Environmental Impact Assessment Procedures Research Articles

Project justification and EIA: Anything goes?

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) incorporates environmental aspects into decision-making, but sometimes it is not effective in rejecting projects with dubious justification, significant impacts and little social utility, especially when they have political support. EIA is expected to achieve sustainable development, but without calling development into question; however, it should be able to ask the question of whether development is really necessary. Although EIA is political, as a part of the decision-making process, politicization must be limited to prevent it from becoming a mere instrument for giving an “environmental veneer” to development. Some measures thar can help avoid unjustified projects are: adopting administrative justice approach to EIA; minimising politicization of EIA agencies; improving transparency in decision-making and proportionality of EIA procedures; carrying out pre-feasibility studies; increasing the scope of SEA; allowing more than one SEA or EIA procedure for the same development throughout the planning process; strengthening the justification of the project in EIA documents; or making the scoping phase mandatory at least for major projects.

Mining Impacts Assessment Using the LCA Methodology: Case Study of Afema Gold Mine in Ivory Coast

Environmental impact assessment studies are mandatory for major industrial or infrastructure projects in most countries. These studies are usually limited to on-site impacts during exploitation but do not consider indirect impacts generated off-site or those concerning other steps of the project, including dismantling. National regulations in various countries have recently begun to include these neglected impacts to obtain a better appreciation of project trade-offs. Several scientists have highlighted the substantial potential of using the life cycle assessment methodology to increase the level of detail and completeness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies. Even if mining activities are known to produce significant local impacts, their consequences outside an extraction site have not yet been well documented. The implementation of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology in the EIA procedure has been carried out in a Au mining project by separating on-site and off-site impacts during the entire life cycle of the mine from prospection to site restoration following the end of exploitation. Mining projects occur over large time periods and require diverse materials and processes. The main difficulty of such analysis is the data collection that needs to be extrapolated for some of the activities. Even with these limitations, the Afema case study highlighted the significant share of off-site impacts (from a spatial perspective) and the major contribution of the exploitation phase of the mine (from a temporal perspective). Operating activities, especially excavation, ore, and waste rock transportation, blasting, ore processing, and tailing treatments, are the main impacts produced during the exploitation phase and are involved in climate change, particulate matter formation, and land destruction. Therefore, this standardized LCA method should be recommended by the regulatory authorities for use in EIA procedures. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:465-479. © 2020 SETAC.

Challenges in Harmonized Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas

The Adriatic-Ionian region (ADRION Region) shows strong development in terms of urban expansion in coastal and inland areas as well as increasing maritime traffic and offshore hydrocarbon extraction activities. A serious risk of pollution arises from hazardous substances requiring reliable and coherent monitoring and assessment programmes. EU Directives (WFD - Water Framework Directive, MSFD - Marine Strategy Framework Directive) and Barcelona Convention protocols, aim to assess the level of pollution with the objective to implement measures to prevent and/or mitigate impacts on the marine environment. This high level integration process has to be based on common and agreed protocols for monitoring of contaminants. Aiming to share best practices to encourage a harmonized implementation of monitoring and assessment of contaminants, an extensive review of monitoring and analytical protocols adopted by six EU and non-EU countries along the Adriatic and Ionian seas was carried out in the framework of the Interreg Adrion project HarmoNIA. This paper presents a methodological proposal to define a common protocol for the evaluation of the metal contamination of seawater, sediment and biota. Contaminants have been chosen following preliminary consultations among countries of the ADRION area, considering objectives of WFD and MSFD, as well as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures for offshore platforms. Information was gathered relative to matrix characteristics and quality assurance/quality control of the analytical performance (sample preservation, analytical methodology, reference materials, limit of detection and limit of quantification, accuracy, reproducibility, etc.). The comparison of information provided by laboratories of nine institutions highlighted the request for harmonization in terms of sampling procedures, matrix characterization, preservation procedures, analytical methods and LOQ values. Although appropriate environmental quality standards for biota and sediment matrices should be established at national level and also through regional and sub-regional cooperation, as required by the WFD and MSFD, the proposed LOQ values, even if challenging, represent a benchmark and a stimulus to optimize analytical performance, to ensure the best level of protection to the coastal and offshore environment in the ADRION Region.

