Environmental Impact Assessment Methods Research Articles

Quantifying the Environmental Impact of Vehicle Emissions Due to Traffic Diversion Plans for Road Infrastructure Construction Projects: A Case Study in China

Current LCA-based environmental impact assessments rarely consider the environmental impact of traffic network deterioration due to temporary road closures during road infrastructure construction processes. This study proposes a quantification method to evaluate the environmental impact of traffic diversions during the road infrastructure construction process. The environmental impact assessment method ReCiPe 2016 was selected to evaluate the environmental impact of pollutant emissions from deteriorated traffic conditions. Ten types of traffic emissions were estimated by emission factors and traffic conditions. A case study quantified the potential environmental impact of traffic emissions resulting from four diversion plans based on an actual bridge-construction case study in Chongqing city of China. Results revealed that different diversion plans could lead to different final environmental impacts. “Global warming” dominated both “Human health” and “Ecosystems” impacts. In the “Human health” category, more than 95% of the environmental impact was contributed by global warming. Similarly, the impact of “Global warming” was higher than 75% in the “Ecosystems” category. CO2 emissions were the main contributor to the overall “Global warming” impact in all four diversion plans. The traffic speed under traffic diversions before and during road infrastructure construction processes is the major factor influencing the overall environmental impact (endpoint).

Towards Sustainable Pasture Agrolandscapes: A Landscape-Ecological-Indicative Approach to Environmental Audits and Impact Assessments

Reliable environmental audits and impact assessments are essential to achieve effective pasture utilization and ensure the production of high-quality livestock products. This study aims to develop an environmental audit and impact assessment method for pasture agrolandscapes to promote sustainable livestock practices, using Central Kazakhstan as a case study. To provide a strong foundation for this research, the study utilized representations of pasture agrolandscapes, landscape-ecological and landscape-indicative approaches, and interactions between environmental audits and impact assessments in Kazakhstan. The authors acknowledge that their understanding of the environmental audit and impact assessment for pasture agrolandscapes is a complex method that requires specific knowledge and information about the landscape environment from users. They note that solving the challenges of national food security and environmentally safe territorial development can be achieved through the development of a private method that uses landscape environment status indicators. Methods similar to this enable the study of geocomplexes and their crucial characteristics, leading to a unique system of reliable indicators for environmental issues. This approach facilitates the creation of a scientifically based plan for optimal regional land use and land management systems regarding pasture agrolandscapes.

Air pollution modeling to support strategic environmental assessment: case study—National Emission Reduction Plan for coal-fired thermal power plants in Serbia

AbstractThe paper presents a specific method of environmental impact assessment applied in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the National Emission Reduction Plan (NERP) in the Republic of Serbia, based on air quality. The specificity of the approach is in the application of a semiquantitative method of multicriteria evaluation based on air dispersion modeling and the integration of SEA goals, indicators and criteria for assessing the impact of the NERP on the quality of air and other environmental elements in this method. When predicting changes in air quality for the planning horizon to 2028, the physical, geographical and climatic characteristics of the area were taken into account, as well as technical measures to reduce SO2 emissions, since this was the dominant pollutant from the Serbian coal-fired power plants studied by the NERP. Air pollution modeling was carried out using the AERMOD software package based on the data collected, and the quantitative results obtained were used in a multicriteria evaluation as part of the SEA. The results of the research indicated the importance of applying this approach in order to significantly increase objectivity in the SEA process, since it is an important element of decision making at the strategic level. In addition, a comparative presentation of the modeling results before and after application of the NERP was an important part of the SEA process, and it provided a clear insight into expected changes in the air quality. This is a key argument for making appropriate policy decisions on spatial, energy, environmental and socio-economic development in the Republic of Serbia, which, like other developing countries, is sluggishly following global trends in energy transition.

