Environmental Impact Assessment Review Research Articles

An evaluation of air quality impact prediction performance undertaken as part of environmental impact assessment (EIA) in India

Effective implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is recognised as a global issue, in particular the impact prediction stage, which is the ‘core’ of EIA. Consisting of four stages: impact identification, impact assessment, significance evaluation, and mitigation measures on the possible environmental repercussions of project developmental activities, the efficacy of impact prediction can define the quality of the EIA process, which will better align environmental decision-making to sustainable development. The weakness of impact prediction in EIA demands more study to enhance practice. Although this is widely explored in the context of developed countries such as the UK, it is particularly concerning in India. A specialised review package built from several sources is utilised to assess the efficacy of air quality impact prediction, based on Lee & Colley (1991). 20 EIA reports of Category A (mega-scale projects causing significant environmental impacts) are reviewed. This study's evaluation indicates that significance evaluation and mitigation actions are the weakest phases and a major concern while assessing air quality studies conducted as a part of EIA. Recommendations to improve the process include prioritising the cumulative impact assessment within the regulatory framework, enhancing capacity building, embedding public participation and instilling accountability among stakeholders, which can be adopted globally. Additional recommendations specifically for India are revising the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), restructuring the EIA review mechanism by EAC and improving mitigation measures by adopting GIS and remote sensing technologies.

A Quality Review of EIA: A Comparative Study of State-Funded and International Aid Agency-funded Development Projects in Sri Lanka

A development project's environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a tool for mitigating the effects on the environment and promoting sustainable development. EIA is an expensive and professionally engaged process that involves the public. Many countries around the world have long-standing laws in place connected to this topic, as well as solid knowledge and experience. One persistent argument against the efficacy of EIA in developing nations is that the procedure and quality differ from country to country. The International Aid Agencies (IAA) have their guidelines for protecting the environment while following local environmental assessment standards for any financing requirements. IAA involvement in the EIA process might significantly affect how well- written EIA reports are. To evaluate the assessment quality, six EIA reports from state-financed development projects (SL-EIAs) and another six development projects EIAs funded by the IAA (IAA-EIAs) in Sri Lanka were randomly chosen. LeeCooley review package (1990) was used to evaluate the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) of each EIA. In this investigation, it was discovered that IAA-EIAs and SL-EIAs had a significant difference in overall quality. IAA-EIAs show values that range from highly satisfactory to satisfactory and each share 50 percent, whereas SL-EIAs indicate 83 percent satisfactory and 17 percent of borderline quality. In comparison to the SL-EIAs, all four review areas of the IAA-EIAs performed notably well. While the SL-EIA shows good to borderline quality (0.66-0.72), all evaluated IAA-EIA reports reveal highly satisfactory to satisfactory (0.81-0.93) quality. The engagement of IAA in the environmental assessment has a considerable impact to improve assessment quality in comparison to the only domestic assessment. Finding the weak area in the SL-EIA process and adhering to the IAA standards would elevate the standard of the report.
 Keywords: EIA quality, Review, International Aid Agency, Development projects

A quality review of EIA: A comparative study of state-funded and International Aid Agency funded development projects in Sri Lanka

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a tool for mitigating the effects of developmental projects on the environment and promoting sustainable development. EIA is an expensive, and professionally engaged process that involves the public. Many countries around the world have long-standing laws in place connected to this topic, as well as solid knowledge and experience. One persistent argument against the efficacy of EIA in developing nations is that the procedure and quality differ from country to country. The International Aid Agencies (IAA) have their guidelines for protecting the environment while following local environmental assessment standards for any financing requirements. IAA involvement in the EIA process might significantly affect how well-written EIA reports are. To evaluate the assessment quality, six EIA reports from state-financed development projects (SL-EIAs) and another six development projects EIAs funded by the IAA (IAA-EIAs) in Sri Lanka were randomly chosen. LeeCooley review package (1990) was used to evaluate the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) of each EIA. In this investigation, it was discovered that IAA-EIAs and SL-EIAs had a significant difference in overall quality. IAA-EIAs show values that range from highly satisfactory to satisfactory and each share 50 percent, whereas SL-EIAs indicate 83% satisfactory and 17 % of borderline quality. In comparison to the SL-EIAs, all four review areas of the IAA-EIAs performed notably well. While the SL-EIA shows good to borderline quality (0.66-0.72), all evaluated IAA-EIA reports reveal highly satisfactory to satisfactory (0.81-0.93) quality. The engagement of IAA in the environmental assessment has a considerable impact to improve assessment quality in comparison to the only domestic assessment. Finding the weak area in the SL-EIA process and adhering to the IAA standards would elevate the standard of the report.