Challenges in Harmonized Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Monitoring and Decommissioning Procedures of Offshore Platforms in Adriatic-Ionian (ADRION) Region

A harmonized and integrated approach for monitoring and assessment of contamination, including hydrocarbon exploitation one, is required both by Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) at EU level and by the Ecosystem Approach (EcAp) program of the Barcelona Convention at Mediterranean level. A broad review of protocols of environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures, monitoring and decommissioning of offshore platforms adopted by EU and non-EU countries along the Adriatic-Ionian seas was carried out in the framework of the Interreg offshore platforms in Adriatic-Ionian (ADRION) project HarmoNIA (Harmonization and networking for contaminant assessment in the Ionian and Adriatic Seas). The comparison of information provided by six ADRION countries and the application of a harmonized and integrated approach has highlighted specific challenges for managing offshore platform impacts emerged at ADRION level: (i) need of the same legislative level (the Offshore Protocol of Barcelona Convention is not ratified by all countries); (ii) set up of a task force of ADRION experts for discussing critical issues related to impacts of offshore platforms; (iii) harmonization, at the regional level, of EIA procedures, monitoring and decommissioning; (iv) need of an agreed and common list of recommended parameters to monitor in water, sediment and biota for the assessment of impacts due to platform installations and PFW discharges.

Environmental impact assessment procedures for projects in marine environment – evaluation analysis

Appropriately high level of marine environment protection implies taking the measures of prudence, precaution, reasonable and rational use of marine natural resources, and that is achieved also through the assessment of potential significant negative impacts at the early stage of planning of a particular project. Marine fish and shellfish farms, marine ports, minerals exploitation, shore nourishment, seabed deepening and drying, construction in and at the sea and other projects in marine environment are subject to implementation of environmental impact assessment and screening projects based on environmental reports. The description of main features of technological processes of planned projects and their impact on marine environment constitute an integral part of environmental reports, as technical baselines for assessing potential significant negative impacts. In order to prevent pollution, pursuant to law provisions, it is necessary to apply technologies that are most efficient for achieving high level of marine environment protection. In assessing at the planning stage whether most acceptable technologies are used, consultative expert committee consisting of scientists and professionals is engaged in environmental impact assessment procedures. Paper analyses the parts of environmental reports describing technological procedures and proposes the methods of upgrading their quality by involving experts and scientists in examining thereof.

Environmental Impact Assessment: Possible Application of the Ecomorphic Approach

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a process by which environmental impact information is collected and precautions are determined. In many EIA countries, it is enshrined legislatively, but there is a common problem – in practice, many elements of the procedure are performed at a sub-standardized level. Scientists and practitioners note the problematic nature of the effectiveness of EIA procedures, which is primarily caused by the difficulties of turning assessments of biological diversity into clear management decisions. Biodiversity asses-sment and monitoring programs should consist of a list of protocols that ap-ply reliable methods of accounting for living organisms, taking into account spa-tial and time context. It is particularly noted that without “scientific rigor” and methodology of evaluation, the collected data may not matter for decision-making and represent wasted time and money. The effectiveness of EIA procedures can be improved by incorporating ecosystem services into the concept procedure, as it is a reflection of the functioning of ecosystems, which is a prerequisite for the socio-economic wellbeing of the population. One of the markers of ecosystem services is the ecomorphic structure of living cover. The investigation revealed the role of the ecomorphic structure of the soil macrofauna community as an indicator of the level of anthropogenic effects on the ecosystem. The results indicate that the ecomorphic characteristics of the soil macrofauna community are informative markers of the state of the ecosystem. The soil macrofauna community is divided into functional groups, which should be considered as a mechanism to maintain the stability of the ecosystem as a whole. This structuring has a place in both ecological and geographical space. Comparing grou-ping projections in both of these spaces provides an opportunity to interpret functional groups. It is important to note that both natural and anthropogenic factors structurally affect soil macrofaunf. An important aspect of anthropogenic influence is the inhibition of the endogeic block of the soil macrofauna community. Functionally, it is replaced by an epigeic macrofauna, which is represen-ted by extremely mobile species capable of recolonizing microsites with a temporary reduction in anthropogenic pressure. Thus, the ecomorphic structure of the soil macrofauna community has a high potential for application in the system of environmental impact assessment tools.

