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Public participation in environmental assessment and decision making
Federal agencies have taken steps to include the public in a wide range of environmental decisions. Although some form of public participation is often required by law, agencies usually have broad discretion about the extent of that involvement. Approaches vary widely, from holding public information-gathering meetings to forming advisory groups to actively including citizens in making and implementing decisions.
Proponents of public participation argue that those who must live with the outcome of an environmental decision should have some influence on it. Critics maintain that public participation slows decision making and can lower its quality by including people unfamiliar with the science involved.
This book concludes that, when done correctly, public participation improves the quality of federal agencies' decisions about the environment. Well-managed public involvement also increases the legitimacy of decisions in the eyes of those affected by them, which makes it more likely that the decisions will be implemented effectively. This book recommends that agencies recognize public participation as valuable to their objectives, not just as a formality required by the law. It details principles and approaches agencies can use to successfully involve the public.
eBook
Methods of environmental impact assessment
\"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.
TM5-FASST: a global atmospheric source–receptor model for rapid impact analysis of emission changes on air quality and short-lived climate pollutants
This paper describes, documents, and validates the TM5-FAst Scenario Screening
Tool (TM5-FASST), a global reduced-form air quality source–receptor model
that has been designed to compute ambient pollutant concentrations as well as
a broad range of pollutant-related impacts on human health, agricultural crop
production, and short-lived pollutant climate metrics, taking as input annual
pollutant emission data aggregated at the national or regional level. The
TM5-FASST tool, providing a trade-off between accuracy and applicability, is
based on linearized emission-concentration sensitivities derived with the
full chemistry-transport model TM5. The tool has been extensively applied in
various recent critical studies. Although informal and fragmented validation
has already been performed in various publications, this paper provides a
comprehensive documentation of all components of the model and a validation
against the full TM5 model. We find that the simplifications introduced in
order to generate immediate results from emission scenarios do not compromise
the validity of the output and as such TM5-FASST is proven to be a useful
tool in science-policy analysis. Furthermore, it constitutes a suitable
architecture for implementing the ensemble of source–receptor relations
obtained in the frame of the HTAP modelling exercises, thus creating a link
between the scientific community and policy-oriented users.
Journal Article
Impacts of European drought events: insights from an international database of text-based reports
Drought is a natural hazard that can cause a wide range of impacts affecting the environment, society, and the economy. Providing an impact assessment and reducing vulnerability to these impacts for regions beyond the local scale, spanning political and sectoral boundaries, requires systematic and detailed data regarding impacts. This study presents an assessment of the diversity of drought impacts across Europe based on the European Drought Impact report Inventory (EDII), a unique research database that has collected close to 5000 impact reports from 33 European countries. The reported drought impacts were classified into major impact categories, each of which had a number of subtypes. The distribution of these categories and types was then analyzed over time, by country, across Europe and for particular drought events. The results show that impacts on agriculture and public water supply dominate the collection of drought impact reports for most countries and for all major drought events since the 1970s, while the number and relative fractions of reported impacts in other sectors can vary regionally and from event to event. The analysis also shows that reported impacts have increased over time as more media and website information has become available and environmental awareness has increased. Even though the distribution of impact categories is relatively consistent across Europe, the details of the reports show some differences. They confirm severe impacts in southern regions (particularly on agriculture and public water supply) and sector-specific impacts in central and northern regions (e.g., on forestry or energy production). The protocol developed thus enabled a new and more comprehensive view on drought impacts across Europe. Related studies have already developed statistical techniques to evaluate the link between drought indices and the categorized impacts using EDII data. The EDII is a living database and is a promising source for further research on drought impacts, vulnerabilities, and risks across Europe. A key result is the extensive variety of impacts found across Europe and its documentation. This insight can therefore inform drought policy planning at national to international levels.
Journal Article
Experimental Analysis of Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) Mixtures with Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) in Railway Sub-Ballast
Environmental safeguards promote innovative construction technologies for sustainable pavements. On these premises, this study investigated four hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures—i.e., A, B, C, and D—for the railway sub-ballast layer with 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) by total aggregate mass and a rejuvenator additive, varying the bitumen content between 3.5% and 5.0%. Both Marshall and gyratory compactor design methods have been performed, matching the stability, indirect tensile strength, and volumetric properties of each mixture. Dynamic stiffness and fatigue resistance tests provided mechanical performances. Laboratory results highlighted that the RAP and the rejuvenator additive increase the mechanical properties of the mixtures. In addition, the comparative analysis of production costs revealed up to 20% savings as the RAP content increased, and the life cycle impact analysis (LCIA) proved a reduction of the environmental impacts (up to 2% for resource use-fossils, up to 7% for climate change, and up to 13% for water use). The experimental results confirm that HMA containing RAP has mechanical performances higher than the reference mixture with only virgin raw materials. These findings could contribute to waste management and reduce the environmental and economic costs, since the use of RAP in the sub-ballast is not, so far, provided in the Italian specifications for railway construction.
Journal Article
Environmental impact assessments and mitigation
\"Environmental Impact Assessments and Mitigation examines various assessments for developmental projects in the housing, mining, energy, and waste management areas. As the world continues to shift toward concerns over climate change and environmental protection issues, developmental projects must have environmental impact assessments (EIA) conducted as well as environmental management plans (EMP). This book describes how all phases of a project, from planning, to operation, to post operation, must consider potential environmental impacts and their mitigation. Features : Presents numerous sustainable development considerations for key industries, discusses how environmental impact assessments are prepared for each stage of a project, describes different environmental management plans for established projects, offers mitigation plans for various potential environmental impacts , includes practical examples from the construction, manufacturing, transport, and mining industries. Useful for practicing professional engineers as well as upper-level students, this book covers all aspects of environmental impact assessments from start to finish\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
In the name of the great work
Beginning in 1948, the Soviet Union launched a series of wildly ambitious projects to implement Joseph Stalin's vision of a total \"transformation of nature.\" Intended to increase agricultural yields dramatically, this utopian impulse quickly spread to the newly communist states of Eastern Europe, captivating political elites and war-fatigued publics alike. By the time of Stalin's death, however, these attempts at \"transformation\"-which relied upon ideologically corrupted and pseudoscientific theories-had proven a spectacular failure. This richly detailed volume follows the history of such projects in three communist states-Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia-and explores their varied, but largely disastrous, consequences.
eBook