Life cycle assessment of power generation systems in Spain: Exploring a broader view from a consequential perspective

Developing new clean power generation systems is a research priority for the energy sector, and selection should be based on environmental performance over the entire lifetime. Consequential Life Cycle Assessment evaluates the consequences of this selection and provides environmental data to support decision-making. This research uses a consequential approach to assess the environmental impacts of two medium power generation systems. The selected environmental impact assessment methods are IPCC 2013 GWP 100y and ReCiPe 2016. Moreover, the work describes a methodology for finding the marginal mix technologies for electricity and cooling energy production depending on the time horizon. The positive environmental consequences associated with short-term marginal energy mixes (electricity and cooling) progressively disappear when the marginal energy mix varies throughout time. The environmental results strongly depend on the marginal mix of technologies and evidence the necessity to develop methodologies and standards to improve the robustness of environmental assessments. A new line of discussion is opened concerning the temporal variation of environmental impacts of an energy production system, which could also be considered in Attributional Life Cycle Assessments.

Characterization Factors to Assess Land Use Impacts on Pollinator Abundance in Life Cycle Assessment.

While wild pollinators play a key role in global food production, their assessment is currently missing from the most commonly used environmental impact assessment method, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This is mainly due to constraints in data availability and compatibility with LCA inventories. To target this gap, relative pollinator abundance estimates were obtained with the use of a Delphi assessment, during which 25 experts, covering 16 nationalities and 45 countries of expertise, provided scores for low, typical, and high expected abundance associated with 24 land use categories. Based on these estimates, this study presents a set of globally generic characterization factors (CFs) that allows translating land use into relative impacts to wild pollinator abundance. The associated uncertainty of the CFs is presented along with an illustrative case to demonstrate the applicability in LCA studies. The CFs based on estimates that reached consensus during the Delphi assessment are recommended as readily applicable and allow key differences among land use types to be distinguished. The resulting CFs are proposed as the first step for incorporating pollinator impacts in LCA studies, exemplifying the use of expert elicitation methods as a useful tool to fill data gaps that constrain the characterization of key environmental impacts.

Environmental impacts of solar thermal power plants used in industrial supply chains

A systematic literature review was conducted to investigate the environmental impact of solar thermal power plants in the industrial supply chains. A number of different solar thermal power collectors like parabolic trough (PT), linear Fresnel (LFR), solar dish (SD) and solar towers (ST) were considered and analysed. The first observation was that PT collectors generate the lowest level of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, followed by LFR, DT and SD plants. There was a lack of studies dealing with the GHG emissions of LFR and SD plants, which demonstrated a need of conducting more studies to gain better understanding of their environmental performances. The second observation was that different environmental assessment software tools used for analysing the environmental impact showed conflicting results because of the different approaches used in the characterization factors management in each software. Those software tools include: SimaPro, Gabi, System Advisor Model (SAM), Umberto and Thermoflex + PEACE. The standardization of environmental software tools and life cycle impact assessment methods is required to prevent discrepancies in life cycle assessment results. The third observation was the need for integrated environmental and economic assessments to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the solar thermal plants as it will enable investors, policy-makers and researchers to make informed decisions about the environmental and economic impacts of those plants.

Greenhouse gas and energy payback times for a wind turbine installed in the Brazilian Northeast

IntroductionGoing a step further than quantifying environmental impacts, establishing the environmental and energy payback times of a wind turbine can significantly impact the planning of a wind farm. This study applies the Life Cycle Assessment methodology to a wind turbine and verifies its environmental and energy payback times.MethodsThe Life Cycle Assessment was developed with the SimaPro software, using the Ecoinvent database and the IPCC 2013 GWP 100y and Cumulative Energy Demand environmental impact assessment methods. The Life Cycle Assessment considered the extraction of raw material, production of parts and pieces, transportation, assembly, use, and decommissioning. Besides the material composition of the wind turbine, meteorological data was also utilized to calculate wind electricity production in Northeast Brazil. The environmental analysis and data on energy production were used to calculate the time required to recoup the energy and emissions due to wind electricity compared to the emissions of the electricity grid.ResultsThe emission factor of wind electricity was 0.0083 kg CO2-eq/kWh, and the emissions associated with consumption of electricity from the Brazilian Electricity mix was 0.227 kg CO2-eq/kWh. Consideration of the energy consumed for the manufacture of the wind turbine yielded an energy payback of 0.494 years, and greenhouse gas accountancy led to a payback of 0.755 years.DiscussionThe results demonstrate that the payback periods are much lower than the lifetime of the wind turbine, highlighting the important role in addressing climate change and energy savings. The combination of Life Cycle Assessment and energy and environmental paybacks can be used to measure sustainability and deploy wind energy projects in locations with the shorter payback times.

