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This book explores the benefits of using risk analysis techniques in the evaluation of flood protection structures, and examines the results of the environmental impact assessment for selected planned flood protection projects. The objective of the book is to propose a methodology for environmental impact assessment in water management. In more detail, flood mitigation measures are investigated with the aim of selecting the best option for the approval process. This methodology is intended to streamline the process of environmental impact assessment for structures in the field of the water management. The book?s environmental impact assessment system for water management structures analyzes the respective risks for different options. The results are intended to support the selection of future projects that pose minimum risks to the environment. Comparison of alternatives and designation of the optimal variant are implemented on the basis of selected criteria that objectively describe the characteristics of the planned alternatives and their respective impacts on the environment. The proposed Guideline for environmental impact assessment of flood protection objects employs multi-parametric risk analysis, a method intended to not only enhance the transparency and sensitivity of the evaluation process, but also successfully addresses the requirements of environmental impact assessment systems in the European Union. These modifications are intended to improve the outcomes of the environmental impact assessment, but may also be applied to other infrastructure projects. The case study proves that the primary aim? to improve transparency and minimize subjectivity in the environmental impact assessment process specific to flood protection structure projects? is met for the planned project in Kruézlov, Slovakia.

Background, aim and scope In 2005, a comprehensive comparison of life cycle impact assessment toxicity characterisation models was initiated by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)–Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Life Cycle Initiative, directly involving the model developers of CalTOX, IMPACT 2002, USES-LCA, BETR, EDIP, WATSON and EcoSense. In this paper, we describe this model comparison process and its results—in particular the scientific consensus model developed by the model developers. The main objectives of this effort were (1) to identify specific sources of differences between the models’ results and structure, (2) to detect the indispensable model components and (3) to build a scientific consensus model from them, representing recommended practice. Materials and methods A chemical test set of 45 organics covering a wide range of property combinations was selected for this purpose. All models used this set. In three workshops, the model comparison participants identified key fate, exposure and effect issues via comparison of the final characterisation factors and selected intermediate outputs for fate, human exposure and toxic effects for the test set applied to all models. Results Through this process, we were able to reduce inter-model variation from an initial range of up to 13 orders of magnitude down to no more than two orders of magnitude for any substance. This led to the development of USEtox, a scientific consensus model that contains only the most influential model elements. These were, for example, process formulations accounting for intermittent rain, defining a closed or open system environment or nesting an urban box in a continental box. Discussion The precision of the new characterisation factors (CFs) is within a factor of 100–1,000 for human health and 10–100 for freshwater ecotoxicity of all other models compared to 12 orders of magnitude variation between the CFs of each model, respectively. The achieved reduction of inter-model variability by up to 11 orders of magnitude is a significant improvement. Conclusions USEtox provides a parsimonious and transparent tool for human health and ecosystem CF estimates. Based on a referenced database, it has now been used to calculate CFs for several thousand substances and forms the basis of the recommendations from UNEP-SETAC’s Life Cycle Initiative regarding characterisation of toxic impacts in life cycle assessment. Recommendations and perspectives We provide both recommended and interim (not recommended and to be used with caution) characterisation factors for human health and freshwater ecotoxicity impacts. After a process of consensus building among stakeholders on a broad scale as well as several improvements regarding a wider and easier applicability of the model, USEtox will become available to practitioners for the calculation of further CFs.

Policies that stimulate active transportation (walking and bicycling) have been related to heath benefits. This study aims to assess the potential health risks and benefits of promoting active transportation for commuting populations (age groups 16-64) in six European cities. We conducted a health impact assessment using two scenarios: increased cycling and increased walking. The primary outcome measure was all-cause mortality related to changes in physical activity level, exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution with a diameter <2.5 μm, as well as traffic fatalities in the cities of Barcelona, Basel, Copenhagen, Paris, Prague, and Warsaw. All scenarios produced health benefits in the six cities. An increase in bicycle trips to 35% of all trips (as in Copenhagen) produced the highest benefits among the different scenarios analysed in Warsaw 113 (76-163) annual deaths avoided, Prague 61 (29-104), Barcelona 37 (24-56), Paris 37 (18-64) and Basel 5 (3-9). An increase in walking trips to 50% of all trips (as in Paris) resulted in 19 (3-42) deaths avoided annually in Warsaw, 11(3-21) in Prague, 6 (4-9) in Basel, 3 (2-6) in Copenhagen and 3 (2-4) in Barcelona. The scenarios would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the six cities by 1,139 to 26,423 (metric tonnes per year). Policies to promote active transportation may produce health benefits, but these depend of the existing characteristics of the cities. Increased collaboration between health practitioners, transport specialists and urban planners will help to introduce the health perspective in transport policies and promote active transportation.

