Environmental Impact Assessment Methods Research Articles

Environmental Repercussions of Craft Beer Production in Northeast Brazil

Beer is the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, and the craft beer market has been continuously growing in recent years. The objective of this study is to detail the production of craft beer and quantify its environmental impacts. The microbrewery is located in João Pessoa, northeast Brazil, and produces 180,000 L/year. The life cycle assessment methodology is employed, and 16 environmental indicators have been selected. Two environmental impact assessment methods are used: IPCC 2021 GWP 100y and ILCD 2011 Midpoint. The results indicate that the best packaging options (lowest environmental impacts) are 10 L stainless-steel kegs and 330 mL aluminum cans. The primary hotspot is the distribution to the points of sale, which employs diesel vehicles. When electric vehicles substitute diesel ones, the environmental impacts are three times lower. The adoption of electric mobility and increasing the consumption of local products are two strategies that can be explored to further mitigate the environmental impacts associated with craft beer.

Life cycle sustainability assessment method for concrete

AbstractThis study aimed to develop a life cycle sustainability assessment method for concrete. An environmental impact assessment method was developed using the ELCA technique announced through the ISO 14,040 Series and KOLID, one of the life cycle impact assessment indicators. A life cycle cost assessment method was developed based on the unit price of materials and energy consumption according to the Korea Price Information. A Social Impact Assessment Method was developed by identifying appropriate major social topics and analyzing those suggested by the international organizations (UNEP). In accordance with the ‘Towards a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment’ proposed by UNEP/SETAC, a Sustainable Concrete Index (SCI) was developed that integrates environmental, economic, and social aspects. In addition, the environmental impact of Korea’s 544 concrete types was classified by compressive strength, and the mode value was proposed as a standard concrete (environmental impact 6,662–10,785 KRW(5.02–8.12 USD), production cost 66,549–79,030 KRW(50.13–59.53 USD) so that it could be compared with the assessment concrete. As a result of selecting one ready-mix concrete business place in Korea and conducting a case study by comparing it with standard concrete, EI, CI, SI, and SCI, were analyzed to be 1.135, 1.134, 0.830, and 1.033, respectively, making it possible to quantitatively evaluate concrete sustainability.

A Study on the Introduction of Impact Assessment System for Coastal Erosion

Recently, the impact of climate change with sea levels rise, abnormal high waves, and continuous construction of artificial structures such as ports and harbors, has led to an increasing trend in coastal erosion. In this study, the scope and method of Environmental Impact Assessment, Utilization of Sea Areas, Disaster Impact Assessment, and Risk Assessment of Coastal Disasters System, which are carried out during development projects and erosion reduction projects carried out on the coast, are analyzed to identify each problem. , we proposed a plan to introduce the Impact Assessment System for Coastal Erosion, which can minimize the impact of coastal erosion by deriving improvement measures.

Resource Efficiency and Environmental Impact Assessment Method for Small-Scale Producers: A Case Study of Pond and In-Pond Raceway System Production for Growing Nile Tilapia

The purpose of this study was to employ Resource Value Mapping (REVAM) and carbon footprint assessments to evaluate the resource efficiency and environmental impact of the aquaculture sector in Thailand. Focusing on tilapia production, a case study that compares the innovative In-Pond Raceway System (IPRS) with the traditional pond system was conducted to serve as a guideline for small-scale producers toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The assessment applied lean classification to the agriculture context and used both machine and non-machine resources. Moreover, the Muda Index (MI) and the concurrent assessment of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the proposed map were introduced to identify resource efficiencies and environmental impacts across activities, respectively. The analysis highlighted resources with the highest MI values, waste proportions, and emissions requiring improvement. This study shows that addressing specific resources in REVAM can enhance resource management, facilitate control over variable costs, and ensure sustainability in both of these dimensions. Finally, a feasibility analysis was incorporated to weigh investment between in-pond and IPRS systems, in addition to resource use efficiency and environmental impact dimensions, creating an opportunity to meet the increasing demands in the international market.

Life cycle assessment of integrated microalgae oil production in Bojongsoang Wastewater Treatment Plant, Indonesia.

