Strategic Impact Assessment Research Articles

Evaluating the Environmental Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Human Health: A Systematic Review

Evaluating the Environmental Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Human Health: A Systematic Review

Development of TRACER: A Translational Research Accomplishments Cataloguerfor Clinical and Translational Science Award hub activity tracking, evaluation, and decision-making.

Organizations supporting translational research and translational science, including Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs, provide a diverse and often changing array of resources, support, and services to a myriad of researchers and research efforts. While a wide-ranging scope of programs is essential to the advancement of translational research and science, it also complicates a systematic and unified process for tracking activities, studying research processes, and examining impact. To overcome these challenges, the Duke University School of Medicine's CTSA hub created a data platform, Translational Research Accomplishment Cataloguer (TRACER), that provides capacity to enhance strategic decision-making, impact assessment, and equitable resource distribution. This article reviews TRACER development processes, provides an overview of the TRACER platform, addresses challenges in the development process, and describes avenues for addressing or overcoming these challenges. TRACER development allowed our hub to conceptually identify key processes and goals within programs and linkages between programs, and it sets the stage for advancing evidence-based improvement across our hub. This platform development provides key insight into facilitators that can inform other initiatives seeking to collect and align organizational data for strategic decision-making and impact assessment. TRACER or similar platforms are additionally well positioned to advance the study of translational science.

Cancer care for Ukrainian refugees: Strategic impact assessments in the early days of the conflict

BackgroundThe invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022 has resulted in destruction of healthcare infrastructure and triggered the largest wave of internally displaced populations and refugees since World War Two. Conflicts in transitioned countries such as Ukraine create new non-communicable disease (NCD) challenges, especially for cancer care for refugees and humanitarian assistance in host countries. In the early days, rapid attempts were made to model possible impacts. MethodsBy evaluating open source intelligence used in the first three months of the conflict through snowball search methods, we aimed to address: (i) burden of cancer in Ukrainian population, specifically considering translating to the refugees population, and its cancer care capacity; ii) baseline capacity/strengths of cancer systems in initial host countries. Moreover, using a baseline scenario based on crude cancer incidence in Ukraine, and considering data from UNHCR, we estimated how cancer cases would be distributed across host countries. Finally, a surveillance assessment instrument was created, intersecting health system’s capacity and influx of internally displaced populations and refugees. Findings and conclusionsThe total new cancer patients per month in pre-conflict Ukraine was estimated as 13,106, of which < 1 % are paediatric cases. The estimated cancer cases in the refugee population (combining prevalent and incident), assuming 7.5 million refugees by July 2022 and a female:male ratio of 9:1, was 33,121 individuals (Poland: 19284; Hungary: 3484; Moldova: 2651; Slovakia: 2421; Romania: 5281). According to our assessments, Poland is the only neighbouring country classified as green/yellow for cancer capacity, i.e. sufficient ablility to absorb additional burden into national health system; Slovakia we graded as yellow, Hungary and Romania as yellow/red and Moldova as red.

OECD Case Studies of Integrated Regional and Strategic Impact Assessment: What Does ‘Integration’ Look Like in Practice?

Increasingly, protocols for assessing the impacts of land-uses and major resource development projects focus not only on environmental impacts, but also social and human health impacts. Regional and Strategic Environmental Assessment (RSEAs) are one innovation that hold promise at better integrating these diverse land-use values into planning, assessment, and decision-making. In this contribution, a realist review methodology is utilized to identify case studies of “integrated RSEA”—those which are strategic, have a regional assessment approach, and seek to integrate environmental, community and health impacts into a singular assessment architecture. The results of a systematic literature review are described and six RSEA-like case studies are identified: Kimberly Browse LNG SEA; HS2 Appraisal of Sustainability; Lisbon International Airport SEA; Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment; Nordstream 2 Transboundary EIA; and the Portland Harbour Sustainability Project. The case studies are examined according to their unique contexts, mechanisms and outcomes of their assessment protocols to determine the degree to which they consider more than environmental valued components, and the means by which they were included. Findings suggest that RSEA has a contentious relationship with the integration of more than environmental values, but that there are significant lessons to be learned to support project planning, especially for assessment contexts characterized by large, transboundary projects.

