Environmental Assessment Index Research Articles

Inclusive environmental impact assessment indices with consideration of public acceptance: Application to power generation technologies in Japan

Abstract Public acceptance is one of the most important issues when considering the sustainability of anthropogenic systems. The development of energy systems in the future will depend on the balance of environmental impact, economic feasibility, and public acceptance. On the basis of existing inclusive environmental impact indices, such as the Inclusive Impact Index (Triple I) and emergy, in the present work we propose two novel indices, Triple Isocial and Triple Iemergy-social, that can be used to evaluate public acceptance together with economic and environmental aspects simultaneously. This is the claim of originality of this work. In this study, we applied these indices to eight power generation technologies and, to quantify public expectations and concern, we conducted a questionnaire survey about these technologies. The conjoint analysis reveals the marginal rate of allowance to compensate (MRAC), a term we propose as a replacement of the marginal willingness to pay, in units of monetary value, ecological footprint, or emergy for six attributes considered to affect public acceptance. Triple Isocial and Triple Iemergy-social of the power generation technologies are calculated using MRAC, and it suggests that only the geological thermal energy is sustainable while the others need to be improved in terms of monetary, environmental, and/or social costs to reach a level at which these technologies are regarded as sustainable.

An environmental impact assessment framework and index system for the pre-use phase of buildings based on distance-to-target approach

This paper presents an LCA-based environmental impact assessment model and an evaluation index system for the pre-use phase of buildings using distance-to-target as weightings. Environmental impacts are categorized into three broad categories: ecological damage, natural resources depletion and human health damage, and quantified by three corresponding specific indexes (Ecological Damage Index, Resource Depletion Index and Life Damage Index) at three scales of globe, nation and region. Emission standards of pollutants issued by the government authorities, three resources characteristics of available resource supply capacity and resource demand and resource utilization as well as the remaining life expectancies for different age groups are taken as the targets in weighting definition to reflect the environment protection priorities and public concerns. A residential building is used as a case study to test and validate the presented model. Results indicate that the proposed model and index system can effectively quantify the environmental impacts of new construction projects, and can potentially be used as a tool for construction industry to fit environmental priorities and provide clear implications for practice.

Proposal of Environmental Impact Assessment Index considering Public Acceptance ‒Application to Power Generation Technologies‒

Proposal of Environmental Impact Assessment Index considering Public Acceptance ‒Application to Power Generation Technologies‒

Investigation of river flow alterations using environmental flow assessment and hydrologic indices: Tajan River Watershed, Iran

In this research, environmental flow assessment (EFA) and hydrologic indices have been applied to analyse flow alteration due to the construction of the Soleyman Tangeh dam on the Tajan River Watershed in northern Iran. Some different hydrologic indices, base flow index (BFI), river flow pattern, and minimum and maximum river flow thresholds have been used to assess hydrologic alteration in the watershed, based on available flow data during pre-dam and post-dam years. In addition, three EFA methods namely, Tennant, flow duration curve, and environmental flow requirements, have been used to recommend the minimum flow requirements for post-dam years. The main objective of this research is to determine the environmental flow thresholds and to quantify on how dam construction altered the hydrology of the watershed. The results have shown that average annual and monthly flow, minimum daily flow, and BFI significantly decreased in post-dam years. Moreover, alteration patterns of river flow and hydrograph reversals were detected. This research is a preliminary analysis to provide insights on embedding environmental flow to integrated water resources management in the similar watersheds with lack of accurate and sufficient ecological and river hydraulic data.

선박의 운항에 의해 배출되는 이산화탄소에 대한 포괄적 환경영향평가

인간의 인위적 활동에 의한 이산화탄소의 배출 증가는 지구 온난화의 원인 중 하나로 알려져 있으며, 기상이변 등과 같이 지구 환경에 막대한 영향을 미치고 있다. 이로 인해 최근 들어 이산화탄소 배출량을 규제하기 위한 움직임이 활발해지고 있다. 또한 배출된 이산화탄소의 환경영향을 평가하기 위해, 일본 조선학회 산하의 IMPACT 위원회에서는 자연의 개발로 인한 환경영향과 경제성을 동시에 고려하여 평가할 수 있는 포괄적 지표인 Triple I (III)를 제안하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 III를 적용하여 컨테이너 선박의 운항 시 배출되는 이산화탄소로 인한 환경영향 및 경제성에 대해 생애주기 평가를 통해 정량적으로 비교하였다. 또한 선박의 규모 변화 및 운항 항로의 변경에 따른 포괄적 환경영향평가를 실시하였다. 결과적으로 선박의 운항에 의한 포괄적 환경영향평가는 선박의 규모보다는 이산화탄소 배출량과 밀접한 선박의 운항 항로에 보다 더 민감한 것으로 판단되었다.

