Environmental Assessment Process Research Articles

Assessing Environmental Risks during the Drug Development Process for Parasitic Vector-Borne Diseases: A Critical Reflection.

Parasitic vector-borne diseases (VBDs) represent nearly 20% of the global burden of infectious diseases. Moreover, the spread of VBDs is enhanced by global travel, urbanization, and climate change. Treatment of VBDs faces challenges due to limitations of existing drugs, as the potential for side effects in nontarget species raises significant environmental concerns. Consequently, considering environmental risks early in drug development processes is critically important. Here, we examine the environmental risk assessment process for veterinary medicinal products in the European Union and identify major gaps in the ecotoxicity data of these drugs. By highlighting the scarcity of ecotoxicological data for commonly used antiparasitic drugs, we stress the urgent need for considering the One Health concept. We advocate for employing predictive tools and nonanimal methodologies such as New Approach Methodologies at early stages of antiparasitic drug research and development. Furthermore, adopting progressive approaches to mitigate ecological risks requires the integration of nonstandard tests that account for real-world complexities and use environmentally relevant exposure scenarios. Such a strategy is vital for a sustainable drug development process as it adheres to the principles of One Health, ultimately contributing to a healthier and more sustainable world.

Importance of Strategic Environmental Assessment (Sea) Process and Environmental Health Impact Assessment (Ehia) Process Towards Sustainable Climate Change And Control

Importance of Strategic Environmental Assessment (Sea) Process and Environmental Health Impact Assessment (Ehia) Process Towards Sustainable Climate Change And Control

The Effect of Wearable and Tearable Climate and Weather on Wearable Technology

This article discusses the effect of wearable tearable climate and weather on wearable technology. Climate change refers to long term shifts in temperature and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and unsustainable infrastructural development. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process can be broadly defined as a study of the impacts of a proposed project, plan, project, policy, or legislative action on the environment and sustainability. The significance of the work entitled “Sustainable Wearable Climate and Weather Management” is mainly confirmatory as it solves environmental and social problems. In this research, the SEA process has been aimed to incorporate environmental and sustainability factors into wearable climate and weather management includes climate change and control as an example like production and manufacturing process project planning and decision-making processes such as project formulation and appraisal of wearable climate and weather projects like wear and tear of dust-producing grinding chrome composite leather clad rollers and washers commonly used in seed-cotton Indian roller ginning machines, wastewater treatment process, rotating biological contactors, trickling filter bed, biomedical parts, marine biopolymers, Indo-Matsushita midget electrode (battery carbon rod) plant in 1979 at Tada, sustainable bridge, road, and sanitation structure, green building, nuclear power plant, cotton roller ginning plant and concrete that included policies, programs, plans, and legislative actions. Sustainable materials for manufacturing process development is a kind of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability and efficacy of future generations to meet their own needs. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process can be defined as the systematic study of the potential impacts (effects) of proposed projects, plans, programs, policies, or legislative actions relative to the physical-chemical, biological, bio-medical, cultural, and socioeconomic components of the total environmental product life cycle. The primary purpose of the EIA process is to encourage the consideration of the environment in the Organizational ’s wearable and tearable climate and weather management project planning and decision-making process and to arrive at environmentally compatible actions. The sustainable wearable climate and weather management process should include the integrated consideration of technical or engineering, economic, environmental, safety, and health, social, and sustainability factors to achieve business excellence as per post COVID-19 World Scenario. Before the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process in 1970 in the USA, technical and economic factors dominance the World’s manufacturing process projects. The objective of the study is to conceptualize a training course module incorporating the SEA process for the Sustainable Environmental Wearable and Tearable Climate Change and Weather Control for the officers of Bihar Institute Public Administration and Rural Development (BIPARD), Patna, Bihar, India during the Research Year (RY) 2023-2024. The design of the study is cross-sectional. The limitation or recommendation of the study and check is to apply strategic environmental assessment process for sustainable environmental climate change and control towards sustainable development.