Life cycle assessment of MycoWorks’ Reishi™: the first low-carbon and biodegradable alternative leather

BackgroundOver the past few years, several alternative leather technologies have emerged and promise advantages over incumbent leathers with respect to sustainability despite most containing enough plastic to prevent safe and effective biodegradation. Of the alternative leathers in production or advanced development, few fit the dual criteria of low-carbon and near-zero plastic. Reishi™ is a leather alternative, grown using MycoWorks’ Fine Mycelium™ technology, with less than 1% polymer content and satisfies the same performance, quality, and hand feel as animal leather. We present here the first Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Reishi™, detailing its “cradle-to-gate” carbon footprint and broader environmental profile. The pilot- and full-scale production of 1 m2 of post-processed, finished, and packaged Reishi™ both before and after production improvement implementations is modeled, and the environmental footprint impact assessment method is performed.ResultsIt was found that Reishi’s™ carbon footprint is as low as 2.76 kg CO2-eq per m2, or 8% of the value of the bovine leather benchmark modeled. Furthermore, it was found that Reishi™ has a lower impact compared to bovine leather modeled across a number of impact categories, including eutrophication, ecotoxicity, human health effects, and others. Reishi’s™ impact “hotspots” were determined, with the largest opportunity for further reduction being improved energy efficiency in the growth of mycelium, in particular, the process’s sterilization of raw material inputs via autoclave tools. It is also shown that MycoWorks’ passive process for growing mycelium has a carbon footprint two orders of magnitude lower than incumbent mycelium growth processes that actively consume carbon dioxide gas, which MycoWorks’ process does not require.ConclusionsReishi™ is shown to be a promising sustainable material through its unique combination of natural quality, low-carbon footprint as determined by this LCA, and biodegradability due to its lack of plastic or crosslinked content. Its manufacturing process is low impact even when produced at a scale of tens of thousands of square meters per year—a miniscule fraction of the billions of square meters of bovine leather already sold per year. With further use of this leather alternative, additional efficiency gains are likely to be realized.

The significance of resource recycling for coking wastewater treatment: based on environmental and economic life cycle assessment

The sustainability of the coking industry is supported by reasonable production profit and environmental quality requirements. The traditional measures substantially increased the related costs for enterprises to reach standards. This paper aims to develop a comprehensive cost combined environmental impact assessment method that is necessary for the analysis of wastewater treatment systems. Typical three coking wastewater treatment processes in China were evaluated. Results showed that eutrophication dominantly contributed to the overall environmental effect. Improving effluent quality could significantly reduce the total environmental impact. In terms of an economic perspective, the price of raw materials was the main factor that affected the operating cost of comprehensive treatment. Based on subsystem analysis, the pretreatment stage accounted for the majority of environmental and cost burdens, respectively reaching 64%–78% and 64%–86%. Optimizing the pretreatment process by enhancing the efficiency of high concentration raw material recovery and substituting toxic raw materials for extractant could reduce the environmental impact and economic cost by 43.8% and 57%, respectively, which was an effective way to improve the potential performance of coking wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).

A geospatial framework for the assessment and monitoring of environmental impacts of agriculture

The agriculture sector plays a critical role in global food security and economy, but it is also among the greatest contributors to environmental degradation and global warming through practices such as clearing of forests and wetlands, water management, and use of fertilizers and pesticides. This study proposes a geospatial framework for the systematic assessment and monitoring of environmental impacts of agriculture practices using agri-environmental impact indicators and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) method. Geospatial approaches are identified and synthesized for four key phases of the EIA method: (1) screening; (2) scoping; (3) impact prediction & assessment; and (4) impact management, monitoring & follow up. The study shows the potential of remote sensing and geospatial methods such as mapping, geostatistical interpolation, spectral indices, image classification, multi-criteria decision analysis, and GIS watershed analysis for the different EIA phases. The proposed framework can assess impacts at flexible spatial (within-farm up to the national level) and temporal scales (daily to annual). The framework was exemplified for Canada, where its use could integrate existing programs from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, such as environmental farm plans and agri-environmental indicators. The framework can be used by farmers, farmer organizations, environmental agencies, and consultancies, as well as provincial, territorial and federal agencies.