This study aims to determine the eco-friendliness of microalgae-based renewable energy production in several scenarios based on life cycle assessment (LCA). The LCA provides critical data for sustainable decision-making and energy requirement analysis, including net energy ratio (NER) and cumulative energy demand (CED). The Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen Leiden (CML) IA-Baseline was used on environmental impact assessment method by SimaPro v9.3.0.3® software and energy analysis of biofuel production using native polyculture microalgae biomass in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) Bojongsoang, Bandung, Indonesia. The study was analyzed under three scenarios: (1) the current scenario; (2) the algae scenario without waste heat and carbon dioxide (CO2); and (3) the algae scenario with waste heat and carbon dioxide (CO2). Waste heat and CO2 were obtained from an industrial zone near the WWTP. The results disclosed that the microalgae scenario with waste heat and CO2 utilization is the most promising scenario with the lowest environmental impact (- 0.139kg CO2eq/MJ), positive energy balance of 1.23MJ/m3 wastewater (NER > 1), and lower CED value across various impact categories. It indicates that utilizing the waste heat and CO2 has a positive impact on energy efficiency. Based on the environmental impact, NER and CED values, this study suggests that the microalgae scenario with waste heat and CO2 is more feasible and sustainable to adopt and could be implemented at the Bojongsoang WWTP.

Exploring environmental and social performances of circular start‐ups: An orientation and certification assessment

AbstractThe circular economy (CE) aims to deeply transform the current linear model of economy and society into a business model capable to extend the lifetime of resources and decrease environmental impacts. For this to happen, changes in societal systems and production sectors, from micro to macro, are required.The present research, based on a multiple case‐study explorative approach of circular start‐ups (CSUs), investigates their adoption of environmental impact assessment methods, environmental and social certifications and contribution to a better integration of the social dimension in the CE model. Results indicate that three out of six CSUs carefully measure and certify their environmental and social impacts. Life Cycle Assessment resulted the most adopted environmental assessment method, while two CSUs are also certified benefit corporations. CSUs are mainly oriented toward the use of quantitative methods for the measurement of environmental and social impacts. Additional efforts are still needed toward the implementation of qualitative methods to properly highlight the achievement of social benefits (environmental and social awareness, employees' engagement, work time and free time balance, consumers health and safety, among others) for their stakeholders (workers, local community, consumers). Nevertheless, CSUs case studies highlight their potential of supporting the transition toward a fair CE while at the same time facilitating the integration of social dimension aspects into the CE model. Finally, by developing appropriate business to consumer models, CSUs can strongly affect consumption behaviors and habits, making them also more aware and responsible of their environmental and social life cycle impacts and improvement potential.

Technological suitability and improvement for shaping environmental performance: A life cycle perspective on Fenton-based wastewater treatment processes

Water resource management and wastewater treatment are designed to ensure a safe and clean water resource in the pursuit of sustainable development goals. Chemical-based wastewater treatment processes typically involve significant consumption of resources, by means of chemical or material uses, which potentially lead to significant environmental impacts. This study intends to gain a comprehensive understanding of the environmental impacts associated with two Fenton-based wastewater treatment processes, namely, fluidized-bed reactor (FBR-Fenton) and conventional Fenton (C-Fenton) methods, for four industrial wastewater tests (organic wastewater from pulp mill, pharmaceutical, oil-containing, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) rinsing), from a technical suitability perspective. The present study adopts ISO 14040 guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA) and uses the IPCC and ReCiPe methods for environmental impact assessment. The results show that the FBR process has relatively lower environmental impacts than the C-Fenton process according to the IPCC and ReCiPe impact results, partly due to differences in chemical usage and electricity consumption. The results obtained from the IPCC method show that the C-Fenton process had a relatively higher impact on global warming potential than the FBR process, with impacts in the range of 20.5–141.9 kg CO2eq/1 kg COD and 12.0–41.9 kg CO2eq/1 kg COD, respectively, mainly due to variations in the amount of sodium hydroxide or sulfuric acid required to achieve the desired degree of water quality from different raw industrial wastewater sources. Furthermore, the reduction in the use of high-impact chemicals contributes to remarkable environmental benefits for the processes, while process adjustment may not guarantee environmental benefits. This result implies that the environmental performance of Fenton-based processes significantly varies depending on the treatment of raw wastewater characteristics; that is, the environmental advantage of a wastewater treatment technique strongly depends on the determination of a suitable process. This information can be used to support the determination and advancement of future wastewater treatment technologies aimed at improving environmental outcomes.