Challenges in predicting and managing construction noise impacts in urban environments. Case studies from Sydney, Australia

Approval of major infrastructure projects in Australia is contingent on a vigorous environmental assessment process demonstrating that the impacts from such proposals are acceptable and can be satisfactorily managed. As part of this process, an assessment of construction noise is undertaken by predicting the level and duration of impact. Given the scale, complexity and programs for delivery of major infrastructure projects such as the Sydney Metro, the approach to assessment of environmental impacts is typically undertaken based on early concept designs, and assumptions which enable potential worst-case impacts to be considered. Ongoing design development and construction methodologies continue to occur, and are finalised by the contractor responsible for delivering the package of works for the project. Layers of conservatism could therefore be built into the process to ensure that environmental impacts are understood, and appropriate mitigation measures are considered. Moreover, common predictive noise modelling tools are believed to under-estimate the level of barrier insertion loss provided by residential buildings in urban scenarios, further exacerbating the over-prediction of construction noise impacts. By use of case studies, the present paper examines the challenges of assessing and managing construction noise associated with a major infrastructure project in Sydney, Australia.

Climate change and oil and gas production regulation: an impossible reconciliation?

Abstract Fossil fuel combustion is undeniably the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. In order to meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming below 2°C, globally, a third of oil and half of gas reserves should remain unused from 2010 to 2050. In 2021, the International Energy Agency estimated that in the net-zero emissions scenario there is no need for fossil fuel exploration, new oil and natural gas fields beyond those already been approved for development, or new coal mines or mine extensions. While greenhouse gas emissions from the actual exploration and production activities (upstream emissions) are increasingly regulated, the emissions from the final combustion of the produces oil and gas are not taken into account when new projects are approved. This paper argues that there is a significant lack of integration between climate and energy regulation which, if not corrected, may result in challenges to achieve the global climate targets. It analyses the mechanisms for better inclusion of climate considerations at the oil and gas development approval stage. It starts with a review of international initiatives examining the lack of engagement with the climate regime and fossil fuel production. It further analyses the oil and gas development approval regime in the UK with a view to highlighting the lack of integration of climate concerns in the licensing and environmental assessment processes.

Comprehensive Environmental and Health Risk Assessment of Soil Heavy Metal(loid)s Considering Uncertainties: The Case of a Typical Metal Mining Area in Daye City, China

Heavy metal(loid)s (HMs) in soils near mining sites often cause serious environmental and health issues. Accurately assessing soil HM risks and identifying priority pollutants are crucial for improving risk control efficiency with limited management costs and resources. Traditional deterministic assessments may yield biased results due to the imprecision and ambiguity of environmental data and assessment processes. To compensate for the deficiencies of deterministic assessment, a comprehensive probabilistic-fuzzy model was developed based on fuzzy theory, probability methods, the soil contamination risk (SCR) index, and a human health risk (HR) assessment framework. According to this model, the soil HM risk status in a typical mining area in China was evaluated. The results indicated that Cd and Cu significantly violated the relevant environmental guidelines and were considered priority metals for environmental risk (ER). Notably, Cd’s hazard predominantly manifested in a solid potential ecological risk (PER), whereas Cu’s environmental impact primarily manifested as a soil contamination risk (SCR). From the perspective of HR, soil HMs already pose a considerable threat to human health, with children facing greater HRs than adults. As was identified as a priority element for HRs, with carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks reaching unacceptable levels. Regarding general risk (GR), Cd and Cu ranked in the first gradient and As in the second gradient. Overall, the accumulation of soil HMs—especially Cd, Cu, and As—in the study area has posed a significant threat to the ecosystem and human health. The risks of other HMs (Pb, Zn, Cr, and Ni) are relatively low, but the superimposed risks of multiple HMs should not be ignored. The probabilistic–fuzzy model reduces the uncertainty of risk assessment, and the model integrates the environmental and health risks of HMs, providing more comprehensive risk information. The assessment results can serve as a reference for managers to develop targeted control strategies.

Strengthening Environmental Decision Making through Legislation: Insights from Cognitive Science and Behavioural Economics

AbstractThe environmental assessment literature has neglected the distorting effect of cognitive and unconscious motivational biases (CUMB) in environmental assessment processes. This is problematic because CUMB are present in most, if not all, decision-making situations and can significantly distort decision-making processes. This article assesses how debiasing techniques are, or should be, incorporated in (supra)national environmental assessment legislation. The Dutch case study undertaken for this article shows that EU and Dutch legislation do not sufficiently incorporate debiasing techniques to ensure sound environmental decision making. Furthermore, the extent to which Dutch legislation incorporates debiasing techniques was found to be decreasing. Based on these findings, the article presents ways to incorporate debiasing techniques in environmental assessment legislation more generally, and in EU and Dutch legislation in particular.

