Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
contaminated sites. A hazard is a substance or situation, such as a contaminated
site, which has the potential to cause harm, e.g., adverse human health effects
( Chapters 5 - 12 of this topic), the soil ecosystem ( Chapters 13 - 16 of this topic),
groundwater ( Chapters 17 - 19 of this topic), damage to underground structures,
etc.). Risk Assessment will likely have been carried out already as a part of contam-
inated site management and remediation option selection. Risk Assessment findings
can inform aspects of sustainability appraisal linked for example to water and soil
quality.
20.3.4.11 Environmental Impact Assessment/Strategic Environmental
Assessment
Environmental impact assessment describes a procedure to make a structured
appraisal of a broad range of environmental effects of a particular project .In
the EU, Environmental impact assessment is subject to Directive 85/337/EEC. 25
Environmental impact assessment methods are not prescribed in detail but tend
to use stages such as (Department for the Environment Transport and the Regions
1999 ):
screening: narrows the application of EIA to projects that may have significant
environmental impacts;
scoping: identifies the potential environmental impacts to ensure the assessment
focuses on the key issues for decision-making;
identification: of key environmental impacts;
consideration of alternatives: in terms of sites, designs, processes;
prediction of impacts: predicts the magnitude of key impacts;
evaluation of significance: assessment of significance of the key impacts;
mitigation: proposal of measures to prevent, reduce or rectify the impacts;
documentation: presentation of EIA results for clear communication;
review: systematic appraisal of the quality of the environmental statement;
post-decision monitoring: to assess the ex post effect of the project on the
environment;
post-project audit: comparison of actual outcomes with predicted outcomes to
assess the quality of predictions and effectiveness of mitigation.
Strategic Environmental Assessment is a systematic decision support process
aiming to ensure that environmental and possibly other sustainability aspects
are considered effectively in policy, plan and programme making (Fischer 2007 ;
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2005b ). In Europe, Strategic Environmental
Assessment is undertaken to meet the requirements of European Directive
2001/42/EC. Key principles in Strategic Environmental Assessment include the
25 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eia/
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