The impacts of EIA procedure on the mining sector in the permit process of mining operating activities & Turkey analysis

Mining operations are activities that require large investments with high risks at all stages and have a long process of return on the investment. In addition to the production and investment criteria, environmental criteria also have an impact on making the decision on whether to carry out these activities or not. Accordingly, the decision to whether to carry out the mining projects or not is made based on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). All the legislation and application issues that are determined in Turkey regarding the EIA also have resulted in the number of times EIA procedure is required from the mining sector to be quite a lot compared to the other sectors. The frequency of EIA being requested from the mining sector does not only create a bureaucracy that is only applied to the mining sector, but also creates investment losses in this sector. The result clearly shows that tens of mining enterprises lose a significant amount of their investments because of the EIA. In other words, this has happened due to EIA process times being lengthened out and process completion time being unpredictable because of reasons that emerge from the assessment during the process of EIA in Turkey. These circumstances also cause the investors who want to invest in the mining sector to back down on the investments they were planning to make.The answers that are given to the survey questionnaire which was asked to the mining enterprises in order to see how long it takes to be granted the EIA and the other permits that are taken under rules to be completed within three months during the EIA process in the mining sector in Turkey, show that the other permits (like the “Land ownership Permit” and “Business License and Work Permit”) are usually given to the mining enterprises within 3–34 months time during the EIA process in Turkey. In order to shorten this license assessment process; the procedures that request the opinions of other institutions during the EIA procedure after the application was made and even after the EIA license is granted, need to be abolished. Furthermore, through a Commission that could be established within the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR) that constitutes of the representatives of EIA and other units the opinions of which are requested will make the EIA and other permits to be granted, managed and the decisions during the permit process to be made faster.

Visual impact evaluation of mines and quarries: the updated Lvi method

The article deals with the evaluation of the visual impact arising from quarrying, mining and civil engineering works that involve extensive surface excavation. An indirect method has been formerly proposed to quantify the level of visual impact (Lvi) based on the two physical variables that define the magnitude of change in a natural landscape: the solid angle subtended by the visible alteration from a given viewpoint (Ωv) and the chromatic contrast between the alteration and the surrounding landscape (ΔEμ). These two objective variables are determined by elaborating the digital images of the landscape under investigation, taken from the most representative viewpoints. The Lvi indicator has proven to be highly correlated with the judgement values expressed by potential observers and thus may represent a valuable operative tool in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures, both for the proponent of new projects and for the governmental authorities in charge of decision-making. This article describes a further development of the Lvi method, which aims at improving the repeatability of the impact evaluation by eliminating some critical issues related to the definition of both the excavation limits and the natural comparison surfaces representing the natural landscape. To that end, the original calculation code has been implemented with two image segmentation algorithms, which objectively designate the areas within the picture to be used for the automatic calculation of the impact level Lvi. The updated code has been validated against the original Lvi method, thus confirming the suitability of the revised methodology to represent the perception of potential observers.