The Politics of Environmental Consensus: The Case of the World Commission on Dams

Abstract Recent discussion of global environmental assessment processes suggests that the process of consensus creation is central to understanding the way knowledge is produced and conclusions are reached. Here we contribute to this literature by providing a case study of the World Commission on Dams, which brought together supporters and opponents of large dams, at the height of controversy about dams in the 1990s. The Commission reviewed evidence and formulated guidelines for best practice, finding a way through a political stalemate. The article draws on interviews with those involved in the Commission and discusses the historical context, form of stakeholder representation, time horizon, and leadership style as consensus-enabling conditions. We conclude that an ambitious consensual process was successful within the life of the Commission, but at the cost of carrying external actors with it, leading to challenges with dissemination and uptake of consensual recommendations.

Planning and design of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, North America

The Gordie Howe International Bridge project is providing a new modern border crossing between Windsor, ON, Canada and Detroit, MI, USA. The centrepiece of the project is a 2.5 km long cable-stayed bridge with 853 m main span over the Detroit River and 220 m tall towers on both sides of the river. In addition to the bridge, the project includes ports of entry on both sides of the border and a new freeway interchange with Interstate-75 in Detroit. The project was procured as a public–private partnership that allowed the proponents to propose either a suspension or cable-stayed bridge, with the ultimate selection creating the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America. The paper outlines the need for the new border crossing and results of the environmental assessment process, as well as describing the project evolution from planning through procurement and into detailed design. The scoping of the bridge design parameters is discussed, including: comprehensive geotechnical investigation; load study to develop project-specific live loading; the approach for durability requirements to achieve a service life of 125 years; special considerations for security; wind engineering; and compliance with both Canadian and US design codes. The paper also discusses the approach to achieving an aesthetically pleasing bridge design.

Imposing calculations: The visibility and invisibility of harm in the Mackenzie Gas Project environmental assessment.

Environmental assessment is an institutional apparatus through which proponents concede harm associated with extractive projects. Within these processes proponents define the nature and scope of harm, which is made visible through the production of indicators and measurements and made manageable through mitigation measures or economic compensation. That the activities of extractive industries may have effects on surrounding ecologies is rarely in question; proponents of extractive projects regularly concede that their activities will result in negative (but also positive) changes to environments and communities. What is often contested in the course of environmental assessment and regulatory processes is the "significance" of the impacts identified, the nature of the harm caused, and whether or not it is possible or acceptable to accommodate it. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Sahtu Settlement Area, NWT during the Mackenzie Gas Project environmental assessment, along with regulatory documents and transcripts, this paper examines how proponents and regulatory regimes work to make the impacts of extractive industries visible, and how these logics deviate discursively and materially from many Indigenous peoples' understandings of appropriate relationships between human beings and nature.

Total Quality Management (Tqm) As a Prerequisite For Improving The Competitiveness In Waste Management And Waste Reprocessing Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises To Achieve Business Excellence

Total Quality Management (Tqm) As a Prerequisite For Improving The Competitiveness In Waste Management And Waste Reprocessing Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises To Achieve Business Excellence

Noise Annoyance from Tram Traffic in the Urban Environment

Abstract The paper deals with the process of environmental risk assessment from exposure to noise from tram traffic. As part of the monitoring of the acoustic situation, measurements of sound pressure levels A were made and evaluated. The survey confirmed the existence of an acoustic risk in the form of a disturbing wailing sound when a tram vehicle passes through a directional curve with a radius of less than 50m. In addition to causing annoyance, the tonal variation of sound above 65 dB causes frostiness, cardiovascular, psychological and auditory problems, thereby damaging the health of people living and moving around the transport routes.

Undermining Assessment: EIA follow-up, stake-holder advisory groups, and extractive industries in Nunavut, Canada

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the literature about environmental impact assessment follow-up, with case studies of stakeholder advisory groups associated with three mining projects in Nunavut, Canada. Based on an analysis of regulatory documents, we conclude that stakeholder advisory groups, as constituted and currently operating in Nunavut, are undermining aspects of the environmental assessment process. For example, potential impacts to wildlife that are invaluable to Inuit communities, as well as proposed measures to mitigate these impacts, have repeatedly been deferred to post-approval discussions in advisory groups. As a result, potential impacts and proposed mitigations are not adequately assessed during decision-making and permitting. Opportunities for public participation are curtailed, as advisory groups have no mechanism for public involvement and suffer from limited transparency. Moreover, these advisory groups have proven to be ineffective forums for guiding post-approval monitoring and addressing project effects. Other jurisdictions can learn from these experiences. A failure to implement best practice principles and stakeholder advice can lead to negative social and ecological outcomes.