The potential impacts of coal mining on health have been addressed by the application of impact assessment methodologies that use the results of qualitative and quantitative analyses to support their conclusions and recommendations. Although human epidemiological analyses can provide the most relevant measures of risk of health outcomes in populations exposed to coal mining by-products, this kind of studies are seldom implemented as part of the impact assessment methods. To review the use of human epidemiological analyses in the methods used to assess the impacts of coal mining, a systematic search in the peer review literature was implemented following the PRISMA protocol. A synthesis analysis identified the methods and the measures used in the selected publications to develop a thematic review and discussion. The major methodological approaches to assess the impacts of coal mining are environmental impact assessment (EIA), health impact assessment (HIA), social impact assessment (SIA) and environmental health impact assessment (EHIA). The measures used to assess the impacts of coal mining on health were classified as the estimates from non-human-based studies such as health risk assessment (HRA) and the measures of risk from human epidemiological analyses. The inclusion of human epidemiological estimates of the populations exposed, especially the general populations in the vicinity of the mining activities, is seldom found in impact assessment applications for coal mining. These methods rather incorporate HRA measures or other sources of evidence such as qualitative analyses and surveys. The implementation of impact assessment methods without estimates of the risk of health outcomes relevant to the potentially exposed populations affects their reliability to address the environmental and health impacts of coal mining. This is particularly important for EIA applications because these are incorporated in regulatory frameworks globally. The effective characterization of the impacts of coal mining on health requires quantitative estimates of the risk, including the risk measures from epidemiological analyses of relevant human health data.

PURPOSE: Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is a field of active development. The last decade has seen prolific publication of new impact assessment methods covering many different impact categories and providing characterization factors that often deviate from each other for the same substance and impact. The LCA standard ISO 14044 is rather general and unspecific in its requirements and offers little help to the LCA practitioner who needs to make a choice. With the aim to identify the best among existing characterization models and provide recommendations to the LCA practitioner, a study was performed for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC). METHODS: Existing LCIA methods were collected and their individual characterization models identified at both midpoint and endpoint levels and supplemented with other environmental models of potential use for LCIA. No new developments of characterization models or factors were done in the project. From a total of 156 models, 91 were short listed as possible candidates for a recommendation within their impact category. Criteria were developed for analyzing the models within each impact category. The criteria addressed both scientific qualities and stakeholder acceptance. The criteria were reviewed by external experts and stakeholders and applied in a comprehensive analysis of the short-listed characterization models (the total number of criteria varied between 35 and 50 per impact category). For each impact category, the analysis concluded with identification of the best among the existing characterization models. If the identified model was of sufficient quality, it was recommended by the JRC. Analysis and recommendation process involved hearing of both scientific experts and stakeholders. RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Recommendations were developed for 14 impact categories at midpoint level, and among these recommendations, three were classified as “satisfactory” while ten were “in need of some improvements” and one was so weak that it has “to be applied with caution.” For some of the impact categories, the classification of the recommended model varied with the type of substance. At endpoint level, recommendations were only found relevant for three impact categories. For the rest, the quality of the existing methods was too weak, and the methods that came out best in the analysis were classified as “interim,” i.e., not recommended by the JRC but suitable to provide an initial basis for further development. DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, AND OUTLOOK: The level of characterization modeling at midpoint level has improved considerably over the last decade and now also considers important aspects like geographical differentiation and combination of midpoint and endpoint characterization, although the latter is in clear need for further development. With the realization of the potential importance of geographical differentiation comes the need for characterization models that are able to produce characterization factors that are representative for different continents and still support aggregation of impact scores over the whole life cycle. For the impact categories human toxicity and ecotoxicity, we are now able to recommend a model, but the number of chemical substances in common use is so high that there is a need to address the substance data shortage and calculate characterization factors for many new substances. Another unresolved issue is the need for quantitative information about the uncertainties that accompany the characterization factors. This is still only adequately addressed for one or two impact categories at midpoint, and this should be a focus point in future research. The dynamic character of LCIA research means that what is best practice will change quickly in time. The characterization methods presented in this paper represent what was best practice in 2008–2009.