EVALUATION OF PUBLIC CONSULTATION IN AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE. A CASE STUDY

The objective of the paper is to evaluate a public consultation under a procedure for environmental impact assessment of an extension and alteration project of a palace in Kijany, municipality of Spiczyn, Lubelskie Voivodeship, eastern Poland. An evaluation questionnaire survey was developed to acquire reliable information about consultation meetings under the procedure that mainly involved residents of the municipality of Spiczyn and environmental organisations. The questionnaire survey was conducted in March and April 2019 and involved 45 respondents. Most of them evaluated positively the public consultation. What they found most important was the clear presentation of legal, financial, economic, and environmental aspects of the project. The respondents believed the equal treatment of participants of the meetings regardless of their position to be a great advantage.

USE OF BIOMONITORING TO IDENTIFY HAZARDS IN CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

The study addresses the possibility of integrating biomonitoring into the environmental impact assessment process of critical infrastructure projects. It has been established that critical infrastructure projects include projects related to the construction, reconstruction and operation of critical infrastructure facilities. Critical infrastructure projects can be hazardous to the environment, but the timely identification of the nature, intensity, degree of danger of the critical infrastructure project for the state of the environment and public health will be able to prevent processes of manifestation and accordingly promote successful implementation. The peculiarities of carrying out the procedure of environmental impact assessment and its importance as a factor of successful passage of the project throughout the life cycle are determined. It has been established that a comprehensive environmental impact assessment procedure will help to make environmentally sound management decisions that will benefit the environment. An algorithm for carrying out environmental impact assessment for critical infrastructure projects has been developed. A rapid assessment of atmospheric air pollution was carried out using the method of dendroindication based on the study of the stability of tree plantations at all stages of ontogenesis to identify hazards in projects of critical infrastructure. Practical application of the method of dendroindication will allow to improve the possibilities for the detection of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere and to estimate the total value of anthropogenic load on plant organisms. It is established that the use of dendrology as an additional method in carrying out the environmental impact assessment will significantly increase the opportunities in the field of hazard identification for critical infrastructure projects, especially in the aspect of project activities for their reconstruction and operation. The application of the proposed method in the project activities will help to reduce their possible negative impact on the state of the environment.

Integrating health indicators into the environmental impact assessment

In recent years, the interdependency of population health and the environment has been widely explored by both academic and professional literature. Salutogenic strategies and cultural ecosystem services are distinct but complementary attempts in bringing the two fields together. Therefore, legislative environmental measures, such as the environmental impact assessment (EIA), could be better equipped to mitigate the negative impact of human development if they also included health assessments. In the European context, the theme of health in the EIA is becoming increasingly important. However, the practical checklists for the EIA reviews lack a robust and standardised list of health impacts. First, this paper drafts such a list starting from academic and professional literature and further reorganising the information into a checklist fit to the European format. For each impact, qualitative and quantitative measures are presented together with alternatives as adaption and mitigation measures. Using a GIS platform could streamline and standardise the EIA procedure, as well as provide a base for monitoring and stakeholders interaction.

Challenges to integrate health impact assessment into environmental assessment procedures: the pending debate

ABSTRACT Sooner or later, Health Impact Assessment (HIA) will be conducted as a legal requirement (instead of a voluntary process) in a variable number of public and/or private projects worldwide. The Spanish Public Health Act 2011 introduced HIA into the national legal system but its regulatory development remains incomplete. This delay is partially justified because of the current lack of resources and the associated costs, which are not exclusively a Spanish problem, according to literature. Therefore, this situation invites stakeholders to promote the integration of HIA into other administrative consolidated procedures, such as strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of policies, plans and programmes and environmental impact assessment (EIA) of projects. However, SEA and EIA procedures unveil well-known weaknesses that have been publicly reported for decades. It is, therefore, befitting to promote a previous interdisciplinary debate on both the desirability of integrating HIA into both SEA and EIA, and the way of doing so. This article intends to serve as a starting point for discussion by practitioners involved in defining the role of HIA into environmental assessments and vice versa.

