, where the knowledge about the characteristics of receiving environment and the infrastructure is emerging or under development, this paper studies the main risk appreciation techniques included in International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 31.010:2019 standard, analysing the possibility of their application to perform the vulnerability assessments in EIS
This is a technique developed as an alternative to the HAZard and OPerability Study technique (HAZOP), consisting of a systematic study of the project carried out for an expert panel with a facilitator, with the goal of identifying possible hazardous scenarios that can result in accidents or working system problems, predicting their possible consequences [35,36]
Summary
The process of economic globalisation, together with the development of new technologies and population growth in the second half of twentieth century, has caused several environmental problems that have had effects far beyond national boundaries, becoming worldwide problems. Meeting human needs has been carried out through the development of projects, both for the construction of necessary buildings and infrastructure and for the development of products that the society demands. This satisfaction has been accompanied, by an excessive consumption of natural and non-renewable resources, which has contributed to environmental degradation, derived from the increased pollution, the damage to vulnerable ecosystems, and the release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere [4]. It is necessary to include the principles of sustainability in the concept of project management [5]
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