Development of a multi-criteria decision analysis tool for the assessment of the potential pollution risk of tailings dumps to the environment – An approach validated using selected Zambian Mine tailings

Mine tailings have a huge footprint on the environment and can have serious consequences that are difficult to reverse during mining operations or even long after mining has ceased. Despite several studies that have been conducted on tailings dumps, effective impact assessments of their potential pollution risk have been a challenge. This challenge can, to a certain extent, be attributed to the lack of identification of a common criterion for risk classification to items of environmental concern (people, natural landscapes, and their components) including the absence in consideration of time frames. Consequently, this has made it difficult to conduct impact assessment studies of mine tailing dumps. This study assessed the potential pollution risk of the dumps using a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) tool called an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). An appropriate criterion for risk assessment was developed with the help of experienced experts and weighted using an AHP methods. This enabled the determination of the potential pollution risk to the environment from three selected Zambian-based tailings dumps (i.e., Kabwe Lead–Zinc, Mopani Copper Mine and Lumwana Mine dumps) by means of a criterion scoring technique developed. Five key indicators were adopted that included: 1) physical properties; 2) soil chemical accumulation; 3) properties of the environment around the dump; 4) climatic factors around the dump area; and 5) protective structures. Specific factors per indicator were identified using expert opinion and experiences. Results of the analysis revealed that the Kabwe Mine tailings dump had the highest pollution potential followed by the Lumwana Mine and then Mopani mine tailings dump when compared against severity of risk scale. The tool was then validated using a tailing dump at Musina Copper Mine, in South Africa, where a different approach was previously used and this tool showed comparable results. Accordingly, this decision support tool can be used by environmental management agencies during the environmental impact assessment (EIA) review processes to improve efficiency in investigating scenarios that would propagate contamination and thus improve environmental management interventions.

Combining Scientific Facts and Significance Criteria to Predict the Result of an Environmental Impact Assessment Review

The purpose of determining impact significance is to place value on impacts. Environmental impact assessment review is a process that judges whether impact significance is acceptable or not in accordance with the scientific facts regarding environmental, ecological and socio-economical impacts described in environmental impact statements or environmental impact assessment reports. The first aim of this paper is to summarize the criteria of significance evaluation from the past review results and accordingly utilize fuzzy rule-based system to incorporate these criteria into scientific facts. The second aim is to employ data mining technique to construct an environmental impact statement or environmental impact assessment report prediction model for reviewing results which can assist developers to prepare and revise better environmental management plans in advance. The validity of the previous prediction model proposed by authors in 2009 is 92.7%. The enhanced validity in this study can attain 100.0% after taking significance criteria into account. In the case study, some indicators are over-standard in first and second-order significance but all indicators ultimately fall into the category of conditional approval in third-order significance.

COMPLIANCE TO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REGULATIONS BY A GOLD MINING COMPANY IN ZAKA DISTRICT, ZIMBABWE - A TRAVESTY OR TRIBUTE TO ENVIRONMENTAL DEMOCRACY AND JUSTICE

Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Act has provisions promoting the conduct of environmental impact assessment (EIA) prior to project implementation to protect the environment and environmental rights. Using data collection methods inspired by phenomenological study, this paper discusses if EIA processes by a gold mining company had mainstreamed or marooned ‘access rights’ which are the cornerstone of environmental democracy. While the Zimbabwe’s EIA policy is applauded for covertly mainstreaming environmental democracy, research findings suggest that there exist gaps in the policy framework, policy and practice in promoting comprehensive environmental democracy. EIA processes are done to fulfil legal obligations but with little motivation to protect community interests as participation is symbolic. It is recommended to redesign EIA policy and embed broader attributes of environmental democracy such as locals’ participation in all EIA stages and inclusion of experts on community issues in the EIA review panel to promote fairness, inclusivity, transparency during EIA. 
 