Multiple Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines appear to be safe and efficacious, but only high-income countries have the resources to procure sufficient vaccine doses for most of their eligible populations. The World Health Organization has published guidelines for vaccine prioritisation, but most vaccine impact projections have focused on high-income countries, and few incorporate economic considerations. To address this evidence gap, we projected the health and economic impact of different vaccination scenarios in Sindh Province, Pakistan (population: 48 million). We fitted a compartmental transmission model to COVID-19 cases and deaths in Sindh from 30 April to 15 September 2020. We then projected cases, deaths, and hospitalisation outcomes over 10 years under different vaccine scenarios. Finally, we combined these projections with a detailed economic model to estimate incremental costs (from healthcare and partial societal perspectives), disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for each scenario. We project that 1 year of vaccine distribution, at delivery rates consistent with COVAX projections, using an infection-blocking vaccine at $3/dose with 70% efficacy and 2.5-year duration of protection is likely to avert around 0.9 (95% credible interval (CrI): 0.9, 1.0) million cases, 10.1 (95% CrI: 10.1, 10.3) thousand deaths, and 70.1 (95% CrI: 69.9, 70.6) thousand DALYs, with an ICER of $27.9 per DALY averted from the health system perspective. Under a broad range of alternative scenarios, we find that initially prioritising the older (65+) population generally prevents more deaths. However, unprioritised distribution has almost the same cost-effectiveness when considering all outcomes, and both prioritised and unprioritised programmes can be cost-effective for low per-dose costs. High vaccine prices ($10/dose), however, may not be cost-effective, depending on the specifics of vaccine performance, distribution programme, and future pandemic trends. The principal drivers of the health outcomes are the fitted values for the overall transmission scaling parameter and disease natural history parameters from other studies, particularly age-specific probabilities of infection and symptomatic disease, as well as social contact rates. Other parameters are investigated in sensitivity analyses. This study is limited by model approximations, available data, and future uncertainty. Because the model is a single-population compartmental model, detailed impacts of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as household isolation cannot be practically represented or evaluated in combination with vaccine programmes. Similarly, the model cannot consider prioritising groups like healthcare or other essential workers. The model is only fitted to the reported case and death data, which are incomplete and not disaggregated by, e.g., age. Finally, because the future impact and implementation cost of NPIs are uncertain, how these would interact with vaccination remains an open question. COVID-19 vaccination can have a considerable health impact and is likely to be cost-effective if more optimistic vaccine scenarios apply. Preventing severe disease is an important contributor to this impact. However, the advantage of prioritising older, high-risk populations is smaller in generally younger populations. This reduction is especially true in populations with more past transmission, and if the vaccine is likely to further impede transmission rather than just disease. Those conditions are typical of many low- and middle-income countries.