Strategic Impact Assessment: A Potential Tool Contributing to Sustainable Development in the Sudan

This paper aims to appraise the process and performance of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in the Sudan and explores the prospects of adopting Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The occurrence of two political events in the Sudan in the last decade (2011-2021)—the secession of Southern Sudan in 2011 and the cessation in 2019 of the previous political regime which has reined for thirty years—was portrayed from an environmental perspective. The implications of the secession of Southern Sudan on the country’s natural resources are underscored while the second event implies a new governance system with major legislative and institutional alterations. Within this context, the paper argues that the Sudan needs to improve its classical project-restricted EIA system as well as upgrade the environmental assessment to the higher tier of policies and plans i.e. to SEA. Justifications for the application of (SEA) in the Sudan are highlighted considering the overarching impinging impact of climate change on the country’s degraded and over exploited resources. Steps and prerequisites towards the application of SEA are expressed. The institutional and legislative reforms as well as human resources capacity building are underlined. Towards applying SEA, the Sudan is urged to take on board the experience of other countries—especially within Africa—in the realm of SEA.

Climate change considerations are fundamental to management of deep-sea resource extraction.

Climate change manifestation in the ocean, through warming, oxygen loss, increasing acidification, and changing particulate organic carbon flux (one metric of altered food supply), is projected to affect most deep‐ocean ecosystems concomitantly with increasing direct human disturbance. Climate drivers will alter deep‐sea biodiversity and associated ecosystem services, and may interact with disturbance from resource extraction activities or even climate geoengineering. We suggest that to ensure the effective management of increasing use of the deep ocean (e.g., for bottom fishing, oil and gas extraction, and deep‐seabed mining), environmental management and developing regulations must consider climate change. Strategic planning, impact assessment and monitoring, spatial management, application of the precautionary approach, and full‐cost accounting of extraction activities should embrace climate consciousness. Coupled climate and biological modeling approaches applied in the water and on the seafloor can help accomplish this goal. For example, Earth‐System Model projections of climate‐change parameters at the seafloor reveal heterogeneity in projected climate hazard and time of emergence (beyond natural variability) in regions targeted for deep‐seabed mining. Models that combine climate‐induced changes in ocean circulation with particle tracking predict altered transport of early life stages (larvae) under climate change. Habitat suitability models can help assess the consequences of altered larval dispersal, predict climate refugia, and identify vulnerable regions for multiple species under climate change. Engaging the deep observing community can support the necessary data provisioning to mainstream climate into the development of environmental management plans. To illustrate this approach, we focus on deep‐seabed mining and the International Seabed Authority, whose mandates include regulation of all mineral‐related activities in international waters and protecting the marine environment from the harmful effects of mining. However, achieving deep‐ocean sustainability under the UN Sustainable Development Goals will require integration of climate consideration across all policy sectors.

A strategic social impact assessment for Predator-Free Rakiura, New Zealand, with a human–ecological approach

Stewart Island/Rakiura, the third largest island in New Zealand, around 30 km off the South Island, provides sanctuaries for endangered species and subsequent work on ecological restoration. The natural environment of Rakiura is nationally significant, with habitats and ecosystems that, physically and ecologically, are highly interdependent and relatively unmodified in comparison with mainland New Zealand. We undertook a strategic social impact assessment of a programme to achieve Predator-Free Rakiura (to remove introduced mammalian predators from the island), using a human–ecological approach whereby a participatory process scoped key issues and effects, described a social baseline and assessed different options for future conservation management. The research found local efforts at predator control could be supported by a clear vision and strategic pathway, along with better information on biological and technical components. The findings include a framework to link better the ecological and societal dimensions of islands in future planning of predator control and conservation management.

Impact of Judicial Doctrine and Geo Spatial Technologies in Refinement of Environmental Impact Assessment Laws and Policies in India

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) provides the perspective of strategic rebuilding of environment and sustainable development. The Constitution of India, 1950; Environment Protection Act, 1986 and EIA Notification, 2006 endeavours to protect and improve environment by envisaging environmental clearance of projects on the basis of environmental assessment report (EAR), environmental management plan (EMP), and public hearing. The social and strategic impact assessment (SIA) in EIA law in India is in constant experimentations at judicial, technological and procedural refinements. However the population growth, urbanization and alteration in land use pattern necessitated for application of geospatial technologies viz; remote sensing, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Habitat Suitability (HS) models are employed for EIA process. The paper synthesizes the need for judicial and technological refinements in making EIA laws and governance an effective tool for sustainable development and equity in India.