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Preface

As Covid-19 spreads around the world, people have to make some change to avoid being infected. And due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the participants were not able to meet each other at the 5th International Conference on New Energy and Future Energy System (NEFES 2020) supposed to be held in Xi’an during July 14th-17th, 2020. Even though the conference was postponed to November 3rd-6th, some of the participants from other countries were still not able to visit China to attend NEFES2020 for COVID-19. So, the conference organizer located in Wuhan made a decision to hold it as an online conference (virtual conference without any physical participation and held by Microsoft Teams) during November 3rd-6th. Microsoft Teams Meeting provides a more effective way for us to hold an online conference via some function like sharing the presenters’ Power Point or video, discussing in the chat box or taking pictures. However, there were also some shortcomings about online conference regarding time differences and internet conditions. Therefore, it is a way to hold an international conference online.NEFES 2020 was sponsored by Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai. It aims to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners in both industry and academia to share their latest achievements and discuss the possible challenges in terms of new energy and future energy system. This volume records the proceedings of NEFES 2020 and contains 85 rigorously selected manuscripts submitted to the online conference. All the manuscripts were selected depending on their quality and relevance to the conference.One hundred and nine participants including presenters and listeners from a broad geographical coverage of counties including China, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Romania, Indonesia, Iraq, Poland, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Germany and Iran joined NEFES2020 and made it a successful conference. The conference program included welcomes speech, 3 keynote speeches, 25 invited presentations, 11 oral presentations and 16 poster presentations. About 5 minutes were left for each oral presentation, the audience could raise up their hands before the session chair allowed them to ask questions or left message in the chat box as well as wrote an email to the presenters. The conference program was outlined as follows:Welcome speech was delivered by Prof. Fuqiang Wang, School of New Energy, Harbin Institute of Technology (Weihai) of China for five minutes.Three keynote speeches were from Prof. Mattheos Santamouris, University of New South Wales, Australia; Prof. Hui Jin, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China; Dr. Eric Johnson, Editor-in-chief emeritus of Environmental Impact Assessment Review and Managing Director of Atlantic Consulting, Switzerland. Each keynote speech lasted for 40 minutes and delivered on November 4th.The other online presentations were delivered by researchers, scholars and experts such as Prof. Riyi Lin, Prof. Zehui Chang, Dr. Liqiang Zhang, Dr. Yushi Liu, Prof. Chongchong Qi, Dr. Diana Enescu, Dr. Luigi Costanzo, Dr. Claudia Masselli, Dr. Jan Kazak. Each oral presentation lasted for 15-25 minutes. The topics of the online presentations covered New energy resources, New energy device, smart grid load and energy management, optical technologies for smart grid, Solar cell materials and lithium-ion batteries.List of NEFES2020 Scientific Committee Members, General Chair, Chair of Technical Program Committee and Technical Program Committee are available in the pdf.

A review of environmental, social and health impact assessment (Eshia) practice in Nigeria: a panacea for sustainable development and decision making

Local participation is always beneficial for sustainable action and environmental problems resulting from urban implementation due to the failure of social and institutional change necessary for a successful transformation of rural life to urban life ahead of the rapid movement of the population. Despite good legal practice and comprehensive guidelines, evidence suggests that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or more broadly Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessment (ESHIA) have not yet been found satisfactory in Nigeria, as the current system amounts to duplication of efforts and cost. However, ESHIA has been developed and integrated to help manage project activities, facilities, and operations sustainably, so that both economic and ecological profits are accrued (sustainable development) or ensure that any development project does not result in excessive deterioration of and/or the irreversible adverse effect on any component of the environment – a recite for sustainable development. A literature review was done by using a variety of search engines including Research Gate, Google Scholar, Academia, Mendeley, SSRN search strategy to retrieve research publications, “grey literature” and expert working group reports. The thrust of this study is to evaluate the potential benefits of ESHIA as a tool for sustainable environmental development. The evaluation and implementation of EIA are one of the strengths of these tools. Indeed, EIA is the first and foremost management tool employed to help mitigate adverse, potential, and associated impacts of proposed major developments in our environment. EIA is a regulatory requirement that is efficiently used to improve performance, project design, enhancing decision-making, and facilitating policy programs in a sustainable environment. An evaluation of the EIA systems reveals several weaknesses of the EIA system. These include the inadequate capacity of EIA approval authorities, deficiencies in screening and scoping, poor EIA quality, insufficient public participation, and weak monitoring and erratic government policies. Overall, most EIA study rarely meets the objectives of being a project planning tool to contribute to achieving sustainable development and mitigate the impact of the development project. The study recommends some directions for the future to ensure that entire content of the EIA are religiously implemented, review the existing EIA act, increase the expertise of EIA consultants, create a liaison office with an international organisation and with sister agency, ESHIA must enjoy Improved budgetary provision, time latitude, spatial contexts and methodological improvements for outcome measures to achieve results that are relevant to sustainable development by improving project design, enhancing decision making and facilitating policy programs.

