Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Two-stage tools or processes, with a “shallow” initial stage which gives a broad-
brush analysis of a problem, and a “deep” focus on those issues that were
identified in the first stage as being particularly problematic, contentious or
important to the decision making process.
A tiered approach has significant merit. It is flexible and provides options to
assess sites to the degree necessary. An example of a tiered approach might be:
•
Tier 1: Qualitative accessible approach (broad scope, rapid and low cost).
•
Tier 2: Consensus / consultation to elaborate qualitative assessment.
•
Tier 3: Quantitative assessment where stakeholders are unable to agree findings
for a qualitative approach. In this case the preceding stages can focus quantitative
work on the issues of greatest contention.
A tiered approach also supports a sustainable use of resources for the sustainabil-
ity appraisal process itself.
Figure
20.7
illustrates the SuRF-UK framework's tiered approach. The SuRF-
UK view is that sustainability appraisal can apply at more than one level of decision
making, e.g. project design, or remedy selection. At whatever level sustainability
appraisal is applied, a tiered approach should be used, beginning with the simplest
(and cheapest) methods, to ensure decisions are made on the simplest basis.
The use of this tiered approach is obviously affected by the preferences of
those involved in decision making. Particular stakeholders may see the need for
an approach based on using scoring and weighting, or an approach linked to some
form of quantification such as cost benefit analysis (see Section
20.3.4
). The drivers
for this may be regulatory, because of corporate preferences for quantitative indi-
cators, or to support particular stakeholder communication efforts. For example,
where a project requires a large financial investment, a formal cost benefit analysis
may be required. It may make sense to integrate this with processes of sustainabil-
ity appraisal, for example using a hierarchy of sustainability indicators (see Section
20.3.1
) to identify the scope of the cost benefit analysis. It is possible that some
Decision
Decision
Yes
Yes
No
Decision
on relative sustainability
of options?
Decision
on relative sustainability
of options?
Decision
on relative sustainability
of options?
Start: define
decision to be made
No
No
Yes
Qualitative
assessment
Quantitative (simple)
assessment (e.g. MCA)
Quantitative (complex)
Assessment (e.g. CBA)
Option: Entry tier
Decision
Fig. 20.7
The SuRF-UK tiered approach to sustainability appraisal
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