implementing leaps in central and eastern europe: trainers’ handbook assessing environmental...

IMPLEMENTING LEAPS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: TRAINERS’ HANDBOOK

Assessing Environmental Issues and Setting Priorities

PHASE 2: ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ND SETTING PRIORITIES

ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND SETTING PRIORITIES


ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND SETTING PRIORITIES 2

Assessing Environmental Issues and Setting Priorities

Assess environmental issues

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Albert Einstein

ai) Set environmental priorities for action

i) Select issue assessment methodology

a. Determine scope of issue assessment

b. Select, define and characterise environmental issues

d. Gather information

e. Finalise assessments





I. Assess Environmental Issues

i. Introduction: What is the purpose of an environmental issue assessment?

Assessment methodologies range in their level of sophistication, data needs, costs and time requirements.

• To profile environmental conditions in your community

• To help citizens paint a portrait of the place where they live given the state of the air, water and land





An environmental issues assessment:

• Establishes a "baseline" of environmental conditions

• Raises public awareness of environmental issues

• Helps build relationships and partnerships among stakeholders

• Provides a clear and shared analysis of the key environmental issues facing the community

• Provides information about the environmental impacts of human activities and efforts to improve and protect the environment





ai. Two broad categories of assessment

Many communities use a hybrid of these two approaches. A combined approach:

A successful assessment process requires broad support and cooperation.

• Starts with a broad public assessment process

• Uses the public process as a foundation for an expert-based assessment

Participatory assessments:

• Rely primarily on volunteers to collect data and information

• Example: community environmental inventory

Expert assessments:

• Follow more formal methods

• Scientifically and statistically evaluate and document conditions

• Example: risk assessment





bi. Why set environmental priorities?

In preparing for a priority-settingprocess, consider the following:

• Who is making environmental decisions now?

• What kinds of information do decision makers need to change priorities?

• How receptive are decision makers to changing priorities?

• Setting priorities helps to target environmental investments toward the most critical problems first.

• It can help ensure that the community receives the greatest public health and environmental benefits for its money.

• Many communities use their environmental issue assessments as a foundation for setting environmental priorities for action.





iv. Who conducts environmental issue assessments and sets priorities?

1. The stakeholder group can establish a technical advisory committee to lead the issue assessment process.

Stakeholder group has responsibility for reviewing assessment and setting environmental priorities.

• Finding out how to fill data gaps

• Analysing scientific data

• Identifying environmental problems

• Reviewing and collecting data

Primary responsibilities of the technical advisory committee include:





The technical advisory committee usually consists of:

• Citizens with technical interest or experience

• People with access to useful information or perspectives on environmental conditions

• Staff and officials from governmental institutions with environmental responsibilities

• Scientists

• Teachers and professors

• Doctors and professionals from the public health or environmental fields

• Representatives from non- governmental organisations





A. Select Issue Assessment Method

Questions to consider in choosing an assessment methodology include:

Choose an assessment methodology appropriate to the size of your community, availability of data and level of expertise available.

• Who is available to help conduct the assessment?

• What is the availability of data, funds and time?

• Do you intend to set environmental priorities for action?

• How will the information generated from the assessment be used and by whom?





B. Define Scope of Issue Assessment

Defining scope at the outset helps ensure:

Consider the following questions:

• What types of issues will be addressed in the assessment? Will they concern, for example, the environment, economic development, public health?

• What geographic area will be covered under the assessment (relates to what institutions will be involved)?

• Will the assessment address future as well as current issues?

• Data collection efforts will be well tailored.

• Sufficient resources are available to complete the necessary steps.

• All key information agencies and organisations are involved.

First review community vision:

The vision provides parameters on issues your community cares about.





C. Select, Define and Characterise Environmental Issues

Community residents offer a good starting point for developing an environmental issue list:

What is being threatened that you value?

• Develop a refined list of problems using consistent terminology to characterise and describe the problems.

• By using consistent terminology, the technical advisory committee can develop comparable definitions that are critical to ranking environmental problems.

• Use a variety of outreach methods such as surveys, focus groups and public information meetings.

• Ask residents: "What are the environmental problems facing the community and why do they cause us concern?”





Proposed Terminology for Issue Characterisation

Comparative risk analysis uses the following terminology to help define environmental issues:

• Sources: Sources are human activities that result in the release or exposure of stressors to the environment.

• Impacts: Impacts refer to damage inflicted on human health, the natural environment or quality of life. Impacts provide a common denominator for evaluating various environmental issues.

• Stressors: Stressors are chemical pollutants or physical impacts affecting individual species (including humans) or complete ecosystems.





In comparative risk analysis,impacts are usually evaluated in terms of: • Severity: How serious or intense is

the impact?

• Persistence/reversibility: How long will the impact last, i.e., for a few years or for centuries?

• Scale: How big or widespread is the impact?





Sample Issue: Characterisation

Environmental issue: Water pollution from animal waste

Description of environmental issue: Nitrogen from manure produced at animal feedlots runs off into surface waters causing increased aquatic plant growth and biological oxygen demand, decreased levels of dissolved oxygen and decreased fish populations.