The impact of large dams is a popular topic in environmental science, but the importance of altered water quality as a driver of ecological impacts is often missing from such discussions. This is partly because information on the relationship between dams and water quality is relatively sparse and fragmentary, especially for low-latitude developing countries where dam building is now concentrated. In this paper, we review and synthesize information on the effects of damming on water quality with a special focus on low latitudes. We find that two ultimate physical processes drive most water quality changes: the trapping of sediments and nutrients, and thermal stratification in reservoirs. Since stratification emerges as an important driver and there is ambiguity in the literature regarding the stratification behavior of water bodies in the tropics, we synthesize data and literature on the 54 largest low-latitude reservoirs to assess their mixing behavior using three classification schemes. Direct observations from literature as well as classifications based on climate and/or morphometry suggest that most, if not all, low-latitude reservoirs will stratify on at least a seasonal basis. This finding suggests that low-latitude dams have the potential to discharge cooler, anoxic deep water, which can degrade downstream ecosystems by altering thermal regimes or causing hypoxic stress. Many of these reservoirs are also capable of efficient trapping of sediments and bed load, transforming or destroying downstream ecosystems, such as floodplains and deltas. Water quality impacts imposed by stratification and sediment trapping can be mitigated through a variety of approaches, but implementation often meets physical or financial constraints. The impending construction of thousands of planned low-latitude dams will alter water quality throughout tropical and subtropical rivers. These changes and associated environmental impacts need to be better understood by better baseline data and more sophisticated predictors of reservoir stratification behavior. Improved environmental impact assessments and dam designs have the potential to mitigate both existing and future potential impacts.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) sets to create connections and build infrastructure across Eurasia, Asia, and parts of the African continent in its initial phase and is the largest infrastructure project of all time. Any infrastructure project on this scale will necessarily pass through ecofragile regions and key biodiversity areas (KBAs). This creates an imperative to identify possible areas of impact and probable effects on conservation values to facilitate adaptive planning and to mitigate, minimize, or avoid impacts. Using the highest resolution route maps of the BRI available, I overlaid the proposed road and rail routes on KBAs, protected areas, and predicted biodiversity hotspots for over 4138 animal and 7371 plant species. I also assessed the relationship between the proposed route with the distribution of mines across BRI countries and the proportion of deforestation and forest near routes. Infrastructure, especially mining, was clustered near the proposed route; thus, construction and development along the route may increase the size and number of mines. Up to 15% of KBAs were within 1 km of proposed railways. Thus, planned and probable development along the routes may pose a significant risk to biodiversity, especially because the majority of KBAs are unprotected. Many biodiversity hotspots for different taxa were near the route. These hotspots varied between taxa, making systematic management and environmental impact assessments an effective strategy for at least some taxa. A combination of planning and mitigation strategies will likely be necessary to protect the most important areas for biodiversity proximal to development, especially in currently unprotected KBAs and other regions that need protection. A fuller assessment of trade-offs between conservation and other values will be necessary to make good decisions for each project and site being developed, including potentially modifying parts of the route to minimize impacts. Modification or foregoing of infrastructure may be needed if stakeholders consider the conservation costs too high. La Iniciativa del Cinturón y Ruta (BRI, en inglés) de China busca crear conexiones y construir infraestructura a lo largo de Eurasia, Asia y partes del continente africano en su fase inicial y es el proyecto infraestructural más grande de todos los tiempos. Cualquier proyecto infraestructural a esta escala pasará obligatoriamente a través de regiones con fragilidad ecológica y áreas importantes para la biodiversidad (KBA, en inglés). Esto genera una necesidad por identificar las áreas de posible impacto y los efectos probables sobre los valores de conservación para facilitar la planeación adaptativa y mitigar, reducir o evitar los impactos. Usé los mapas de ruta de la BRI con la mayor resolución disponible para sobreponer las rutas propuestas de ferrocarriles y carreteras sobre las KBA, las áreas protegidas y los puntos calientes de biodiversidad pronosticados para más de 4138 especies de animales y 7371 especies de plantas. También evalué la relación