Regulators' perceptions of environmental impact assessment (EIA) benefits in a sustainable development context

The costs of conducting Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) are well known. Yet the benefits of EIA are much more intangible, leading to a situation where some question its value as the tool of choice for informing decision makers of the sustainability consequences of their actions. Exponents of EIA have thus called for more research on the benefits of EIA in order to provide better evidence on its costs versus benefits, and therefore its value as a decision-making tool. This paper contributes to this evidence by exploring the perceived potential benefits and perceived realised benefits of EIA from a regulators' perspective in the context of sustainable development. Using South Africa as a case study, one third of all the officials responsible for EIA review and decision-making (referred to in this paper as the “regulator”) were surveyed to identify their perceptions of the benefits of EIA, and their ideas on how to bridge the gap between potential benefits and realised benefits. The paper contributes suggestions for the analysis of benefits in a sustainable development context, and identifies some additional benefits currently missing from the literature. In a South African context, the key potential and realised benefits as perceived by regulators are the protection of biodiversity, public participation, access to information, mitigation of environmental impacts, and legal compliance and enforcement.

Empowering impact assessments knowledge and international research collaboration - A bibliometric analysis of Environmental Impact Assessment Review journal

Innovation, knowledge exchange and collaboration are fundamental in environmental studies. Impact assessments represent a key tool in identifying and predicting the environmental consequences of a project. The journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review started promoting research discussing different issues or methods in the field of impact assessments and environmental management since 1980. By analyzing 1664 articles published within the journal between 1980 and 2018 by 2935 authors, affiliated to institutions from 75 countries, this study aims to provide a better understanding of the environmental assessment research trends. Bibliometric indicators such as keywords or country of affiliation were analyzed through a network methodological approach, including co-occurrence analysis, centrality metrics and multiple correspondence analysis. The international collaboration and productivity maps bring a novel overview to this type of analysis and reveal new perspectives for thrived cooperation on environmental assessments research. The results illustrate the most common research topics through a conceptual structure map and a keywords co-occurrence graph with a temporal overlay, which allows observing their evolution over the years. Furthermore, this work tries to explain the political, economic, social and technological factors that influence the tendencies in environmental assessments research and scientific cooperation, providing future insights for environmental scientific priorities.

A Bibliometric Analysis Environmental Impact Assessment Literature: an Expanding and Shifting Focus

A bibliometric analysis of the literature on the subject of Environmental Impact Assessment for a period from 2007 to 2015 was carried out under an expanding and shifting focus. For this purpose, the metadata used was obtained through web of science and analyzed with the Histcite software. The search identified a total of 683 publications related to Environmental Impact Assessment in the period studied, allowing to study the main journals involved in this topic. The country with the highest number of publications was the United States with 88 papers on the subject. On the other hand, the journal with the greatest influence on the subject was Environmental Impact Assessment Review, with 1090 citations, representing the 8.7% of the total citations between 2007 and 2015. Analyzing the evolution of publications per year, there was an increase in research activity on the subject between 2012 and 2014, amounting to 45.6% in those years. According to the type of document from the 683 publications, the 84.6% (578) were articles and 4.4% reviews. These results obtained show an increase in the interest of researchers in the environmental impact assessment topic, which is in line with the climate changes presented on the planet and the global concern to reduce the effects of greenhouse gas, and the better use of natural resources.