A transdisciplinary framework for environmental impact assessment: Opportunities and resistances among practitioners in Spain

Environmental issues, bringing together the natural and the social spheres, are probably one of the most appropriate fields of development for transdisciplinary research. Transdisciplinarity, in addition to other contemporary epistemological paradigms, stresses the need to approach complex problems by blending new forms of non-expert knowledge with combined epistemologies. However, practical application of the transdisciplinary approach is still almost non-existent in everyday socio-environmental management. This paper has a two-fold aim: firstly, to establish the suitability of the transdisciplinary approach in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a means of rectifying a common incapacity to address the social dimension in the assessment process; and secondly, to evaluate this idea from the perspective of technicians and professionals in the EIA sector in Spain. To this end, a qualitative methodology was used, based on semi-structured interviews, which enabled in-depth investigation of the willingness of specialists to effectively integrate new forms of knowledge into the EIA procedure. Further, interviewees evaluated the real possibilities of widening public participation in the process of identifying and assessing impacts and discussed the difficulties facing the treatment and analysis of the social dimension within the EIA process.

The use of information and communication technologies in training ecology students

Increasing demand for experts capable of high-quality assessment of the impact of a particular planned activity on the environment involves a more effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the educational process of training ecology students. The authors present a methodology for students to study the educational material of the “Environmental Impact Assessment” course by using ICT. The methodology and algorithm for using the Padlet interactive whiteboard, Mindomo mind maps, Easel infographics, Google Drive and Google Docs in lectures and practical lessons are described. Particular attention is paid to the preparation of a group project using ICT. Tested in the Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, the methodology allows to implement a number of tasks such as: promotion of intensification and effectiveness of teaching; acquisition of practical skills to quickly find the necessary information on various online resources for ecology students; simulation of the real procedure of environmental impact assessment in the classroom; development of the ability to professionally communicate with experts in other fields of knowledge or activity, etc. Examination of the results of using ICT to study the “Environmental Impact Assessment” course has shown a significant increase in informational literacy among ecology students and their individual professional growth.

RESPONSIVE BIOREMEDIATION: REGULATING THE UNCERTAINTY, ASSESSMENT, AND NEGOTIATION FOR COASTAL DEVELOPMENTS IN HAINAN, CHINA

Land reclamation and dredging have a damaging effect on marine and coastal ecology. This study rationally analyzes the conflicts in the approved environmental impact assessment (EIA), including the negligence of the direct and indirect effects on coastal and marine habitats, the short circuit of the EIA procedures among stakeholders, and the insufficient marine environmental restoration schemes. This study also promotes awareness among the stakeholders so they will understand the direct and indirect effects of land reclamation on marine and coastal ecosystems, as well as the indications if they follow the EIA procedures, and implement a responsive marine bioremediation before and during the dredging process. By taking the Ocean Flower Island in Hainan, China as an example, this study applied the responsive oyster-seagrass-coral filtration bed system before and during the dredging process to maintain the water turbidity and suspended sediment concentration below the tolerance limits of the coral reefs in the adjacent areas.

Using the Leopold Matrix Procedure to Assess the Environmental Impact of Pollution from Drinking Water Projects in Karbala City, Iraq

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure is designed to identify and predict the impacts of bio-geophysical environments on human health. In this study, the Leopold matrix was applied to predict the pollution impacts of seven water projects in Karbala city in Iraq based on water quality data collected for the period January to December 2018. The results showed that the impacts of Ca and SO4 in treated water were unacceptable in most cases due to uncontrolled dosage of alum and lime added during water treatment processes. The results also demonstrated that the maximum environmental impact (EIV) for raw water was 51.21 at Al-Hendiya Al-Qadeem water treatment plant (WTP) while that for treated water was 99.97, at Hay Al-Hussein WTP. The obtained impact values of treated water quality parameters in this study occurred due to the use of old techniques in water treatment and demonstrate the need to upgrade these techniques. The Leopold matrix was, however, shown to be good process for sifting out or mitigating the negative effects of such projects on humans and the environment.