Evaluation of the Sustainability Indicator for Road Infrastructure in Indonesia

The quality of road infrastructure in Indonesia is ranked 64th out of 137 countries studied behind Singapore which was placed 2nd, Malaysia 23rd, Brunei Darussalam 33rd, and Thailand 59th. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to analyze the sustainability indicators for the road infrastructures in the country and also to evaluate the effect of these indicators based on the perceptions of civil servants and contractors. The process involved conducting a literature review to identify the variables and indicators while a survey was used to gauge the perceptions of the respondents. The data obtained were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling with a Partial Least Square approach. The results showed the most influential indicator for existing and expected road infrastructures were road lighting with a loading factor of 0.904 and environmental assessment process with 1.000 respectively according to the government employees. Meanwhile, the construction company employees believed it was the environmental assessment process with 1.000 as well as pedestrian access, bicycle route, and public transportation with 1.000 respectively. The usefulness of this research is to produce indicators that can be used by infrastructure managers to improve their performance by seeking the development and maintenance of the right infrastructure so that it can be used according to the needs of the user.

The impacts of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in achieving sustainable lithium supply in the Lithium Triangle

The electrification transition will intensify the demand for lithium. The endowment in the Lithium Triangle is significant, and the expectations for the global supply are high in terms of resources and sustainability. In this paper, we investigate the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges to the future of sustainable lithium extraction. We undertook a qualitative analysis to prioritise the risks associated with these challenges and discussed their interlinkages. We argue that a sustainable perspective for lithium extraction in the region requires continuous and informed dialogue among government, industry and community stakeholders and participatory processes that reduce the asymmetries of power and knowledge. We provide a list of urgent mitigation actions that could assist the move towards sustainability. These include the following. First is expanding our understandings of the water cycle of lithium brines in this region. This should be underpinned by baseline data and ongoing monitoring at the watershed scale, capacity building to strengthen institutions, improved regulations and data infrastructures to promote data transparency and accessibility. Second is integrating biodiversity impacts within existing mining practices and procedures (e.g. Environmental Impact Assessments — EIA). We propose the strategic implementation of the mitigation hierarchy and IFC’s Performance Standards to avoid, reduce and offset the risks of lithium extraction on ecosystem services and critically important biodiversity impacts. Third is strengthening social participatory processes that enable the local communities to become actors in decision-making and the ongoing management and monitoring of lithium projects. Fourth is establishing a framework to support a Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) process specific to lithium with a regional approach in the Lithium Triangle.

Inconsistent, downplayed, and pathologized: How mining's gendered impacts are considered in BC environmental assessment

To what extent do mining environmental assessments in British Columbia (BC) consider gendered impacts? How are they considered? And how are these considerations shaped during the environmental assessment process? To answer these questions we undertook a systematic review of all completed BC mining environmental assessments between 1995 and 2019 (n = 37). Through a careful reading of documentation archived in the BC Environmental Assessment Office registry, we found that 60% of projects did not consider the gendered impacts of mining development; the remaining 40% of projects inconsistently assessed gendered impacts. While noting an increase in gender considerations in environmental assessments since 1995, also quantified in our results is what has not changed. Even where gender is considered, the assessments often collapse this concern into one of “women's issues,” obscuring intersectional impacts and downplaying violence along racialized and gender diverse lines, including those experienced by Indigenous women, children, two‐spirit, trans, queer and non‐binary people. Environmental assessment is a regulatory tool designed to adjudicate the impacts of mining projects, yet our results lead us to conclude that it is also a tool of environmental injustice, compounding and further sedimenting heteropatriarchal and racialized patterns produced through generations of settler colonial resource extraction in BC.

Treatment of ecological connectivity in environmental assessment: A global survey of current practices and common issues

ABSTRACT Ecological connectivity should be an important consideration in environmental assessment (EA). How often and how thoroughly the analysis of ecological connectivity is integrated in the EA process is, however, unknown. We surveyed EA actors and stakeholders regarding their perceptions of, and experiences with, connectivity analysis in the context of EA. 134 practitioners, regulators, consultants, researchers, and interest groups from all inhabited continents participated. Over 72% of respondents stated that ecological connectivity should always be considered; however, it is often considered too late in the EA process, at a scale of analysis often unsuitable for capturing landscape-scale effects, and relying on overly simplistic metrics or qualitative approaches. This disparity between the availability of a range of quantitative tools and the poor consideration of connectivity in EA raises major concerns about current practice and the feasibility of connectivity analysis in project-based EA. Connectivity consideration will need to be required explicitly and supported by best-practice guidance to address the conditions that should trigger a connectivity analysis, the required types of approaches, and the kind of information required to inform decision-making.