Comparative review of EIA in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Environmental sustainability is one of the frameworks for cooperation under the Declaration of ASEAN Concord II, 2015. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been recognized as a crucial tool. This paper proposes the review of EIA in ASEAN countries in three key areas, namely legal enforcement, implementation approach and EIA effectiveness as the basis for a sustainable approach. The results showed that almost all the countries established their EIAs at the legal level with the complete EIA process; however, the implementation was somewhat different depending on the unique characteristics of the EIA processes. Such unique characteristics can be divided into three groups. The first belongs to the countries that initiated the EIA process before 1990, although they have their own outstanding topography, namely, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The second group includes the countries that applied the EIA after 1990. The Asian Development Bank has played an active role and their EIA processes have rapidly developed especially EIA monitoring, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Transboundary Impact Assessment. The countries in this group are Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. The last group contains the countries with stringent environmental regulations and is becoming part of environmental laws. They include Singapore and Brunei. The tools to support the achievement of sustainability, such as ecosystem services, biodiversity offsets and transboundary impacts will be of prime importance to the ASEAN EIA in the future.

An evaluation of ecological impact assessment procedural effectiveness over time

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an important tool to help decision-makers balance the environmental impacts of a proposed built development with its potential economic benefits. Used in most countries across the globe, EIA commonly includes an ecological component (Ecological Impact Assessment, or EcIA). However, despite considerable changes in relevant legislation, policy and guidance, there has been no recent review of UK EcIA chapter content, with the latest review having been published in 2000.This study attempts to determine the procedural effectiveness of EcIA chapters over time by comparing a new review of 112 English EcIA chapters from 2000 onwards with earlier reviews. This was achieved through the novel use of inferential statistics, an approach previously lacking in the EIA and EcIA review literature.The limitations and advantages of the use of quantitative methods are discussed. In general, there has been an improvement in the information content of EcIA chapters over time, for example in the percentage of EcIA chapters stating the size of the development and estimating the likely effectiveness of proposed mitigation measures. However, the earlier reviews highlighted such severe information deficiencies that the progress seen in the post-2000 EcIA chapter review still leaves considerable scope for improvement.Changes in the EU’s EIA Directive in force since May 2014 (and to be transposed into Member State legislation by May 2017) have the potential to encourage the use of inferential statistics in EIA and EcIA review: the requirement for Member States to provide central access to EIA information should enable representative samples to be analysed.

Review of EIA in East Africa: Challenges and Opportunities in Ethiopia and Kenya

Environment is vital medium for the ecosystems to be sustained, however human beings have put pressure on it, due to recent rise in populations and rapid industrialization. These have led to uncontrolled anthropogenic activities, which interferes with natural ecosystems and affects sustainability of development. For this reason, Ethiopia and Kenya decided to adopt and implement the Environmental impact assessment (EIA) tool, so as to make sure the environment is protected and sustained. This paper focuses on the common challenges in both East African nations in order to increase accountability and transparency during implementation of any project. It also comprises EIA guidelines comparison based on principles and procedure of EIA and indicates possible way out in which EIA might be used more productively in the future.

THE RESEARCH ON THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF VISUAL LANDSCAPE OF COUNTRY PARKS IN BEIJING

The attribute of a country park and its visual environment are not only influenced by the distance from the park to the downtown area, but also the degree of urbanization. Based on the landscape geography, landscape ecology, landscape aesthetics theories and the Guideline for Technical Review of Environmental Impact Assessment of Construction Projects (HJ 616-2011) and aiming to evaluate the visual quality of the country parks, we put forward three first-grade indicators (visual sensitive capacity, visual space capacity and visual absorption capacity) and seven second grade indicators (sighting distance, visual disturbance frequency, green looking ratio, inter-visibility, openness, relative angle and the relative area of artificial matrix) in our research. By virtue of the established entropy weight method model, combined with field data, the quantitative research of the visual environment of landscape in country parks was carried out so that the visual quality of the park can be improved. At same time, this can also provide a scientific basis for spatial planning of urban fringe area and repositioning of the park attribute.