A strategic impact assessment of hydropower plants in alpine and non-alpine areas of Europe

Hydropower is the widely used source of clean energy which includes some hazardous emissions that affect human health, ecosystems, and resources. However, in spite of an enormous amount of hydropower generation in Europe, no research has been carried out in evaluating the hazardous emissions from the plants located in alpine and non-alpine areas. Therefore, this paper will analyse the comparative environmental impacts of hydropower plants in alpine and non-alpine areas of Europe by a systematic life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach. The impacts are estimated by the ReCiPe 2016, Impact 2002+, Eco-points 97 methods under a number of effect-assessing indicators such as global warming, ozone formation, eco-toxicity, water consumption, acidification, eutrophication, ionizing radiation, carcinogenic radiation, ozone depletion, and land use. Moreover, the fossil-fuel-based power consumptions and the greenhouse-gas emissions in the life-cycle of hydropower plants in both locations are estimated using the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methods, respectively. The outcomes reveal that hydropower plants of alpine regions offer a better environmental profile for the global-warming indicator (2.97×10-5 kg CO2-eq/MJ) than non-alpine plants (3.92×10-4 kg CO2-eq/MJ), but the effects are nearly identical for the other indicators. Overall, the hydropower plants of non-alpine regions are responsible for climate change with a rate 10 times as high as for alpine ones. The findings of this research will play a pivotal role in promoting sustainable production of hydropower, especially the full potentials of the alpine region, and thus leading towards environmentally friendly clean renewable electricity generation.

Assessment of a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model for Telemonitoring patients with Chronic Heart Failure (CHF)

BackgroundThe purpose of this study is to assess the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model for telemonitoring patients with Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) by analysing the value it creates, both for organizations or ventures that provide telemonitoring services based on it, and for society.MethodsThe business model assessment was based on the following categories: caveats, venture type, six-factor alignment, strategic market assessment, financial viability, valuation analysis, sustainability, societal impact, and technology assessment. The venture valuation was performed for three jurisdictions (countries) – Singapore, the Netherlands and the United States – in order to show the opportunities in a small, medium-sized, and large country (i.e. population).ResultsThe business model assessment revealed that B2C telemonitoring is viable and profitable in the Innovating in Healthcare Framework. Analysis of the ecosystem revealed an average-to-excellent fit with the six factors. The structure and financing fit was average, public policy and technology alignment was good, while consumer alignment and accountability fit was deemed excellent. The financial prognosis revealed that the venture is viable and profitable in Singapore and the Netherlands but not in the United States due to relatively high salary inputs.ConclusionsThe B2C model in telemonitoring CHF potentially creates value for patients, shareholders of the service provider, and society. However, the validity of the results could be improved, for instance by using a peer-reviewed framework, a systematic literature search, case-based cost/efficiency inputs, and varied scenario inputs.

Identification of implementable agricultural projects in the field of Ilam dam drinking water with the emphasis on sustainable development and environmental impacts.

In the last decades, the lack of attention to the effects of development has led to large projects encounter serious problems due to underrate and inattention to the environment. So, in recent years, a movement has emerged towards the idea of strategic developmental impact assessment. The aim of the study is identifying and prioritizing implementable developmental projects in the area of Ilam dam water with the priority of assessing environmental impacts. The study is practical research .In regard of methodology, it is a descriptive- analytical research. Statistical sample includes two section .In qualitative section, experts familiar with the issues, problems and impacts of dam projects were used. In second section, knowledgeable experts in the field of dam catchment issues were used. Purposeful sampling was conducted in both sections. The data collection tool is questionnaire in form of open and closed questions. Data were analyzed using Lisrel tool and SPSS. Finally, 9 important factors were identified as project headlines as follows : 1.plant production projects 2: livestock production projects 3: water, soil and industry projects 4: Veterinary plans 5.forest, range land &amp; watershed plans 6.extention-operation plans 7.Economic organizations plans 8.Production cooperatives of agricultural Engineering services plans,9-Job opportunities in agriculture plans. Also, 82headlines of developmental plan has been extracted to be assessing in the field of Ilam dam.

Reducing ATFM delays through strategic flight planning

This paper presents an integer programming model for strategic redistribution of flights so as to respect nominal sector capacities, in short computation times for large-scale instances. The main contribution lies in the combination of tackling large-scale strategic flight planning using hard capacity constraints, while considering the whole network (i.e., both airports and sectors). Real historic data for network and traffic description are used for our test instance. Strategic and tactical impact assessments show that early flight planning can lead to the reduction of delays and their costs, showing potential for actual implementation.

Early warning systems for biodiversity in southern Africa – How much can citizen science mitigate imperfect data?