Terminology:

• Stressor: nitrogen

• Source: manure from animal feedlots

• Negative impacts: increased aquatic plant growth and biological oxygen demand, decreased dissolved oxygen and decreased fish populations





Sample environmental issue list from Radom, Poland

• Impact of working landfills and old and illegal landfills

• Noise and vibrations

• Electromagnetic and ionic radiation

• Exceptional dangers resulting from catastrophes

• Incineration of hospital waste

• Quality of drinking water from deep wells and ground water

• Health protection

• Ecological awareness of the community

• Depletion of deep water aquifer for drinking water

• Air pollution from transport

• Air pollution from domestic and industrial sources

• Surface water pollution

• Sewage management

• Solid communal waste

• Industrial and hazardous waste

• Condition of green areas





D. Gather Information

Save time and money by identifying what data and how much data you need prior to starting data collection efforts.

• Issue characterisations provide a useful starting point in helping to target data collection efforts.

• Collect enough data to provide a description of the threats to human health, the natural environment and other areas affected by each problem.

Consider the following questions as you gather information:

• What steps can be taken when there is a lack of data?

• How reliable and accurate is the information?

• What are some key information sources?





Actions to take in the absence of data:

• Initiate new monitoring efforts: Conduct new monitoring efforts only after careful consideration.

• Talk to the public: Citizens can provide valuable anecdotal information.

• Collect data from other communities: Data from other communities with comparable conditions provides a perspective on your own community.

• Conduct on-site tours: Pertinent information may be gained from site tours and community surveys.





Sources of information include:

• Regional environmental and health inspectorates

• Ministries of environment, health, agriculture, and regional planning

• Universities and academic institutions

• Municipal governments

• Hospitals and health clinics

• Libraries

• International and non- governmental organisations

• Private enterprises

• Individual citizens

• Community organisations (NGOs, etc.)

• Experts (health risk assessors, ecologists, economists, planners, etc.)

• Individuals from similar projects in your country or region





E. Finalise Assessments

An issue assessment report includes a summary of the findings and conclusions, baseline data about relevant conditions, and a description of the quality and sources of data used.

In preparing the issue assess-ment report, consider the following factors:

• Lay the groundwork for future cooperative activities with the involved institutions and organisations.

• Facilitate data collection and analysis

• Improve the completeness and accuracy of the assessment

• Audiences

• Attractiveness of presentations

• Is analysis adequately documented? Are terms clearly defined?

A cooperative approach to datacollection can help:





• Describes the history of the problem and whether it is getting better or worse

• Identifies the major sources of pollution and stressors related to these sources

• Describes specific impacts associated with the issue, such as those on human health and ecology

• Describes how human activities have directly caused or exacerbated the impacts

In Crafting Each Issue Assessment, Consider Whether It:

• Describes the specific impacts to the community

• Relates environmental degradation levels to environmental standards

• Describes the magnitude and severity of the impacts

• Specifically acknowledges data limitations, assumptions, methods used, degree of uncertainty in results, and sources of information





II. Set Environmental Priorities Ranking environmental problems versus setting priorities for action:

Priority setting helps target environmental investments toward the most critical problems first.

Communities incorporate a number of additional criteria for setting priorities for action, including:

• Ranking of problems is usually based upon relative seriousness or severity of environmental issues.

• Problem ranking information is combined with other criteria to set priorities for action.

• Public preferences

• Municipal authority to control

• Community ability to influence

• Legal requirements





Preparing for the Ranking Session

In preparing for a ranking session, the stakeholder group may want to:

• Familiarise themselves with the ranking approach

• Consider hiring a professional facilitator

• Prepare an agenda and document results

• Decide on a decision-making process

• Determine the role of the public





Sample Matrix: Examining Relative Health Threats

1%

10%

50%

90%

Low

Portion of population affected Severity and persistence of health threat

HighMedium





A Proposed Procedure for Setting Priorities for Action

1) Rank environmental problems

a) Present oral summaries

b) Fill in matrices

c) Conduct relative problem rankings

d) Identify easy highs and lows

e) Discuss rationale for rankings

f) Present proposals for rankings

g) Discuss and decide on ranking

h) Review and finalise problem-ranking list

2) Set Priorities for Action

a) Review and select additional criteria

b) Discuss problems in light of criteria

c) Set priorities for action





Sample Table: Setting Environmental Priorities for Action

Problem- ranking results

Municipality’sability to control

National legalrequirements

Public preferences

1

2

3

4

5

6

Environmentalissues Criteria

Priorities for action





Case Study: Assigning Quantitative Values to Risk in Chelm, Poland

Qualitative scale

Very high risk (extreme)

High risk

Significant risk

Low risk

No risk

Description

At least 1 additional case per 1,000 people (at least 15% of national statistical average)

1 additional case per 10,000 people (about 10% of national statistical average)

Not more than 1 additional case per 100,000 people (0.5% of national statistical average)

1 additional case per 100,000 people (about 0.05% of national statistical average)

Not more than 1 additional case per 1,000,000 people (less than 0.05% of national statistical average)

Quantitative scale

4

3

2

1

0

Additional cases of terminal cancer per year





Qualitative scale

Very high risk (extreme)

High risk

Significant risk

Low risk

No risk

Criterion description

Disappearance of some ecosystems throughout the town

Disappearance of particularly sensitive species

Changes in the functioning of ecosystems and changes in the number of species

Small changes in the number of species without disrupting the functioning of ecosystems

No noticeable changes

Quantitative scale

4

3

2

1

0

Impacts on ecosystems

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