Design of Roads in Harmony with Wildlife

‘Procedures for the Design of Roads in Harmony with Wildlife’ or ‘Harmony’ is a project that aims to develop sustainable solutions to road transport challenges that are in harmony with wildlife. This paper summarises Harmony's work in the areas of Environmental Legislation and Guidelines, Project Appraisal, and Procurement Practices. The project mainly focuses on practices in the eight reference countries of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Sweden and Denmark.A review of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA) is carried out. As part of this review, a database of over 80 Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) and Appropriate Assessment reports is analysed to identify the similarities and differences between countries in the implementation of the duties required by EU Environmental Legislation. It is found that the degree of implementation under the headings considered varies greatly between countries. It is concluded that increased guidance on monitoring be provided in all countries.Project Appraisal for transport infrastructure is the process of assessing whether capital expenditure is justified for a project and ensuring that it is allocated to the best transport solution to achieve the objectives of that project whilst complying with planning policy and national and EU legislation. The project appraisal methodologies used in the reference countries are compared with the aim of identifying a set of tools to enable rational and sensible decisions to be made. The approach used in the UK is recommended for adoption by all Member States.This paper then examines existing approaches to the procurement of road constructions in the reference countries. The different types of contracts used for procurement are described and the benefits and disadvantages of different contract types are discussed. Recommendations are then made as to which contracts are the most favourable for ensuring the environmental commitments of the Environmental Impact Statement are carried out. Early contractor involvement as well as construction contracts that incorporate maintenance, with monitoring, for an extended period afterwards were cited as key recommendations to ensure a good outcome for wildlife.

Comparative Study of the Environmental Impact Assessment System in the State of Kuwait with International Best Practice using Gap Analysis Approach

This study addresses the issue of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)in the State of Kuwait, which has become inherent in many development projects. Numerous international and local institutions require assessment of environmental impacts prior to final approval of project implementation. In addition, item number (1) of Law No. 16 of 1996 amended provisions of Law No. 21 of 1995 issued by the General Authority for Environment stipulates the need for an environmental impact assessment, which became incumbent on everyone before the implementation and operation of any facility, whether industrial or recreational. The study aims to evaluate the methodology of the Kuwaiti Environmental Impact Assessment system, with regards to its stages and mechanism of follow-up procedures. And to compare it with the components, methods, criteria and policies of the current best global practices implemented by the World Bank and environmental impact assessment systems in Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman and Egypt. The study aims also to identify deficiencies and policy draw backs of EIA system in Kuwait, and to propose procedures that improve the application of environmental impact assessment methodologies. To achieve the objectives of the study an analysis of the data gathered from reports, scientific assessments, as well as from private consultancy offices was performed. The use of Gap approach enabled the researchers to identify the various gaps and limitations in the current practices and application of EIA procedures in the State of Kuwait. The EIA procedures and policies of the World Bank were the basic references of the study. The findings of the analysis show that: there is a gap between the environmental policies in Kuwait and how thoroughly these policies are applied in the field. This gap led to an imbalance in the practice of environmental impact assessment procedures. Public participation was weak in the stages (Scoping and Review) of environmental impact assessment. Participation is considered an effective part of the environmental assessment planning processes. The study proposed several recommendations for improving the EIA system in the State of Kuwait including: preparation of new procedural guidelines that will provide the basis to be applied by the General Authority for Environment during the audit of the environmental impact assessment reports, up-grading of the consultancy offices and encourage the active participation of the public in the stages of environmental impact assessment planning processes.

