[en] This paper presents a brief history of the development of cumulative effects, the current requirements in North America and elsewhere in the world, challenges at the project level, thoughts on how emerging concepts of strategic environmental assessment and regional assessment may offer means to improve the examination of cumulative effects and offers suggestions for current and future needs in cumulative effects assessment.

No abstract available

[en] Research focusing on the practices surrounding screening in Impact Assessment (IA) is limited. Yet, it has been found that development proposals sometimes are adjusted through an informal dialog with IA practitioners prior to or during screening. Such practice is often referred to as ‘grey IA’ in Denmark. This article explores the prevalence, influence and applied rationale of grey IA. Through a questionnaire, data was collected from 121 IA practitioners working within the fields of environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment. It was found that grey IA is a common practice, which influences the outcomes of formal screening procedures through consideration of impacts on neighbours and spatial zones of protection. Grey IA is to some extent motivated by the opportunity to save the resources required for full-scale IA, but an additional ‘green’ rationale also exists. Grey IA may influence the effectiveness of IA systems, but further research is needed before any conclusions can be made. - Highlights: • Screening procedures may function as an informal, ‘grey’ assessment. • Grey assessment is common and influences formal screening outcomes. • Grey assessment is motivated by an opportunity to cut IA costs. • Yet, an environmental, ‘green’ rationale for grey assessment also exists.

[en] In early 2011, BHP Billiton published the supplement to the 2009 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for its proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam operation. The overall EIS process provides opportunity for public and government feedback on draft EIS and the supplement addresses the issues raised in formal submissions by the public and the government on the content of the draft EIS. The two documents together form the EIS for the proposed expansion and consist of some 10,000 pages of information, comment and conclusions. Of over 4,000 submissions received on the draft EIS, there were 372 unique submissions with the rest being form letters. Submissions were received on all aspects of the proposed expansion and this paper focuses on those related to radiation. Overall, there were minimal positive radiation related comments and comments were either; seeking more information or clarity on key areas of interest, voicing ideological concerns or reiterating common misconceptions or errors of fact. The public comments provide an insight into the radiation related issues that are causing concern in sections of the community, providing an opportunity to target either awareness or education programs:He aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the key issues raised and describe how they were addressed in the supplement to the EIS.

[en] This article highlights the advantages of biofuels including the low sulphur content, the small amount of nitrogen dioxide and dust released on combustion, the reduced health risk, the renewability of biofuels, the possible collection of trace metals from the soil by biofuels, and no long term impact on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The disadvantages of the more expensive biofuel are also noted. (UK)

No abstract available

[en] This Decree, made in implementation of Decree-Law No. 186/90 on environmental protection, provides that prior to any licence being granted to any project, including nuclear installations, the licensing authority must be provided with an environmental impact study of the planned installation. This study must include a description of the project, its site, its operational characteristics, physical, geological, hydrological, ecological, demographic data, as well as information on the quality of the environment

[en] The construction of roads is one of the most widespread forms of natural landscape modification. Over the last 20 years, dozens of road constructions have been assessed in Slovakia, which makes it possible to talk about methodological positives and negatives. A special feature of Slovakia is that many planned or renovated roads are located in protected areas or are in contact with them (including Natura 2000 sites). Therefore, it is important to understand the scope of the roads' ecological impacts and find ways for their appropriate evaluation and incorporation into the Environmental Impact Assessment process. For this reason, the Ecological Impact Assessment methodology can be used as a basis for our research, which consists of three stages. In the first stage (scoping), a buffer circumventing the proposed road is created to determine the area for impact prediction and evaluation. Subsequently, the landscape structure and baseline landscape conditions are discussed, a map of current landscape structure is created and the current ecological status of the affected area is calculated. In the second stage (the evaluation of ecological resources), important ecological parts of the landscape are delineated. This step is based on the importance of previous information and its vulnerability, and leads to the mapping of the road ecological impact zone. In the third stage (impact assessment), important ecological parts are spatially correlated with the proposed road construction. Finally, the significance of ecological impacts of the activity is evaluated by applying specific criteria (duration, reversibility, magnitude, size and road ecological impact zone significance). A scale is proposed for each criterion to evaluate the total significance of impacts. In this way, detailed significant ecological impacts can be found which will help lead to proposed correct mitigation measures and a post-project analysis. - Highlights: • This paper proposes a methodology for the EcIA of road construction. • It tries to understand the spatial structure and configuration of landscape elements. • The most important ecological parts within the territory are identified. • The total significance of ecological receptors is evaluated by applying criteria.

[en] On the basis of investigation, the assessment index of ecological environment impact is determined from the aspects of natural eco-environment and social eco-environment. Both qualitative analysis and quantitative assessment are adopted for assessing the ecological environment impact during the exploitation of a uranium mine in Jiangxi province. The results show that some values of the assessment index in natural eco-subsystem decline slightly, while those of the assessment index in social eco-subsystem ascend so that the ecological environment quality around the uranium mine ascend slightly. Moreover, some reasonable advices on eco-environment protection measures are put forward in order to build a ecotype uranium mine. (authors)

[en] Highlights: • Manipulation is an illegitimate attempt to alter EIA for spurious interests. • Any stakeholder may try to manipulate EIA in self-benefit. • While bias is unavoidable in EIA and should be managed, manipulation is unacceptable. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process where several stakeholders take part, each with different interests, making bias unavoidable and a major cause of concern, but there is a big difference between inherent stakeholders' bias and manipulation, an illegitimate attempt to alter decisions for spurious interests. Although manipulation has usually been attributed to developers, any stakeholder may try to use it for self-benefit. In this paper we analyse manipulation possibilities, and how they can be used by stakeholders. While bias is unavoidable and should be reduced, understood and managed in EIA, manipulation is unacceptable and must be excluded.