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\"Methods of environmental impact assessment is a practical, up-to-date explanation and guide to how EIAS are, and should be, carried out for specific environmental components (e.g. air, water, ecological systems, socio-economic systems). For each component, it includes a discussion of relevant regulations and standards, how baseline surveys are conducted, how impact predictions are made, what mitigation measures can be used, how the effectiveness of such measures should be monitored, and the limitations of the methods.\" \"Very few books exist on how EIA should be carried out for specific environmental components. Whereas its sister volume, Introduction to environmental impact assessment, concentrates on the EIA principles, procedures and prospects, Methods of environmental impact assessment concentrates on the methods applied for the environmental components. It does not attempt to make specialists of its readers, but aims to foster better communication between experts, a better understanding of how EIAs should be carried out, and better EIA-related decisions. Taken together, the two books provide a comprehensive coverage of the theory and practice of EIA.\" \"Written by practising specialists who teach a highly regarded MSc course in environmental assessment and management, and by experts from a major environmental consultancy, Methods of environmental impact assessment is invaluable for: people who organize, review, and make decisions about EIA; environmental planners and managers; students taking first degrees in planning, ecology, geography, environmental studies and related subjects with an EIA content; and postgraduate students taking courses in EIA or environmental management.\"--Jacket.

These best practice guidelines present the type and level of detail required for describing and evaluating the ecological baseline of an environmental assessment. These assessments are vital in determining whether or not there are issues of ecological importance for a site or proposed development and are an essential component of the environmental impact assessment process. Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements. Summary. Introduction. Aims of the guidelines. Principles and good practice of ecological assessment. Defining the scope of an ecological assessment. General principles. Detailed criteria, survey methods and evaluation. Vegetation. Birds. Mammals. Amphibians and reptiles. Fish. Terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates. Marine and estuarine habitats and organisms. Marine and estuarine habitats and organisms. Abbbreviations. References. Appendices. Index.

Written for use in undergraduate and postgraduate planning courses and for those involved in all aspects of the planning process, this comprehensive textbook focuses on environmental impact assessment and design and in particular their impact on planning for the landscape.

The potential impact of climate change on drought is of increasing concern, especially due to recent occurrences of major events across the globe. Here a national-scale grid–based hydrological model is used to investigate potential future changes in river flow and soil moisture droughts across Great Britain. The analysis uses ensembles of climate model data for four time periods (1930s, 1980s, 2030s and 2080s) under a “business-as-usual” (RCP8.5) emissions trajectory. The results show that the severity of droughts is projected to increase in the future. River flow droughts in southeastern regions are projected to increase in peak intensity and lengthen slightly, whereas peak intensities are projected to decrease for much of the rest of Britain. Droughts with the largest spatial extent across Britain are projected to increase in area for both river flow and soil moisture. More extreme droughts than previously experienced could have a significant impact on the aquatic environment as well as the availability of water for industry, agriculture and public water supply. Regional- to national-scale droughts could have implications for potential mitigation measures such as water transfer between regions. In turn, this could lead to social and economic impacts, especially as there are also likely to be future increases in demand.

Aim Species are largely thought to maintain broadly static niches over time, an assumption underpinning much theoretical ecology including the implementation of ecological models to project species' current and future distributions. Here, we assess niche conservatism in odonates in Great Britain over the past six decades by simultaneously quantifying changes in species geographic distribution and evaluating temporal trends in species realised climatic niche. Location Great Britain. Methods Distributional changes were assessed by calculating changes in species distribution centres and deriving occupancy trends. Changes in climatic niches were assessed using a principal component analysis to quantify niche overlap, using information on both climate averages and extremes. Results We show that dragonflies and damselflies displayed distinct responses to changing climatic conditions. Dragonflies shifting to higher latitudes maintained, on average, greater consistency in their climatic niches, providing evidence for climate tracking. Greater climate niche flexibility and increased occupancy over time, on the other hand, were more common in damselflies. Main Conclusions We unveil evidence for climatic niche divergence in damselflies on a national scale, casting doubt on the relevance of species distribution models for predicting the impacts of climate change on this, and potentially other, groups of species. More broadly, our results call for more multi‐species temporal comparisons of spatial distributions and climate niches during recent periods of changes in climatic conditions to improve our ability to contrast species' vulnerability risk to the ongoing climate crisis.