It is a hard reality that virtually all countries, no matter how well resourced, take conservation and land use decisions based on highly patchy and imperfect data - if indeed any data at all. Despite a mushrooming of scientific evidence and journals in the past decade, and open-access provision of many expensive global datasets, developing countries in particular often have to make do with inaccurate and coarse-scale global data, in the absence of targeted, local data to solve immediate conservation problems. To what extent can citizen science data compensate for the patchiness of conventional government-gathered scientific data in order to support planning, policy and management? We demonstrate how southern Africa's citizen science-based “early warning system for biodiversity” is used to support land-use planning and conservation decisions, including Red List, strategic and project-based environmental impact assessments and national protected area expansion and implementation strategies. This system integrates volunteer-based species atlases such as the Protea Atlas Project and Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP), species population monitoring such as the Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) project, and site-based rapid assessment and monitoring such as MyBirdPatch and BioBlitz. Countries in southern Africa are on a sharp continuum of research capacity, funding, political engagement and own datasets. Yet there is the capacity for adaptive management systems based in significant part on civil society volunteerism. Crucially, these must be underpinned by statistically sound, simple, repeatable scientific protocols, which are still rare in Africa.

The health impacts of traffic-related exposures in urban areas: Understanding real effects, underlying driving forces and co-producing future directions

The world is currently witnessing its largest surge of urban growth in human history; a trend that draws attention to the need to understand and address health impacts of urban living. Whilst transport is instrumental in this urbanisation wave, it also has significant positive and negative impacts on population health, which are disproportionately distributed. In this paper, we bring together expertise in transport engineering, transport and urban planning, research and strategic management, epidemiology and health impact assessment in an exercise to scope and discuss the health impacts of transport in urban areas. Adopting a cross-disciplinary, co-production approach, we explore the key driving forces behind the current state of urban mobility and outline recommendations for practices that could facilitate positioning health at the core of transport design, planning and policy. Current knowledge on the health-related impacts of urban transport shows that motor vehicle traffic is causing significant premature mortality and morbidity through motor vehicle crashes, physical inactivity and traffic-related environmental exposures including increases in air pollution, noise and temperature levels, as well as reductions in green space. Trends of rapid and car-centred urbanisation, mass motorisation and a tendency of policy to favour car mobility and undervalue health in the transport and development agenda has both led to, and exacerbated the negative health impacts of the transport systems. Simultaneously, we also argue that the benefits of new transport schemes on the economy are emphasised whilst the range and severity of identified health impacts associated with transport are often downplayed. We conclude the paper by outlining stakeholders’ recommendations for the adoption of a cross-disciplinary co-production approach that takes a health-aware perspective and has the potential to promote a paradigm shift in transport practices.

Strategic Impact Assessment, Business Proliferation and Innovation of Creative Entrepreneurship: A Study on Bangladesh Ngo Foundation

Bangladesh NGO foundation (BNF) was set up in 2004 as a Government organization which started functioning in 2005 to help distressed people with special emphasis on women under sustainable development program through partner organizations. The main aim of the organization is to remove income inequality. Though BNF grant has been in various sectors through its partner organizations, they are creative entrepreneurships. The total number of partner organizations of BNF is 1120 of which around 14% organizations are working in the area of micro and small enterprises for arranging livelihood and social welfare. Creative entrepreneurship is the means through which an entrepreneur is selfemployed at the creative industries. This study was undertaken to assess business proliferation and innovation of creative entrepreneurship through the fund of BNF. The research is to study nano and micro financing among rural folk will be able to add value in the personal income level through creative nano and micro small enterprises. Alternative hypothesis of the study is that BNF fund has an impact on business process through the creative nano and micro enterprises. The study has been chosen from partners of the BNF who are dealing with creative entrepreneurship. It is evident that in the business process especially Grameen (Rural) area has strategic impact and business proliferation not for the individual welfare but for social welfare which has positive role to improve beneficiaries’ life style though creative nano and micro enterprises. The researcher observed that innovative business ideas among the poor have been giving new dimension and varieties of products like arts and handicrafts, folk songs, folk dance, skills development programs for youth living with disabilities, Community Theater, nursery and botanical garden, multimedia and creativity etc., which are highly compatible and sustainable. As such, the author recommends more generation of funds to establish and encourage creative entrepreneurship so that poor and downtrodden people can successfully implement innovative business processes through financial inclusion.

The theoretical foundations for size spectrum models of fish communities

Size spectrum models have emerged from 40 years of basic research on how body size determines individual physiology and structures marine communities. They are based on commonly accepted assumptions and have a low parameter set, making them easy to deploy for strategic ecosystem-oriented impact assessment of fisheries. We describe the fundamental concepts in size-based models about food encounter and the bioenergetics budget of individuals. Within the general framework, three model types have emerged that differ in their degree of complexity: the food-web, the trait-based, and the community models. We demonstrate the differences between the models through examples of their response to fishing and their dynamic behavior. We review implementations of size spectrum models and describe important variations concerning the functional response, whether growth is food-dependent or fixed, and the density dependence imposed on the system. Finally, we discuss challenges and promising directions.