Challenges for Implementing Environmental Impact Assessment method for construction projects in Egypt

Assessing the environmental impact of buildings is a prime concern for many countries to abide by international agreements. Various studies have shown that the construction industry has significant implications for the consumption of energy, raw material utilization, and carbon dioxide emissions. Recent Law 9/2009 in Egypt necessitates performing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for major construction projects. There is a rising number of projects doing the EIA every year. Nevertheless, this cannot be considered a common practice till the present time and many projects are still struggling to perform the EIA studies. Hence, this study investigates the common challenges for implementing EIA for major construction projects in Egypt through a comprehensive literature review and survey among local practitioners. The results showed that the dilemma lies in the segregation of the EIA process along with the project’s phases. It also indicates problems associated with the limited availability of data and insufficient practitioners’ competencies and skills to perform the required assessment for certain impact categories.

Study on the impact of crab processing waste using LCA in Karawang Regency

Crab is a leading commodity in the white sand area of Karawang Regency. As a crab processing center, this area produces crab wastes, including shells and by-products. This study aims to identify inputs and outputs resulting from crab processing, calculate the size of the life cycle of the crab processing industry, and reduce environmental damage. In a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research, this study uses the environmental impact assessment method with stages of inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation and improvement. This study shows the magnitude of the environmental impact of GHG emissions and the energy efficiency of crab processing through calculated, analyzed, and proposed improvement scenarios. The impact analysis results show that 1 kg of crab products contribute to GHG emissions of 0.56 g CO2eq, with refrigerant for the refrigerator of 1.62 g CO2eq. Changing the refrigerant and making efficient water usage can reduce the impact. This research is expected to increase the use of resources and encourage further research to use LCA for waste reduction and crab waste treatment.

Comparison of Environmental Impact Assessment Methods in the Assembly and Operation of Photovoltaic Power Plants: A Systematic Review in the Castilla—La Mancha Region

Solar energy is in high demand due to its environmental benefits and economic potential; however, concerns remain about the total impact it holds. In 2020, for Spain, Castilla-La Mancha was the second autonomous community with the highest photovoltaic energy production. Thus, a systematic review on 15 large-scale PV solar energy projects was carried out to assess the industry impacts, through environmental impact assessment (EIA), within the Autonomous Community of Castilla—La Mancha. An estimation of these impacts from a pre-operational approach is presented, based on primary energy needs and emissions discarded during its life cycle due to the manufacture, operation, and recycling of the photovoltaic modules. Based on both the life cycle assessment (LCA) and EIA, the approaches were compared with the results obtained. The obtained results suggest that determining the actual impacts of power plants in this region could provide justified information for the public administration and technicians in the measures for the installation and operation of PV plants and the future benefits of renewable solar technologies. Furthermore, the results indicate the possibility to recognize the relationship between the size of the plant and a high generation capacity, with a shorter time to pay for emissions from the manufacture and recycling of panels, suggesting that it is around 1.66–2.08 years for the Castilla-La Mancha region.

Environmental and carbon footprint of tourist accommodation: A comparative study of popular hotel categories in Brazil and Peru

The environmental externalities of tourist accommodation are substantial, but their scientific appraisals have been far from holistic. Existing environmental impact assessment studies focus on hotel operations and exclude indirect material inputs and outputs due to data (un)availability. Important environmental ‘hotspots’ can be ignored in the result as these are often concealed in the diversity and complexity of a hotel's products and services. This study employs the method of environmental life cycle impact assessment to appraise the environmental externalities occurring through the life cycle of four popular comfort categories of hotels (hostel, budget, upmarket and luxury) in two countries of South America (Brazil and Peru). The appraisal is facilitated by the ecoinvent database (version 3.6, Allocation cut-off by classification) and the SimaPro software (version 9.1.1). The intra-sectoral and cross-country analysis reveals correlation of the environmental and carbon footprint with hotel comfort categories. The study finds that (1) treatment of solid waste generated in hotel operations; (2) construction of the hotel building; and (3) operational energy use; generate the largest footprints across all major impact categories. The contribution of (4) consumer goods, such as furniture, electric and electronic equipment, bathroom/sanitary fixtures and carpets, is also significant. The study advocates that these operational and non-operational material inputs and outputs should be accounted for in future environmental and carbon impact assessments of hotels. The study provides the first benchmarks of major embodied, indirect environmental and carbon impacts of hotels that can be used, with appropriate adjustments, in future research.

