Environmental risks and impacts - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 207

- Loss of biodiversity, loss of protected species:

◦

direct or indirect negative impact on the species of community interest;

◦ direct or indirect loss of a population of a species identified as priorities

◦ altering the diversity, species-richness or species-composition of habitats in the

area;

◦

affecting the sustainable use of a species population;

◦

exceeding the maximum sustainable yield, the carrying capacity, the allowable
disturbance level of the ecosystem;

◦ increasing the risk of invasion by alien species.

- Loss of genetic diversity:

◦

extinction of a population of particularly rare or declining species;

◦ local loss of varieties of cultivated plants and/or domesticated animals;

◦ fragmentation of a population leading to (genetic) isolation.

EIA and SEA bear significant scale of uncertainty. Every single step of SEA bears its
own uncertainty, so that the cumulative uncertainty at the end will be significant. The
simplest way to handle uncertainties is by the application of safety or uncertainty
factors. Experienced assessors 'quantify' uncertainty and create justifiable factors.
Another way to deal with uncertainties is the application of scenarios. The use of
scenarios leads to a range of possible outcomes or pathways, showing the extreme
values and the distance between them. The use of indicators and proxy indicators,
e.g. the slope of trends, may help in predicting changing impacts over time. When the
uncertainty is significant and is not based on results, one should apply the precaution-
ary principle. SEA is similar to risk assessment and risk management is supposed to
be a dynamic tool (adaptive management) that is able to reassess input and control
outcome by utilizing new information e.g. from monitoring.

5 LIFE CYCLE APPROACH FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

The whole life cycle of products or services includes raw material extraction, materials
processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, as well as disposal
or recycling. When assessing environmental risks, impacts or the ecobalance, impacts
associated with all life stages should be considered and aggregated.
The goal of LCA is to compare the full range of environmental effects assignable
to products and services in order to improve processes, support policy and provide
a sound basis for informed decisions. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to sup-
port every kind of economic and environmental management procedure, such as the
selection of business strategy, research & development direction, as input to product
or process design and licensing, and for labeling or product declarations (Cooper &
Fava, 2006).
The types of LCA, according to the goal of the assessment:

- Cradle-to-grave is a full LCA from resource to use and disposal phases;

- Cradle-to-gate includes a partial LCA from resource extraction to the factory gate;

- Cradle-to-cradle is applied for open loop production, where the end of life of the

product is recycling; a new start-up;