EDITORIAL — DISASTER AND RISK MANAGEMENT: THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and ManagementVol. 16, No. 03, 1401003 (2014) No AccessEDITORIAL — DISASTER AND RISK MANAGEMENT: THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTThomas FischerThomas Fischer Search for more papers by this author https://doi.org/10.1142/S1464333214010030Cited by:6 Next AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail References J. Artset al., Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management 14(4), (2012). Link, Google Scholar Benson, C (2007). Environmental assessment. In Tools for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction, C Benson and J Twigg (eds), http://www.preventionweb.net/files/1066_toolsformainstreamingDRR.pdf: 79–89 . Google Scholar T. B. Fischer , Theory and Practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment — Towards a More Systematic Approach ( Earthscan , London , 2007 ) . Google Scholar Fischer, TB (2009). On the role(s) of (strategic) environmental assessment in "greening" decision making. University of Utrecht, Copernicus Lecture, 2 March. http://www.twoeam-eu.net . Google Scholar Fischer, TB and O Nadeem (2013). Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Curriculum for Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan. Pakistan: IUCN. http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/niap_eia_curriculum_for_hei_pdf . Google Scholar Gore, T and TB Fischer (2014). Uncovering the factors that can support and impede post-disaster EIA practice in developing countries: The case of Aceh Province, Indonesia. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2013.09.001 . Google Scholar Randall, J and E Jowett (2010). Green recovery and reconstruction toolkit — Environmental impact assessment tools and techniques. World Wildlife Fund, San Francisco. http://green-recovery.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Module-3-Content-Paper.pdf . Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited By 6Integration of the Standalone ‘Risk Assessment’ Section in Project Level Environmental Impact Assessment Reports for Value Addition: An Indian Case AnalysisArjun Kumar A. Rathi26 January 2023 | Sustainability, Vol. 15, No. 3Assessing impact of salinity and climate scenarios on dry season field crops in the coastal region of BangladeshAna J.P. Carcedo, Leonardo M. Bastos, Sudhir Yadav, Manoranjan K. Mondal and S.V. Krishna Jagadish et al.1 Jun 2022 | Agricultural Systems, Vol. 200Assessing Impact of Salinity and Climate Scenarios on Dry Season Field Crops in the Coastal Region of BangladeshAna Carcedo, Leonardo M. Bastos, Sudhir Yadav, Manoranjan K. Mondal and S.V. Krishna Jagadish et al.1 Jan 2021 | SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 106Strategic Environmental Assessment for development programs and sustainability transition in the Colombian post-conflict contextJuanita Gallego Dávila, Juan Azcárate and Lone Kørnøv1 Jan 2019 | Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Vol. 74Tools for integrating environmental objectives into policy and practice: What works where?Hens Runhaar1 Jul 2016 | Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Vol. 59How is the Role of Ecosystem Services Considered in Local Level Flood Management Policies: Case Study in Cumbria, EnglandNazmul Huq and Alexander Stubbings12 January 2016 | Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, Vol. 17, No. 04 Recommended Vol. 16, No. 03 Metrics History Published: 7 October 2014 PDF download

Confronting reality in strategic environmental assessment in Slovenia — Costs and benefits

We enlarge on the viewpoint published in the Environmental Impact Assessment Review in 2012 — A viewpoint on the approval context of strategic environmental assessments. Additional alerts concerning the procedural ineffectiveness of the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process from the cost–benefit point of view are advanced. The major contribution to the long lasting, costly SEA processes, comes from ultraistic treatment of Natura 2000.The case study deals with a plan for constructing a traffic bypass around Škofljica, a town near Ljubljana. Based on their conclusions the authors propose that the following elements of the SEA procedure should be improved and optimised:–CBA for SEA should become a regular component when measuring its effectiveness.–Concretisation of expected SEA inputs to the plan should clarify its role at the earliest stage of the process.–SEA should contribute interactively to the optimisation of alternatives; cost–benefit analysis of the SEA process could support this process.–Nature protection interest should be confronted and balanced with wider development interests as formulated in the plan and should not be applied in absolute terms (e.g. Natura 2000).

Environmental technology assessment for enhanced green economy transition in South Africa

South Africa has in place policies that promote green economy and sustainable development path. For example, the National Environmental Management Act Principle 3 states that development must be socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practice in South Africa was formalised in 1997 when the first set of EIA regulations were passed. The DEA EIA review report however suggested that the EIA does not contribute adequately to achieving sustainable development. To this end, a framework is outlined to incorporate the key elements of the environmental technology assessment (EnTA) to EIA, consequently strengthening the EIA process for enhancing green economy transition in the context of sustainable development. The method used consists of case studies and survey data. It is established in the article that there is a level of incorporation between some EnTA elements and issues considered in EIA. It is, however, also established that, of the twelve key elements of EnTA, institutional capacity is the least considered in the EIA. Further research is recommended to investigate the extent to which the lack of consideration for institutional capacity relates to the EIA not contributing to sustainable development.