Q method factor analysis of stakeholder social perspectives of the effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment public participation in the Western Cape, South Africa

Public participation is an integral part of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and as such, has been incorporated into regulatory norms. Assessment of the effectiveness of public participation has remained elusive however. This is partly due to the difficulty in identifying appropriate effectiveness criteria. This research uses Q methodology to discover and analyze stakeholder's social perspectives of the effectiveness of EIAs in the Western Cape, South Africa. It considers two case studies (Main Road and Saldanha Bay EIAs) for contextual participant perspectives of the effectiveness based on their experience. It further considers the more general opinion of provincial consent regulator staff at the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Planning (DEA&DP). Two main themes of investigation are drawn from the South African National Environmental Management Act imperative for effectiveness: firstly, the participation procedure, and secondly, the stakeholder capabilities necessary for effective participation. Four theoretical frameworks drawn from planning, politics and EIA theory are adapted to public participation and used to triangulate the analysis and discussion of the revealed social perspectives. They consider citizen power in deliberation, Habermas' preconditions for the Ideal Speech Situation (ISS), a Foucauldian perspective of knowledge, power and politics, and a Capabilities Approach to public participation effectiveness. The empirical evidence from this research shows that the capacity and contextual constraints faced by participants demand the legislative imperatives for effective participation set out in the NEMA. The implementation of effective public participation has been shown to be a complex, dynamic and sometimes nebulous practice. The functional level of participant understanding of the process was found to be significantly wide-ranging with consequences of unequal and dissatisfied stakeholder engagements. Furthermore, the considerable variance of stakeholder capabilities in the South African social context, resulted in inequalities in deliberation. The social perspectives revealed significant differences in participant experience in terms of citizen power in deliberation. The ISS preconditions are highly contested in both the Saldanha EIA case study and the DEA&DP social perspectives. Only one Main Road EIA case study social perspective considered Foucault's notion of governmentality as a reality in EIA public participation. The freedom of control of ones environment, based on a Capabilities approach, is a highly contested notion. Although agreed with in principle, all of the social perspectives indicate that contextual and capacity realities constrain its realisation. This research has shown that Q method can be applied to EIA public participation in South Africa and, with the appropriate research or monitoring applications it could serve as a useful feedback tool to inform best practice public participation.

Heterogeneity of atmosfpheric ammonia at the landscape scale and consequences for environmental impact assessment.

We examined the consequences of the spatial heterogeneity of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) by measuring and modelling NH3 concentrations and deposition at 25 m grid resolution for a rural landscape containing intensive poultry farming, agricultural grassland, woodland and moorland. The emission pattern gave rise to a high spatial variability of modelled mean annual NH3 concentrations and dry deposition. Largest impacts were predicted for woodland patches located within the agricultural area, while larger moorland areas were at low risk, due to atmospheric dispersion, prevailing wind direction and low NH3 background. These high resolution spatial details are lost in national scale estimates at 1 km resolution due to less detailed emission input maps. The results demonstrate how the spatial arrangement of sources and sinks is critical to defining the NH3 risk to semi-natural ecosystems. These spatial relationships provide the foundation for local spatial planning approaches to reduce environmental impacts of atmospheric NH3.

Windsor Road combined location/design study : FAU route 7145, section 77-00285-00-ES, Mattis Avenue to Philo Road, Champaign County, Illinois : final environmental impact statement and section 4(f) evaluation /

"Cooperating agencies: City of Champaign, City of Urbana, Champaign Urbana Urbanized Area Transportation Study."