Environmental impacts and environmental justice implications of supplementary cementitious materials for use in concrete

Abstract As the second most used material after water and the producer of 8%–9% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, concrete is a key target for environmental sustainability efforts. Of these efforts, a main focus has been the use of industrial byproducts as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) to replace some of the cement binder, the source of most of the GHG emissions from concrete production. As byproducts, these SCMs are frequently assumed to have limited or no emissions from production. Our goal is to see if this assumption should continue to drive mitigation efforts and to arrive at a clearer understanding of the contribution of SCMs to the environmental impacts of concrete. Needing further examination are: (1) how environmentally beneficial SCMs are if some of the primary process impacts are attributed to them rather than considering them waste products; (2) whether transporting SCMs creates greater environmental impacts than the materials they are replacing; and (3) whether location of primary processes that result in SCMs as well as location of concrete production creates particular burdens on lower income and minority communities. This work focuses on three of the most common industrial byproduct SCMs, namely silica fume, fly ash (FA), and ground granulated blast furnace slag (BFS), exploring both GHG and particulate matter emissions. We show that allocation of impacts from primary processes dramatically increases emissions attributed to SCMs. High levels of transportation of FA and BFS typically do not result in these SCMs having higher GHG emissions than a 95% clinker-content Portland cement. We find that SCMs may be produced in areas with low income or minority populations then used to lower GHG emissions concrete in another location. As such, beyond common environmental impact assessment methods, the role of environmental justice should be incorporated into impact assessments.

A GIS Software Module for Environmental Impact Assessment of the Open Pit Mining Projects for Small Mining Operators in Kazakhstan

This research article presents a software module for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of open pit mines. The EIA software module has been developed based on the comprehensive examination of both country-specific (namely, Kazakhstan) and current international regulatory frameworks, legislation and EIA methodologies. EIA frameworks and methods have been critically evaluated, and mathematical models have been developed and implemented in the GIS software module ‘3D Quarry’. The proposed methodology and software module allows for optimised EIA calculations of open pit mines, aiming to minimise the negative impacts on the environment. The study presents an original methodology laid out as a basis for a software module for environmental impact assessment on atmosphere, water basins, soil and subsoil, tailored to the context of mining operations in Kazakhstan. The proposed software module offers an alternative to commercial off-the-shelf software packages currently used in the mining industry and is suitable for small mining operators in post-Soviet countries. It is anticipated that applications of the proposed software module will enable the transition to sustainable development in the Kazakh mining industry.

Environmental Impact Evaluation of Current Municipal Solid Waste Treatments in India Using Life Cycle Assessment

An environmental life cycle assessment was conducted to compare proposed municipal solid waste treatment systems with the existing system in Visakhapatnam, India. Five waste alternative treatment systems, including open dumping of municipal solid waste (S1), landfill without gas recovery [LFWGR] (S2), landfill with gas recovery (S3), anaerobic digestion + LFWGR (S4), and incineration + LFWGR (S5). EASETECHTM was considered for assessment using ReCiPE Midpoint (Heuristic) world environmental impact assessment method. Global warming potential (GWP), terrestrial acidification (TA), freshwater eutrophication (FEW), marine water eutrophication (ME), human toxicity (HTP), terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE), freshwater ecotoxicity (FWT), and marine ecotoxicity (MET) impacts were determined for each option. The existing MSW disposal practice in Visakhapatnam city (baseline scenario, S1) has the highest GWP (1107 kg CO2 eq.), which can potentially be reduced to 68.2%, 81.5%, 98.2%, and 94.5% by alternative waste management scenarios S2, S3, S4 and S5, respectively. Scenario S4, involving the use of anaerobic digestion of food waste and residues dumped in engineered landfill without energy recovery was found to be the option with the highest mitigation potential of most of the impacts, and it contributes to significant environmental benefits in terms of ecological footprints in a low-income country such as India. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to confirm the reasonable legitimacy of data used for the determination of the impacts.