Estimates of the economic impact of invasive non-native species (INNS) are important to support informed decision-making and prioritise resources. A detailed estimate of the direct costs of INNS to Great Britain, covering many sectors of the economy and the impacts of many INNS in diverse habitats, was made in 2010 and extended to Northern Ireland in 2013. These estimates are increasingly out of date as a result of changes in distribution and impacts of species, new knowledge, changes in management and newly established INNS. We, therefore, updated the estimated costs for the United Kingdom (UK) for sectors where new information was available and applied an inflation factor to the remaining sectors and species. The results show changes in all sectors and species and the new estimated annual costs to the UK economy is £4014 m, with £3022 m, £499 m, £343 m and £150 m to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively. Overall, we found a 45% increase in comparable costs since 2010, with most estimated costs increased, often more than inflation, although in some cases the costs have decreased as a result of changes in the population size of INNS, such as was the case for rabbits. A comparison with the previously estimated costs revealed that the costliest species and sectors of 2010 remain the same, but the newly established, widely distributed and highly impactful ash dieback is now one of the most costly diseases caused by an INNS. We discuss reasons for these changes and the evolution of costs in comparison to other studies. Overall, these results confirm the enormous cost of INNS to the UK economy and highlight the need for continued efforts to mitigate the impacts of established INNS, whilst also supporting measures to limit the entry and establishment of new, potentially harmful non-native species.

A transect of 68 acid grasslands across Great Britain, covering the lower range of ambient annual nitrogen deposition in the industrialized world (5 to$35 kg N ha^{-1} year^{-1}$), indicates that long-term, chronic nitrogen deposition has significantly reduced plant species richness. Species richness declines as a linear function of the rate of inorganic nitrogen deposition, with a reduction of one species per 4-m2quadrat for every$2.5 kg N ha^{-1} year^{-1}$of chronic nitrogen deposition. Species adapted to infertile conditions are systematically reduced at high nitrogen deposition. At the mean chronic nitrogen deposition rate of central Europe ($17 kg N ha^{-1} year^{-1}$), there is a 23% species reduction compared with grasslands receiving the lowest levels of nitrogen deposition.

Great Britain’s main line railway network is known to experience various temperature-related impacts, e.g. track buckling and overhead power line sag at high ambient temperatures. Climate change could alter the frequency of occurrence of these impacts. We have therefore investigated the climate change impact on various temperature-related issues, identified during workshops with rail industry specialists, using a perturbed physics ensemble (PPE) of the Met Office’s regional climate model (RCM), HadRM3. We have developed novel approaches to combine RCM data with railway industry knowledge, typically by identifying key meteorological thresholds of interest and analysing exceedance of these out to the 2040s. We performed a statistical analysis of the projected changes for each issue, via bootstrapping of the unperturbed PPE member. Although neither the PPE nor the bootstrapping analysis samples the full range of uncertainty in the projections, they nonetheless provide complementary perspectives on the suitability of the projections for use in decision-making. Our main findings include projected increases in the summertime occurrence of temperature conditions associated with (i) track buckling, (ii) overhead power line sag, (iii) exposure of outdoor workers to heat stress, and (iv) heat-related delays to track maintenance; and (v) projected decreases in the wintertime occurrence of temperatures conditions associated with freight train failure owing to brake problems. For (i), the statistical significance varied with track condition and location; for (ii) and (iii), with location; and for (iv) and (v), projected changes were significant across Great Britain. As well as assessing the changes in climate-related hazard, information about the vulnerability of the network to past temperature-related incidents has been summarised. Combining the hazard and vulnerability elements will eventually support a climate risk assessment for the industry.

The potential impact of climate change on hydrological extremes is of increasing concern across the globe. Here, a national-scale grid-based hydrological model is used to investigate historical trends and potential future changes in low flow frequency across Great Britain. The historical analyses use both observational data (1891–2015) and ensemble data from a regional climate model (1900–2006). The results show relatively few significant trends in historical low flows (2- or 20-year return period), whether based on 7- or 30-day annual minima. Significant negative trends seen in some limited parts of the country when using observational data are generally not seen when using climate model data. The future analyses use climate model ensemble data for both near future and far future time periods (2020–2049 and 2070–2099 respectively), which are compared to a baseline sub-period from the historical ensemble (1975–2004). The results show future reductions in low flows, which are generally larger in the south of the country, at the higher (20-year) return period, and for the later time period. Reductions are more limited if the estimates of future potential evaporation include the effect of increased carbon dioxide concentrations on stomatal resistance. Such reductions in river flow could have significant impacts on the aquatic environment and on agriculture, and present a challenge for water managers, especially as reductions in water supply are likely to occur alongside increases in demand.