Sociable Space and Social Policies in Iranian Urban Local Communities

Changes in the spatial arrangement and dominant social processes of urbanization over the past few decades in Iran have failed to allow communities to shape their social interactions. This paper is a synthesis of a quantitative and qualitative study of community responses aimed at creating good social spaces within local communities in Tehran. First, we identified Perceived Residential Environment Quality indicators (PREQ) as tools for determining the effects of environmental quality (EQ) of sociable spaces. Then key social governance-­related concerns were studied on the basis of five questions including: Are the decision-­making and regulatory processes open, rigorous and accountable? Is the environmental quality assessment process adequate? Does the government have the intention and capacity to monitor and enforce regulations? Has the interaction of community members in decisions been timely and have local actors been significantly involved? Have local governments been included in decision making? It is observed that community residents identified systematic gaps and problems in decision-­making processes and sometimes even used them to advance individual interests, because they do not feel that they are dealt with justice and see the current laws as depriving them of access to more resources. In many cases, regulatory protections and assessments of social and environmental values lagged behind the physical construction. Administrative bureaucracies without creating a real participation have been increased. Overall, we argue that as a common ground, environmental activities can bring together people in the local community but when such functioning systems are put in place to ensure community engagement. So, despite extensive formal endorsement, they should provide for an effective as opposed to a symbolic involvement of stakeholders other than governmental authorities.

Simulation of Pesticide and Metabolite Concentrations Using SWAT+ Landscape Routing and Conditional Management Applications

The estimation of pesticide concentrations in surface water bodies with models is a critical component of the environmental and human health risk assessment process. The most recent version of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT+) provides new features that are useful for pesticide exposure assessments. This research is the first SWAT+ pesticide simulation study and was conducted to evaluate SWAT+’s new features and to assess its ability to predict pesticide and metabolite concentrations. The evaluation was conducted based upon a comparison of the results from seven different model configurations with high-resolution monitoring data. The results showed that (1) SWAT+ is able to simulate the formation of degradation compounds and predict resulting concentrations in surface water, (2) an accurate representation of transport processes for pesticide exposure assessments is important, and (3) an appropriate degree of realism can be achieved with a rule-based probabilistic pesticide application schedule if information about the annual percent crop treated, a typical application rate, and a typical application window is available. The accuracy of the pesticide concentration simulations with the new features of SWAT+ in the present study demonstrates the model’s ability to provide more accurate estimates with reduced uncertainty compared to SWAT simulations.

Chronic toxicity of diclofenac, carbamazepine and their mixture to Daphnia magna: a comparative two-generational study

The chronic toxicity of diclofenac (DCF) and carbamazepine (CBZ) as separate substances and in conjunction with their mixture on Daphnia magna was assessed in the parental (F0) and first filial (F1) generations. The second (F1-B2) and fifth (F1-B5) broods of F1 offspring were investigated and compared. Both drugs and their mixture were exposed to each generation of Daphnia magna for 21days with life history, behavioural and gene expressions as measured endpoints. After the parental exposure, offspring from these two broods were transferred to a clean medium for a 21-day recovery. Exposure to diclofenac, carbamazepine and their mixture significantly inhibited growth, reproduction, swimming activities, heart rate, thoracic limb activities, reproductive and antioxidant-related genes in the parental as well as the first filial generations. These effects were relatively greater in the F1 generation. This indicates that Daphnia magna's sensitivity improved while its fitness declined over the two generations, which is an indicator of greater energy requirements for maintenance. Besides, the significant inhibition in the antioxidant-related genes implies that oxidative stress occurred in Daphnia magna under the exposure to these drugs. The significant reduction in the reproductive output, moulting frequency and cyp314 gene expression as a result of exposure to CBZ simultaneously obtained herein may indicate that this drug could act as an endocrine disruptor. Most of these significant effects were not recoverable after the 21-day recovery period. The findings reported herein highlight the necessity to include maternal effects in environmental risk assessment processes, considering that pollutant effects are underestimated during single-generational exposure.