Comparative life cycle assessment of single-use cardiopulmonary bypass devices

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impacts of the common cardiopulmonary bypass device over its life cycle. This represents the first such assessment of a complex medical device, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. This study was motivated by practitioners’ concerns over cardiopulmonary bypass devices constructed mainly of single-use plastics, such as polyvinyl chloride and polycarbonate. The open-source software OpenLCA was used to perform each life cycle assessment with respect to ten common impact categories: global warming, eutrophication, acidification, smog, human health cancer, human health non-cancer, water intake, human health air pollutants, ecotoxicity, and natural resource depletion. The environmental impact was evaluated using the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability impact assessment method. To quantify the uncertainty in the results, Monte Carlo simulation was used using 5000 runs. A comparative assessment was conducted to determine the potential trade-offs in each impact category of using alternative construction materials. Incineration as a common disposal option could contribute up to 33 % of total CO2 equivalent emissions over the life cycle of the device. Another 33% of total CO2 equivalent emissions are attributed to polycarbonate used in the construction of devices. Polycarbonate was also implicated as the top contributor to the other impact categories considered, except for human health cancer, which is almost entirely affected by the use of polyvinyl chloride in the device, primarily in the tubes. The accuracy of these results is corroborated by the uncertainty analysis. Lastly, the results show that replacing polycarbonate with polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, or polyethylene would be no worse than polycarbonate and provide a significant decrease in almost every impact category. Cardiopulmonary bypass devices are constructed primarily of single-use plastics that have relatively significant impacts in the 10 common categories considered. Alternative disposal methods and replacement of polycarbonate with alternative plastics could dramatically reduce the effects in most impact categories.

Environmental Modeling for Radiation Safety

The newly launched IAEA project MEREIA (MEthods for Radiological and Environmental Impact Assessment; 2021- 2025), MEREIA continues some activities of previous IAEA exercises in the field of radioecological modelling and focuses on areas where the probabilistic approach determines the predictive capability of environmental models. The program offered the opportunity to set up well-designed and verified scenarios to collect and compare exposures predicted by particular models based on this scenario and then perform a validation study of contributing models. It consists of the comparison of model prediction with observed data or in the case where there is a lack of measurement data to perform a comparison within model prognoses. The previous international works have brought significant improvement in environmental modeling in terms of better understanding and mathematical description of complex physical and chemical phenomena that occur in various environmental media and also have promoted new areas for experimental investigations. The new experimental results yielded updated handbooks of a large number of environmental parameters for less-known elements. Moreover, the principal objective of the activities in environmental modelling was an integrated risk assessment of the reference group of population and biota associated with radionuclides releases from various kinds of nuclear facilities as from different types and power nuclear reactors, radioactive waste disposal and more complex nuclear research facility. This reflects recent international recommendations to extend protection against radiation hazards of humans to wildlife flora and fauna. However, the statistics supported knowledge on some essential environmental parameters still remain small. Therefore, one could be aware of some limitations of the probabilistic approach that required advanced methods of probabilistic prognosis Monte Carlo.

A scenario-based food security analysis and halophyte crop suitability assessment in dying lake environments impacted by climate change

Climate change has significantly impacted food shortages over the past decades, and predicted projections have also indicated potentially intensive consequences for species diversity and natural environments in the coming decades. Climate change in the form of drought has resulted in environmental impacts on global dying lakes (GDLs), such as water scarcity, land degradation and food shortage. Thus, new comprehensive environmental impact assessment methods are urgently needed for GDLs to inform decision-making and minimise the negative impacts on the environment and human life and wellbeing. As state of art and progressive research, the main objective of this research is to develop an approach using a comprehensive and transferable geographic information science scenario-based suitability assessment to analyse the capability of halophyte plants as alternatives for crop modification in GDL areas. The approach was developed and examined for Salicornia suitability mapping in the Lake Urmia Basin as one of the most critical GDL cases. To obtain the ecological requirement information, we performed a scenario-based cultivation experiment on Salicornia under different salinity conditions. Accordingly, we employed relevant ecological requirements and environmental indictors for the Salicornia plant (e.g. soil characteristics and climate) to identify suitable areas for cultivating this plant under scenario-based spatial modelling and performed an uncertainty analysis. The results were achieved and validated in a field operation and laboratory analysis. According to the results, the Salicornia plant can be efficiently considered an alternative crop in farmlands around Lake Urmia that are impacted by intensive soil, aquifer salinisation and food production issues. Results pointed out that about 4.6% of the area (2372 km2) is highly suitable for the cultivation of Salicornia. As state of the art, our approach was developed in a semi-automated context but can also be customised and applied to similar case studies in GDL environments. We expect that the information and insights gained from such assessments will support stakeholders, decision makers and authorities in the development of effective policies and plans for mitigating the impacts of climate change on the fragile ecosystems of GDLs.

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.