Round table: Health in Environmental Impact Assessment: getting serious about primary prevention

Abstract There is an increasing awareness in Europe that health is determined largely by factors outside the health sector. Thus, as public policies in all sectors and at different levels of governance may have a significant impact on population health, a new approach for tackling health is needed. Health in All Policies is an approach to public policies across sectors that systematically considers the health implications of decisions, seeks synergies, and optimises them to improve population health and health equity. Therefore, engagement of the health sector in other policies should be a priority within public health. However, it is bound to meet some resistances as it entails new roles in public health practice, bringing some practitioners out of their comfort zone. Implementing the health in all policies agenda on the ground is challenging, and tools such as Health Impact Assessment (HIA) are needed to enable policy-makers to predict and govern the consequences of their proposals on the well-being of the affected population, and to optimise them. Advocacy and support from the public health sector are imperative to achieve these goals. This also means placing public health professionals outside their usual area of expertise, confronted with alien sectors such as urban planning or infrastructure development. HIA expertise and capacity are still scarce and unevenly distributed in Europe. Indeed, lack of awareness, capacities and resistance from public health officials are usually cited as some of the barriers preventing its establishment as a field of work in many countries. To deal with this problem, many countries and subnational entities have been developing resources such as databases and websites, while others have embarked on capacity building. As a result, there has been a widespread use of HIA in Europe in recent years and sharing some successful case studies is important. The WHO Europe Regions for Health Network (RHN) aims at documenting and disseminating best practices to improve populations’ health across Europe. Andalusia (Spain), through its Regional Ministry of Health, has been implementing HIA over the last five years, focusing on the development of tools and procedures, identifying elements of success, conflicts and reluctances, and windows of opportunity. This workshop is intended to share the existing experiences on HIA and to launch a new RHN case-study publication collecting best practices on HIA across Europe. After an introduction by the chairperson, a presentation by WHO will provide an overview of HIA in Europe, followed by a representative from Andalusia who will focus on the challenges and opportunities found in implementing HIA as a stand-alone document partially integrated with Environmental Impact Assessment procedures. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion with panelists representing the subnational level of governance, from 5 different countries in Europe: Belgium, Germany, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland. Key messages HIA is a tool for implementation of the health in all policy agenda; a resource for addressing complex environmental health determinants and a way of being faithful to WHO’s definition of health. HIA can be simple, if needed. In HIA, too, the best is the enemy of the good. It “operates deliberately in imperfection” as in many cases where stakes are high, decisions urgent and evidence uncertain.

Workshop: Making progress in Health Impact Assessment: from theory to practice

Abstract Nowadays, it is widely accepted that the causal pathway leading to an adverse health outcome does not depend on isolate risk factors but on the intricate relation of those elements with broader socioeconomic, cultural, environmental, and political conditions. This comprehensive approach was already acknowledged in the preamble of the constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) when referring to the concept of “health”. The so-called social view of health generated under this new framework place also a great emphasis in addressing health inequalities within a population. Impact assessment (IA) is a discipline involving specific methods and technical tools for analysing the consequences of a planned intervention previously to the implementation phase. Its purpose is to support the decision-making process. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a form of IA applied to a wide range of public or private projects that are likely to pose a significant impact on the environment. The EIA Directive (2011/92/EU) was amended in 2014 (2014/52/EU), including explicitly “population, and human health” in the list of topics to be considered in an EIA. However, the amended directive does not provide a specific definition for any of the two terms, nor guidance on how to assess the potential health effects related to a project, or the necessary qualifications of professionals tasked with the assessment of these effects. To this respect, public health professionals are not likely to be routine contributors to EIA. In this sense, under a business-as-usual coverage, environmental specialists are the professionals developing standards and methods to assess all topics in EIA, including for population and human health. This runs the risk that EIA practice will lose much of its potential for improving human health. The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) together with the European Public Health Association (EUPHA), and the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health (WHO-ECEH) are working on a reference document to support public health authorities and other health stakeholders in addressing human health within EIA as required by the Directive 2014/52/EU. The aim of this workshop is to present that document and discuss with participants about the above-mentioned gaps, for ensuring a consistent coverage of population and human health within the EIA process. Elements to be discussed: -Description of major changes introduced by the amended EIA directive, and its impact on public health-Institutional/political support needed for the institutionalization of health assessment within EIA-Role of the Public Health sector, and description of what likely or significant effect on health should be considered within EIA-Competencies required for assessing population and human health in EIA.-Gaining strength from the ‘Family of health assessments’ approach” Key messages A comprehensive approach to population and human health should be incorporated in the EIA procedure. Raise awareness for involving public health sector in addressing population and human health in EIA.