Regional Environmental Performance Assessment Based on PSR Model - A Case of Tianjin

Regional environmental performance assessment could measure the achievement of the environmental management effectively. It contributed to raise the level of government environmental management, and provided a basis for policy-making. On the basis of existing research, the paper adopted the PSR model and the thematic framework model to established Tianjin environmental performance assessment index system, and calculated the environmental performance level (EPI) of Tianjin from 2006 to 2010. The analysis showed that there is a substantial increase in environmental management of Tianjin on the aspects of environmental equality, efficiency of resource use, contamination control, and environmental infrastructure construction. The dominant indictors of EPI in Tianjin are urban ecosystem vitality, environmental equality, and efficiency of resource use. In order to improve the effectiveness of the EPA, the policy object system should be improved, and a complete data base should be established in the meantime of building and improving the system of regional environmental performance assessment.

Environmental risk source management system for the petrochemical industry

We identify environmental risk sources within the petrochemical industry with a bow-tie analysis, evaluate environmental risk sources with an integrated environmental risk assessment index, and classify environmental risk sources considering both environmental consequences and management costs. Furthermore, we develop a routine management system for environmental risk sources based on browser/server model and web-GIS technology. The system has four main functions: petrochemical enterprise registration and declaration, environmental risk source information correction and confirmation, environmental risk source evaluation and classification, and environmental risk source management. The system runs with the following sequential steps. (1) Petrochemical enterprises register and declare their environmental risk source information. (2) The registered environmental risk source information is checked, corrected and confirmed by local environmental officials. (3) The probability and intensity of environmental risk are calculated for all registered petrochemical factories. (4) All environmental risk sources are classified into high, medium and low risk sections based on their potential regional environmental and ecological impacts. (5) The system provides recommendations on the routine risk management based on empirical expert opinions. The software provides an effective tool for safety production of petrochemical enterprises and can be applied by local governments for environmental risk source management.

Using the fuzzy set theory to developing an environmental impact assessment index for a thermal power plant

Korean thermal power has had a prominent position in energy policies for the past decades. However, pollutants from the combustion of fossil fuels used in converting thermal energy into electrical energy have undesirable effect on the environment. This paper applies fuzzy set theory (FST) to identifying the significance of various environmental impacts using a specific case study of the electric power utilities in Korea. To this end, we consider nine environmental impacts: mortality, morbidity, forest, agricultural production, materials, visibility, thermal discharge water, landscape, and global warming. A survey of randomly sampled 1,000 households was administrated to obtain value judgments from FST about the environmental impacts of a thermal power plant. The overall results show that global warming is the most important attribute in environmental effect-related decision-making processes and followed by morbidity and mortality in order. The implications of the results for electric power utilities are also discussed. We found that the work and results can provide valuable insights for major decision making in energy and environmental planning of the electric power utilities.

Study on the Environmental Impact Assessment Index of Traffic Engineering Based on the Low Carbon Economy Perspective

The traffic engineering environment impact assessment generally considered the influence on environment of traffic engineering operation stage only, relatively ignored the influence on environment of traffic engineering construction stage and demolition stage. This paper gives comprehensive analysis on the influence on environment of traffic engineering at the view of the whole life cycle of traffic engineering. That is considering the influence on environment of materiel production stage, processing stage, engineering construction stage and demolition stage. The traffic engineering environment impact assessment index is established by considering a low carbon economy connotation and with the use of total life cycle analysis method, and the evaluation index of each specific quantitative index is given.

The environmental assessment of landfill based on stakeholder analysis

Abstract For the current issue that harmful landfill caused serious harm but had passed the environmental assessment, the paper uses the stakeholder analysis theory to analyze the stakeholders of landfill, and find the reasons existed in environmental assessment of landfill based on the simple review of the development and application of stakeholder analysis. And then it gave the countermeasure to the improvement of environmental assessment index system of landfill and the perfection of environmental assessment mechanism.

Credibility-based fuzzy mathematical programming model for green logistics design under uncertainty

Measuring and controlling emissions across the logistics network is an important challenge for today’s firms according to increasing concern about the environmental impact of business activities. This paper proposes a bi-objective credibility-based fuzzy mathematical programming model for designing the strategic configuration of a green logistics network under uncertain conditions. The model aims to minimize the environmental impacts and the total costs of network establishment simultaneously for the sake of providing a sensible balance between them. A popular but credible environmental impact assessment index, i.e., CO 2 equivalent index is used to model the environmental impact across the concerned logistics network. Since transportation mode and production technology play important roles on the concerned objectives, the proposed model integrates their respective decisions with those of strategic network design ones. In addition, to solve the proposed bi-objective fuzzy optimization model, an interactive fuzzy solution approach based upon credibility measure is developed. An industrial case study is also provided to show the applicability of the proposed model as well as the usefulness of its solution method.