Does Lake Balaton affected by pollution? Assessment through surface water quality monitoring by using different assessment methods.

In order to maintain a good environmental status of surface waters, an assessment of water quality carried out at specific intervals to monitor the changes of water quality in function of time. Human knowledge and experience are currently focused on using assessment methods, especially the integration of multiple constraining factors and considering them in conjugation with the correct decision-making process concerning the environment. When surface water is highly exposed to human activities, either from recreational or economic activity, the degree of vulnerability is high, and the quality of surface water is highly compromised. In case of Lake Balaton, there are many activities that can disrupt water dynamics. The first goal of this study is to determine the location of the least and most polluted sites around Lake Balaton. The processing of data was carried out by using multi-criteria decision techniques and environmental impact assessment method based on physical–chemical parameters in comparison with the limiting parameters. Based on the results of those methods water quality needs to be improved in western parts of the lake by using several geoengineering treatment techniques. This work covers a novel approach to comparing methods based on sum of ranking differences, whereas many method comparison studies suffer from ambiguity or from comparisons not being quite fair. This problem can be avoided if there are differences between ideal and actual rankings.

The Significance of Scope 3 GHG Emissions in Construction Projects in Korea: Using EIA and LCA

In Korea, a greenhouse gas (GHG) environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been conducting since 2012, which sets the evaluation procedures and methods for GHG items during the EIA. However, the current EIA on GHG emissions can support wrong decision-making because the evaluation does not consider Scope 3 GHG emissions. Accordingly, this study proposed the life cycle EIA (LCEIA) method to identify changes in GHG emissions that need to be managed by considering Scope 3 GHG emissions in construction projects. The LCEIA method incorporates life cycle CO2 (LCCO2) including Scope 1, Scope, and Scope 3 GHG emissions using the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA) into the scoping step of the EIA process. The case study was conducted using existing EIA on GHG emission and LCEIA methodology for a development project in Gwangyang City. Scenario 1 is defined as an approach that calculates GHG emissions using the existing EIA method, and scenario 2 is also defined as a process using the LCEIA method. Results reveal that Scenario 2, including Scope 3 GHG emissions, had 46.4−51.2% more GHG emissions than Scenario 1. Sensitivity analysis for electricity and liquefied natural gas (LNG) density was also performed. Although the change in the carbon emission factor of electricity had a slightly sensitive effect on the research results, the LNG density was found to be less sensitive. This study believes the importance of switching to an EIA reflecting life cycle carbon dioxide (LCCO2) to calculate the exact amount of GHG emissions for construction work.

Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of alternative osmotic and mixing dilution desalination system configurations

An environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to compare the conventional SWRO desalination process to two contemporary low-pressure membrane desalination processes: an osmotic dilution desalination (ODD) and a mixing dilution desalination (MDD). The ODD process combines a forward osmosis (FO) membrane and a low-pressure RO membrane (LPRO) in a hybrid (FO-RO) configuration. The MDD process couples the ultrafiltration (UF) with LPRO in a hybrid UF-RO configuration. SimaPro™ was used to conduct the LCA study. CML environmental impact assessment method was used to evaluate 11 environmental impact categories. Results from LCIA reveal the strong dependency of environmental impacts on the clean in place (CIP) process in dilution desalination systems while the energy flow in the standalone RO shows almost similar levels of dependency of environmental impacts instead of CIP process. Overall, the ODD process with FO-RO hybrid membrane technology has the highest environmental impact. The normalised comparison LCIA indicates that standalone RO has the lowest total environmental impacts as the fossil fuel is considered as the main source of power generator. Compared to conventional SWRO, the MDD process coupled with hybrid UF-RO technology had a lowest contribution to global warming and ozone layer depletion but had higher impacts to marine and aquatic resource depletion. Scenarios substituting the conventional with renewable energy sources to power the water treatment options favoured the MDD process coupled with hybrid UF-RO technology and prove the hybrid UF-RO process as the most environmentally favourable comparing to the conventional SWRO and hybrid FO-RO.