The Two Shall Become One: Overcoming the Stalemate between Industrial and Climate Change Policies

Industrial development and climate change mitigation have historically been opposed to each other. This is reflected in the industrial and climate change policy frameworks in South Africa. As a result of these two opposing frameworks and the disruptive and complex nature of the necessary transition to a low-carbon economy, the emergence of a climate change regime is seen as a threat and a risk to industrial development. Without immediate and ambitious action, the dichotomy between industrial development and climate change mitigation is moreover due to amplify. This raises the need to overcome the limited prism of analysis focused on incompatibility. This policy brief aims to contribute to filling the gap by investigating the interplay between industrial and climate change policies, the compatibility of the two frameworks and the options to manage the transition. This policy brief first argues that South Africa’s institutional arrangement and policy vision for industrial development and climate change are mainly mutually beneficial and provide an opportunity for a holistic approach. Second, the necessity for South Africa to position the country on short-term trade-offs associated with the cost of the transition is put forward. Third, the need for a strategic discovery and policy impact assessment process is ascertained.

NEGOTIATING CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY IN AREAS BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES

Negotiations will start at the United Nations in order to draft an agreement on conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond national jurisdiction. It will address, together and as a whole, marine genetic resources, including questions on the sharing of benefits, area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, capacity building and transfer of marine technology. The new agreement would fill certain gaps currently existing in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It could include provisions for strategic impact assessment of activities affecting the environment, the creation of a network of high seas marine protected areas of world importance and the establishment of a new regime for the exploitation of genetic resources. The question is open whether such a new regime should be based on the principle of the freedom of the seas, and in this case the very need of such a regime becomes questionable, or rather on the principle of common heritage of mankind. A third possibility involves a pragmatic approach, as proposed by the European Union and its Member States, an approach that however is still to be defined in its concrete elements.

25 Years of Sustainability. A Critical Assessment

Abstract25 years have passed since the 'Brundtland Report‘ defined sustainability as a possibility to equally meet current and future needs. 15 years later, the author of the definition stated that despite of the fact that the definition does not need to be changed, its understanding bettered off during the interval. 25 years later, the present paper takes an in-depth look at the concept and its practical implications. One of the issues being addressed refers to the pillars of sustainability; their number increased by 25% to include the cultural pillar in addition to the economic, social, and cultural one. Spatial thinking added a new dimension, translating into concepts like 'sustainable communities‘ or 'self standing village‘ at the local level, and 'polycentricity‘ and 'cohesion‘ at the regional one. Furthermore, practical implications include environmental impact assessment (evolving towards strategic impact assessment), internalization of externalities, ecological restoration, and a new view on conservation, different from the one addressed by the 'Zero Growth Strategy‘. In addition, the paper discusses several criticism addressed to the concept and its implementation, attempting to reveal their underlying causes. Overall, the critical analysis shows that the attempts to achieve sustainability did not change the concept as much as its understanding.

Towards a New Instrument for Promoting Sustainability Beyond the EIA and the SEA: The Holistic Impact Assessment (HIA)

The systemic crisis that the world is currently facing should be addressed with a shift in the dominant economic paradigm, which should be made compatible with the pursuit of (ecological) sustainability. This implies inter alia a reallocation of priorities calling not only for relevant environmental, social, economic and cultural changes, but also for legislative and policy innovations. In such a context, a new approach should be adopted in the way legal instruments for the protection of the environment are conceived and applied. For instance, a major effort of re-orientation should be made in the field of the preventive assessment of negative impacts that may be caused by projects as well as by plans and programs on the environment. In particular, the focus should be placed on two legal instruments, namely the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Strategic Impact Assessment (SEA), which despite being very useful tools to prevent possible negative impacts on the environment are characterised by several failures, which undermine their effectiveness. On this premise, the present contribution provides a detailed analysis of the main features and the most relevant shortcomings of these two instruments, in particular within the European Union legal system.Then, the focus of the analysis shifts on the possibility to merge EIA and SEA into a new single instrument. The new instrument, which may be named Holistic Impact Assessment (HIA), should be based upon a holistic sustainability approach, and should represent the common framework for the assessment of all the activities likely to have significant adverse effects on a certain territory. Within such a context, the two types of evaluations will continue to exist and be conducted separately, still dealing respectively with the upstream and downstream assessment, but will be placed under a single framework, inspired by a common approach, governed by the same rules and managed in a coordinated way. For all these reasons, the establishment of the HIA might be a suitable solution to promote a better approach to land planning and a more effective and coordinated prevention of all the possible negative impacts caused by either plans/programs or projects on the environment of a given territory.