Module: Environmental Impact Assessment and Management (EIAM)

Aristotle University of ThessalonikiDr. Dimitra Vagiona

Module: Environmental Impact Assessment and Management (EIAM)

Understand the advances of EIA in regard to environmental management

Get familiar with National and European legislation concerning EIA

Understand the elements of EIA process

Understand the natural and anthropogenic components of the environment

Perceive tools and techniques for EIA

Get familiar with the format of an EIA Report

Main goals

Outline of the module

• Definition of basic concepts: sustainability, carrying capacity of the environment, projects, programs, EIA, EIS, SEA

1st weekIntroduction –

General concepts

• Purpose, scope and content of EIA policy and legislation (European Directives, National Law)

• Principles for a functional EIA system• Introduction to EIA process

2nd weekLegal framework

• Identification of criteria to compare alternatives• Performance matrix• Methods of selecting among alternatives, case

studies

3rd weekAlternatives

Outline of the module

• Project lists for screening• Criteria for the determination of the need of EIA• Preliminary EIA and other types of screening

(information included, contents)• Steps considered in scoping and evaluation

criteria for the scoping impacts

4th weekScreening procedure

Scoping procedure

• Stakeholders involved in EIA• Principles of public involvement• Public involvement techniques

5th weekPublic participation

• Non-biotic characteristics of the environment (climatic and bioclimatic features, morphology, soil, visional features etc)

• Natural environment (flora, fauna, protected areas)

• Existing and potential conditions

6th weekBroader definition of the environment

(1)

Outline of the module

• Anthropogenic environment (land uses, built environment, socio-economic environment, historical and cultural environment, acoustic etc)

• Surface and groundwaters• Existing and potential conditions

7th weekBroader definition of the environment

(2)

• Effects caused by projects• Classification of impacts (positive/adverse,

primary/secondary/tertiary, cumulative, residual, temporal, spatial etc)

• Case studies

8th weekImpact classification

Mitigation and impact management

• Checklists• Network analysis• Leopold’s matrix• Flow diagrams

9th weekTools for impact identification (1)

Outline of the module

• Stepped or chained matrices• Delphi method• Overlays• Dose – response functions

10th weekTools for impact identification (2)

• Case studies:• Multicriteria Analysis - MCA• Analytical Hierarchy Process - AHP• GIS – Geographical Information System• CBA – Cost Benefit Analysis• RA – Risk Analysis

11th weekTechniques for Environmental Appraisal (1)

• Case studies:• IO – Input Output• LCA – Life Cycle Analysis• CV – Contingent Valuation• CEA – Cost Effectiveness Analysis• MP – Mathematical Programming

12th weekTechniques for Environmental Appraisal (2)

Outline of the module

• guidelines for effective EIA report preparation and production

• Main difficulties encountered in EIA preparation• Presentation of an integrated case study

13th weekEIA reporting

Assignment: Case study - Perform an EIA study (report)

The tutor

Environmental Engineering

Civil EngineeringChemical

EngineeringEnvironmental

SciencesSciences of Planning

The students

Different educational backgrounds Different EIA

regimes

Suggested books

1. Peter Morris and Riki Therivel, 2009, Methods of Environmental Impact Assessment, Routledge2. John Glasson, Riki Therivel, Andrew Chadwick, 2005, Introduction to environmental impact assessment, Taylor and Francis3. Peter Wathern, 2004, Environmental Impact Assessment: Theory and Practice, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York4. Nolberto Munier, 2004, Multicriteria Environmental Assessment: A Practical Guide, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London5. Christopher Wood, 2003, Environmental Impact Assessment: A Comperative Review, Person, Prentice Hall6. Barbara Carroll and Trevor Turpin, 2003, Environmental Impact Assessment Handbook, a practical guide for planners, developers and communities, Hobbs the Printers, Hampshire7. David P. Lawrence, 2003, Environmental Impact Assessment: Practical Solutions to Recurrent Problems, Wiley - Interscience8. Peter Morris and Riki Therivel, 2001, Methods of Environmental Impact Assessment, Spon Press, Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York

Internet site

http://eia.unu.edu/index.html