A Material Selection Model of Mechanical Products Based on Total Life Cycle Design

Material selection in mechanical products based on total life cycle design is a complicated work, which should be studied systematically. A material selection model of mechanical products based on total life cycle design was proposed. A set of candidate materials were screened out, and then assessed according to the technical, economic and environmental assessment index. The candidate materials were ranked by using by using Z-transformation method in each of the assessment index. Different weights were assigned to each of the three assessment indexes, and global assessment was carried out according to different strategies or requirements which pay more attention to technical, economic or environmental performance of the material product used. A case in selecting aircraft structure element material was studied. The analysis results showed that the method could rank the candidate materials and selected out the “optimized material”, and the influence of the subjectivity of designer was reduced. The method provides some practical values for preliminary material selection in the early design stage of the mechanical products based on life cycle design.

Environmental Impact Assessment of Transportation Networks with Degradable Links in an Era of Climate Change

ABSTRACT This paper proposes environmental impact assessment indices to evaluate the environmental effects of link capacity degradation in transportation (road) networks. The indices are applicable in the case of either user-optimizing or system-optimizing behavior. We also construct environmental link importance indicators that allow for the ranking of links in transportation networks in terms of their environmental importance, should they be removed/destroyed. Numerical transportation network examples illustrate the proposed quantitative environmental indicators and further substantiate that system-optimizing behavior does not necessarily lead to reduced emissions.

Environmental impact assessment of manufacturing processes using a combinatorial mathematics based decision making method

This paper presents a methodology for environmental impact assessment of manufacturing processes using a combinatorial mathematics based decision making method. An ‘environmental impact assessment index’ is proposed that evaluates and ranks the manufacturing processes for producing a given engineering product or component. The index is obtained from an ‘environmental impact assessment factors function’ considering environmental impact assessment factors and their relative importance for the considered application. An example is included to illustrate the approach.

Watershed-based self- and peer-appraisal indices for integrated environmental assessment with a case study of the Mid-Atlantic region

Environmental indicators are often aggregated into a single index in environmental studies. Commonly, an aggregated index is derived in a specific weighting scheme imposed from the outside. The paper presents a novel approach by letting each unit under study choose a set of weights. It applies the concept of self- and cross-appraisal in generating various aggregated indices from two linear programming optimization models. The proposed method is illustrated via a case study of the Mid-Atlantic region. Results show that the derived aggregated indices reveal environmental conditions of the study area in an objective and robust fashion. The proposed method is a valuable tool for integrated environmental assessment.

A new method to assess the environmental risk of a chemical process

The present work introduces a new method for assessing the environmental risk of industrial processes. The method defines a global environmental risk assessment (GERA) index for a new or existing process. Such an index is based on newly defined environmental risk indices for chemical components present in the inlet and outlet process streams and the different unit operations constituting the given process. As an illustration, the method has been applied to two case studies involving typical processes employed to produce (1) sodium carbonate and hydrogen chloride, and (2) methyltertiarybutyl ether. Our analysis indicates that the proposed method can be easily implemented into a process simulator to calculate the GERA indices for competing processes, thus accounting for the environmental impact of the process at the design stage.

Environmental Assessment Index: Reliability, Stability, and Validity of the Long and Short Forms

The Environmental Assessment Index was developed to assess the educational/developmental quality of home environments of 3-year-old through 11-year-old children. The long form of Index is composed of 44 home observation and/or maternal interview items. The short form consists of 24 of the 44 items. The Index has been used to assess the quality of 62 rural children's homes in a three-year longitudinal study of ecological influences on rural children's mental and social development. The long form had a Cronbach alpha reliability of .74 and concurrent and predictive validity correlations with IQ estimates of +.66 and +.61 ( p <.01) for preschool children. The two-year test-retest correlation was .81 ( p <.001). The short form had a Cronbach alpha reliability of .82 and concurrent and predictive validity correlations with IQ estimates of +.64 and +.66 ( p <.01). The short form test-retest correlation was .86 ( p < .001). The scale items are included.

A role for technical environmental assessment in perceptions of environmental quality and well-being

There is growing interest in including measures of external reality in models of person-environment transactions. That step is necessary to avoid circularity in reasoning and to change environments in desired ways. This study tests the utility of technical assessments of environmental quality, derived independently of the judgements of respondents or observers. Nine components based on objective facts about the residential environment, nine components based on person charactertistics, plus age and sex were used to predict 13 criteria which reflect the residents' perceptions of various aspects of their environment and of its impact on their well-being. The technical environmental assessment indices made statistically significant independent contributions which cross-validated with all of the 13 criteria. The person components plus age and sex also made independent contributions which cross-validated with 12 of the 13 criteria. The results support the idea that technical environmental assessments can play a constructive role in clarifying person-environment transactions, and that they are complementary to rather than redundant with personal characteristics of respondents in affecting environmental perceptions.