Assessing Environmental Impact

Environmental Impact Assessment

is an assessment of the

possible positive or negative impact a proposed project will have

on the environment, considering the natural, social and economic

aspects. This term is usually used when applied to actual projects

by individual or companies

Environmental risk assessment

assess the likelihood of your

business activities or operation causing harm to the environment, it

involves the process of assessing the risk human activities may

have on the environment, the environment here includes human

beings (health hazards impact) and ecology (impacts on fauna and

flora)

environmental impact assessment

is a broad field that

includes all activities that attempt to analyze and evaluate

the effects of human and related actions on the environment

Risk assessment

are generally concerned with the relatively

well-defined regulatory problems and employs formal quantitative

analysis of the potential risk.

Philippine EIS System

(PEISS),

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) System in the

Philippines, officially referred to as the

Presidential Decree (PD) 1586 on 11

June 1978

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) System in the

Philippines, officially referred to as the Philippine EIS System

(PEISS), was established under

Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC).

Section 4 of PD 1586 provides that no person, partnership or

corporation shall undertake or operate any such declared

environmentally critical project or area without first securing an

Environmentally

Critical Projects (ECPs) and Environmentally Critical Areas

(ECAs) was provided.

Full implementation

of the PEISS transpired after the issuance of Presidential Proclamation

2146 in 1981 where the technical definition of

environmental assessment,

• a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) if that is

appropriate,

• an environmental impact statement (if no FONSI is

issued), and

• a record of the decision (ROD) made following the

environmental assessment

Environmental impact of federal projects currently is

performed in several stages:

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

requires that environmental impact be assessed

whenever a federal action will have an environmental

impact, as well as requiring that alternatives be

considered.

(1) problem definition,

(2) generation of alternative solutions,

(3) evaluation of alternatives,

(4) implementation of a selected solution, and

(5) review and appropriate revision of the implemented solution.

Engineers ideally approach a problem in a sequence suggested to be

rational by the theories of public decision making:

(1) Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)

(2) Environmental Assessment (EA)

(3) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS

Each project funded by the federal government or requiring a federal permit

must be accompanied by an environmental assessment. This assessment

results in issuance of one of three documents:

(1) Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)

Such a stand-alone finding

results when potential environmental impacts are compared to a checklist of

significant impacts, with the result that no significant impact can be

identified.

(2) Environmental Assessment (EA)

A detailed assessment of potential

environmental impact resulting in one of two conclusions: either the EA must

be expanded to a full-scale environmental impact statement or a FONSI

results from the EA.

(3) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS

An EIS must assess in detail

the potential environmental impacts of a proposed action and alternative

actions. Additionally, the agencies must generally follow a detailed public

review of each EIS before proceeding with the project or permit. It should be

noted that both positive and negative impacts are included; i.e., “impact” does

not imply “adverse impact.”

Environmental Inventories

The first step in evaluating the environmental impact of a project’s alternatives is

to inventory factors that may be affected by the proposed action. Existing

conditions are measured and described, but no effort is made to assess the

importance of a variable. Any number and many kinds of variables may be

included, such as:

1. the “ologies”: hydrology, geology, climatology, anthropology, and

archaeology;

2. environmental quality: land, surface and subsurface water, air, noise, and

transportation impacts;

3. plant and animal life;

4. economic impact on the surrounding community: number of jobs, average

family income, etc.;

5. analysis of the risks to both people and the natural environment from accidents

that may occur during the life of the project; and

6. other relevant socioeconomic parameters, like future land use, expansion or

diminution of the population of urban areas and exurbs, the impacts of

nonresident populations, and environmental justice considerations.

Environmental Assessment

is the process of calculating projected effects

that a proposed action or construction project will have on

environmental quality.

Checklist

are lists of potential environmental impacts, both primary

and secondary.

Primary effects

occur as a direct result of the proposed project, such as

the effect of a dam on aquatic life.

Secondary effects

occur as an indirect result of the action

The planning phase,

3 phase of checklist -consideration is given to the environmental effects

of the highway route and the acquisition and condemnation of property

The construction phase

checklist will include displacement of people,

noise, soil erosion, air and water pollution, and energy use.

The operation phase

will list direct impacts owing to noise, water

pollution resulting from runoff, energy use, etc., and indirect impacts

owing to regional development, housing, lifestyle, and economic

development.

Interaction matrix technique

is a two-dimensional listing of

existing characteristics and

conditions of the environment and

detailed proposed actions that may

affect the environment.

Checklist-with-weighted-rankings technique

The search for a comprehensive, systematic, interdisciplinary, and

quantitative method for evaluating environmental impact has led to the_____

The intent here is to use

a checklist as before to ensure that all aspects of the environment are

covered, as well as to give these items a numerical rating in common

units.

Step 1: Identify the Hazards

Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how

Step 3: Evaluate the risk and decide on precautions

Step 4: Record your findings and implement them

Step 5: Review your risk assessment and update

Five steps to Risk Assessment

environmental risk

assessment

establishes levels of contaminants that can remain at a site and still be adequately protective of public health.

provides a consistent process for evaluating and documenting public health hazards associated with exposure to environmental contamination