Environmental impact assessment of agrochemicals for fish production - a review paper

The environmental impact of agro-chemicals for fish production was extensively reviewed. The positive contribution of agro- chemicals and the devastating effect on aquaculture was x-rayed to alert users to this obvious environmental problem. Lime and fertilizers are commonly used in fish farming to increase pH of pond soil and water and to increase alkalinity and hardness, reduce humic acid content and to initiate primary and secondary productivity. Devastating effect of lime on environment is likely to be minimal. In the case of fertilizers, over utilization of this agro-chemical could impair water quality as phytoplankton bloom become excessive which consequently raises BOD. The use of Therapeutants in aquaculture was discovered to be more popular in Europe and North America than in the tropics (Africa). Commonly used therapeutants include antibiotics and antimicrobials. For fish pathology chemicals like formalin, potassium permanganate, Dipterex and malachite green are widely in use. Effluent from farms where these chemicals are commonly in use can distort the aquatic ecosystem. The changes in water quality, aquatic community structure and productivity caused by intensive aquaculture are typical of the impacts of pollution from a wide variety of sources like sewage, agricultural run-off and effluent discharges from industry

A primer for the Environmental Impact Assessment of mining at seafloor massive sulfide deposits

Seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) contain commercially viable quantities of high grade ores, making them attractive prospect sites for marine mining. SMS deposits may also contain hydrothermal vent ecosystems populated by high conservation value vent-endemic species. Responsible environmental management of these resources is best achieved by the adoption of a precautionary approach. Part of this precautionary approach involves the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of exploration and exploitative activities at SMS deposits. The VentBase 2012 workshop provided a forum for stakeholders and scientists to discuss issues surrounding SMS exploration and exploitation. This forum recognised the requirement for a primer which would relate concepts underpinning EIA at SMS deposits. The purpose of this primer is to inform policy makers about EIA at SMS deposits in order to aid management decisions. The primer offers a basic introduction to SMS deposits and their associated ecology, and the basic requirements for EIA at SMS deposits; including initial data and information scoping, environmental survey, and ecological risk assessment. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Environmental impact assessment: looking at sediments in Nootka Sound for traces of pulp mill effluent

Senior thesis written for Oceanography 445

Environmental impact assessment in Brazil

Brazilian environmental impact assessment (EIA) had a relatively late birth and is still far from being operative by international standards. Currently, geological, economic, and social considerations are more highly valued. Nevertheless, EIA has become important in shaping governmental environmental policy. The state of São Paulo is responsible for 40% of all EIAs produced in Brazil, and the number of EIAs produced is proportional to state population density.

Consequences of different meteorological scenarios in the environmental impact assessment of tritium in air

The environmental impact of systems managing large (kg) tritium amount represents a public scrutiny issue for the next coming fusion facilities as ITER and DEMO. Furthermore, potentially new dose limits imposed by international regulations (ICRP) shall impact next coming devices designs and the overall costs of fusion technology deployment. Refined environmental tritium dose impact assessment schemes are then overwhelming. Detailed assessments can be procured from the knowledge of the real boundary conditions of the primary tritium discharge phase into atmosphere (low levels) and into soils. Lagrangian dispersion models using real-time meteorological and topographic data provide a strong refinement. Advance simulation tools are being developed in this sense. The tool integrates a numerical model output records from European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) with a lagrangian atmospheric dispersion model (FLEXPART). The composite model ECMWF/FLEXTRA results can be coupled with tritium dose secondary phase pathway assessment tools. Nominal tritium discharge operational reference and selected incidental ITER-like plant systems tritium form source terms have been assumed. The realtime daily data and mesh-refined records together with lagrangian dispersion model approach provide accurate results for doses to population by inhalation or ingestion in the secondary phase

Mahanadi streamflow: climate change impact assessment and adaptive strategies

Impacts of climate change on hydrology are assessed by downscaling large scale general circulation model (GCM) outputs of climate variables to local scale hydrologic variables. This modelling approach is characterized by uncertainties resulting from the use of different models, different scenarios, etc. Modelling uncertainty in climate change impact assessment includes assigning weights to GCMs and scenarios, based on their performances, and providing weighted mean projection for the future. This projection is further used for water resources planning and adaptation to combat the adverse impacts of climate change. The present article summarizes the recent published work of the authors on uncertainty modelling and development of adaptation strategies to climate change for the Mahanadi river in India.