Landscape Project for the Environmental Recovery of a Quarry

The growth of urban populations causes cities, and their suburbs, to spread, expand, and replace natural lands by agricultural. Urbanization brings land-use change, altering the relationship between human societies and environmental resources. Therefore, the management of natural resources connected to urban expansion has become one of the most important challenges in attaining sustainable landscape. Quarrying is a crucial component of local socio-economic development providing key materials for infrastructures and buildings. However, like many other human activities, quarrying causes a significant impact on the environment. In Mediterranean countries, quarrying activities exert increasing pressures on limited soil and water resources, thus accelerating erosion processes and subsequent destruction of existing arable lands. Quarrying operations can profoundly alter pre-existing ecosystems and perturb hydro-geological and hydrological regimes. They can profoundly modify the substratum, change landscape patterns and integrity, destroy natural habitats and interrupt their natural succession, as well as alter genetic resources. The resulting situation is seriously compromised by anthropic regeneration processes on degraded sites after the end of quarrying activities, which are not focused on potential natural vegetation which these sites could develop, considering the surrounding ecosystems. In this work, we propose a landscape regeneration project which was developed as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure on quarrying activity located in the municipality of Lecce, South Italy. This project aims to integrate environmental and landscape aspects with the economic and social ones in order to guarantee the sustainability of the proposed intervention. The new project modifies the one presented at the start of the quarrying activity which planned planting of trees directly on the bottom of the quarry, (about 40 meters deep from the ground level and three meters above the groundwater level). The new project foresees the partial filling of the quarry using waste materials according to the environmental legislation. This allows to protect the groundwater better and to create a microclimate more suited to the development of natural vegetation. The quarry filling activity represents an economic activity for the company and therefore can guarantee the development of jobs for at least 5 years. In addition, the proposed project aims to reconstitute the pre-existing vegetation, consistently with the surrounding ecosystem. This will allow the development of the priority habitat *6220: Pseudo-steppe with grasses and annuals of the Thero-Brachypodietea (Directive 92/43/CEE), producing a landscape of recognized ecological value, not detached from the surrounding landscape. In this way, the closed quarry can act as a stepping stone and play a significant role in regulating green infrastructure in landscapes.

Towards an environmental assessment model of palaeontological and archaeological heritage in the Autonomous Valencian Community without comparative torts

The deficient management of the paleontological heritage through the environmental impact assessment procedures from the Valencian public administrations, linked mainly to the lack of competent technical means in the matter, results in an almost abandonment of it. On the contrary, the archaeological heritage has a series of perfectly structured tools that allow any possible impact on it regarding projects and actions subject to environmental impact assessment that can be detected and corrected. The damage that this situation creates results in the abandonment and almost absolute lack of protection of the palaeontological heritage in the Valencian Community. Despite how much has been written defending the location of paleontological heritage in the administrative field of Natural Heritage, the legal reality in the whole of the Spanish state is another, being based on its inclusion in the procedures together with the cultural heritage. This work defends the incorporation of a series of small legislative changes that make possible to equate the management of the palaeontological heritage with that of the archaeological one in the Valencian Community, thus avoiding the comparative torts that currently occur.