entre la ruta propuesta con la distribución de minas a lo largo de los países en la BRI y la proporción de deforestación y bosques cerca de las rutas. La infraestructura, en especial la de minas, estuvo agrupada cerca de la ruta propuesta; por lo tanto, la construcción y el desarrollo a lo largo de la ruta podrían incrementar el tamaño y el número de minas. Hasta el 15% de las KBA estarían dentro de 1 km de distancia de las vías ferrocarrileras propuestas. Así, el desarrollo planeado y probable a lo largo de las rutas puede presentar un riesgo significativo para la biodiversidad, especialmente porque la mayoría de las KBA no está protegida. Muchos puntos calientes para la biodiversidad están cerca de la ruta. Estos puntos calientes variaron entre taxones, lo que hace que el manejo sistémico y las evaluaciones de impacto ambiental sean una estrategia efectiva para por lo menos algunos taxones. Una combinación de estrategias de planeación y mitigación probablemente será necesaria para proteger las áreas más importantes para la biodiversidad próximas al desarrollo, especialmente en las KBA que actualmente se encuentran sin protección y en otras regiones que requieren protección. Una evaluación más completa de compensaciones entre la conservación y otros valores será necesaria para tomar buenas decisiones para cada proyecto y sitio en desarrollo, incluyendo la potencial modificación de partes de la ruta para reducir los impactos. La modificación o renuncia a la infraestructura puede ser necesaria si los accionistas consideran que los costos de conservación son demasiado elevados. 中国的し带一路” 倡议(BRI)是有史以来规模最大的基础设施项目，其目标是在欧亚大，亚洲和非洲大 陆部分地区建立互联互通和基础设施建设。如此大规模的基础设施项目必定会经过生态脆弱区和生物多样性 重要区域，这就迫切需要确定可能对生物多祥性保护价值产生影响的区域和可能产生的影响，以便进行适应性 规划，尽量减轻、減少或者避免工程施工对生物多样性带来的不良影响。本文利用覆盖生物多祥性重要区域 (KBAs)和保护区拟建公路和铁路的\"一带一路, ,高分辨率路线图，预测沿线的生物多样性热点地区有超过4138 神动物和i y n 植物种类。本文还评估了 “ー带一路”沿线各国拟建路线上矿山的分布和路线附近毁林和森林 比例之间的关系。基础设施，特别是采矿业，成群分布在在拟建路线附近。因此，沿线的建设和开发可能会増加 矿山的规模和数量，而多达15%的KBAs就位于拟建铁路1 公里以内，从而，沿线规划和未来发展，也许会给当 地生物多祥性造成严重的影响。拥有许多不同类群的生物多样性热点地区都在这条路线附近，而其中还有许多 KBAs都还未受到保护，这些生物多样性热点在不同的类群之间存在差异，因此系统的管理和对环境影响进行 评估，至少对某些类群来说是ー种有效的策略o 为了保护近期开发最重要的生物多祥性地区，尤其是目前未受 到保护以及其他需要保护的地区，对其采取统筹规划和缓解措施将会是必要的策略。为了对每ー个正在开发的 项目和地点做出正确的决策，有必要对生物多祥性保护和其他各种价值之间的权衡进行更全面的评估，这包括需 要修改部分路线以尽量减少对生物与环境的影响。如果计划中的基础设施建设会造成严重的生物多样性丧失， 郵么就必须要重新考虑。

Over 150 forms of impact assessment can be identified using Google searches, with several new forms appearing since 2003. Since then, the popularity of the various members of the impact assessment family has changed, partly in response to legislative and regulatory changes, and general trends in society. The information explosion and expansion of the internet has resulted in a 32 fold increase in the number of hits for \"impact assessment\", now over 12 million. The conventional methods most frequently mentioned in 2003 had relatively low proportional change over the last 10 years but remain amongst the most frequently mentioned in 2014: risk assessment, public participation, cost-benefit analysis, public involvement, environmental monitoring, and project evaluation. The terms with highest proportional change (i.e. the super-hot topics) were primarily social concerns, including: equality impact assessment, welfare impact assessment, mental health impact assessment, disability impact assessment, human impact assessment, social impact assessment, and social risk assessment. Other terms that had high proportional change included life cycle impact assessment. Information about the relative popularity of the various forms of impact assessment is used in this paper to discuss issues and trends in the broad field of impact assessment.

The present article focuses on a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of the most widely adopted solar photovoltaic power generation technologies, viz., mono-crystalline silicon (mono-Si), multi-crystalline silicon (multi-Si), amorphous silicon (a-Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) energy technologies, based on ReCiPe life cycle impact assessment method. LCA is the most powerful environmental impact assessment tool from a product perspective and ReCiPe is one of the most advanced LCA methodologies with the broadest set of mid-point impact categories. More importantly, ReCiPe combines the strengths of both mid-point-based life cycle impact assessment approach of CML-IA, and end-point-based approach of Eco-indicator 99 methods. Accordingly, the LCA results of all four solar PV technologies have been evaluated and compared based on 18 mid-point impact indicators (viz., climate change, ozone depletion, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, ionising radiation, agricultural land occupation, urban land occupation, natural land transformation, water depletion, metal depletion and fossil depletion), 3 end-point/damage indicators (viz., human health, ecosystems and cost increases in resource extraction) and a unified single score. The overall study has been conducted based on hierarchist perspective and according to the relevant ISO standards. Final results show that the CdTe thin-film solar plant carries the least environmental life cycle impact within the four PV technologies, sequentially followed by multi-Si, a-Si and mono-Si technology.