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Characteristics of SEA:

• system based

• procedural

• result based

System-based characteristics of SEA refer to the basic provisions and requirements for SEA and the position of SEA in the broader planning and decision-making environment. Procedural characteristics of SEA concern the various methodological and process elements of SEA—in other words, the practice of SEA. Result-based characteristics of SEA capture the overall influence of SEA on decision-making and subsequent actions, including the opportunity for broader system-wide learning and SEA process improvement.

What is strategic?

Strategic: Activities related to broader institutional, societal, economic, and environmental objectives, long-term goal formulation, and the evaluation of strategic choices, futures, and opportunities.

Reflexive: Activities related to monitoring, assessments, and evaluation of ongoing strategies, operations, and change (social, economic, cultural, and biophysical).

Tactical: Interest-driven directing activities that relate to the dominant structures of a system, including rules and regulations, institutions, organizations, and networks, infrastructure, and routines.

Operational: The activities, tests, and actions that have a short-term horizon and support implementation.

what is Institutional context

refers to the various policies, objectives, or legal obligations that are set out in broad agency mandates or commitments that are relevant to the purpose or focus of the SEA

compliance-based SEA

A strategic assessment focused on whether, and to what extent, a proposed policy, plan, or program complies with, or supports, specified objectives, policies, or commitments and, if necessary, identifies and explores options to ensure compliance.

critical decision factors

In the context of strategic environmental assessment, the issues or factors that matter most to decision-making, such as those factors defined in policies, agency agendas, or sustainability goals, and serve to focus or guide the assessment.

governance framework

The network of interrelated government and/or non-government organizations and institutional arrangements that will inform, and be informed by, an impact assessment.

programmatic environmental assessment

Under the US NEPA, the application of environmental assessment to multiple projects or to programs of development

project EA–like SEA

An approach to strategic assessment focused on assessing the potential impacts of a proposed or existing policy, plan, or program and comparing impacts to those of viable alternatives

strategic environmental assessment (SEA)

The environmental assessment of initiatives, policies, plans, and programs and their alternatives.

strategic futures SEA

A strategic assessment focused on identifying and assessing the potential implications of alternative future scenarios or land uses, evaluating the relative risks and opportunities, and establishing a preferred strategic direction or approach.

strategic transitions SEA

A strategic assessment focused on identifying and assessing the potential implications of alternative future scenarios or land uses, evaluating the relative risks and opportunities, and establishing a preferred strategic direction or approach.

Impact mitigation

Impact management in EA is usually referred to as impact mitigation.

Minimizing adverse environmental change associated with a project by implementing environmentally sound construction, operating, scheduling, and management principles and practices within project design

avoiding impacts;

if an impact is avoided, all the costs of fixing it will also be avoided

Impact avoidance

should be entered early in an ea

A form of impact management whereby impacts are avoided at the outset by way of alternative project designs, timing, or location rather than managed or mitigated after they occur.

buffer zones

area of undisturbed environments, usually separating a project’s actions or disturbance from background conditions such as a riparian buffer zone.

restoration

An impact management action focused on restoring environmental quality, rehabilitating certain environmental features, repairing ecological functions, or restoring environmental components to varying degrees.

remediation

reducing contamination levels within a site

end stage of a project life cycle

The process of post-industrial or post-development site cleanup, which typically involves the removal of contaminants or pollution from soil and water.

compensation

can be controversial as it creates an issue to be solved in the future

a form of compensation is rebuilding the lost habitat away from the site to create a net. loss of 0.

The measures taken by the proponent to make up for adverse environmental impacts of a project that exist after mitigation measures have been implemented

Environmental management plans (emps)

also called environmental protection plans

The proponent prepares the EMP and describes how the project will be undertaken, including such aspects as a description of the project environment, potential conflicts, and environmental protection measures that the proponent will take to avoid or minimize those conflicts.

Plans prepared by a proponent that detail the specific impact mitigation strategies for a project and the ways in which they are to be implemented.

table of contents for an EMP

all regulations and limitations within the EMP must be clearly laid out with goals and targets.

adaptive management strategy (AM)

unknown unknown

as new knowledge is gained, the features of the plan will adapt with it 9ex: new technology)

also used to test methods and hypotheses to determine which actions provide the best results.

A multi-step, deliberative process that involves exploring alternative management actions and making explicit forecasts about their outcomes, carefully designing monitoring programs to provide reliable feedback and understanding of the reasons underlying actual outcomes, and then adjusting objectives or management actions based on this new understanding

impact benefit agreements (IBAs)

• private between industry and the affected community

• can be drawn up at any time of the ea

• usually focuses on socio-cultural impacts however they will also focus on biophysical impacts if they are deemed important.

• Legal agreement between a proponent and a community or group that will potentially be affected by a project; generally applied to ensure that the resources for maximizing the benefits associated with the development are fully capitalized on

Pre-EA Negotiation (communities)

• allows communities to leverage for better perks from the ea

• allows companies to get communities to sign contracts that say they won’t publically challenge the project

• early negotiation allows communites to have a say in the ea design

• can be hard because the EA has many uncertainties that neither group knows about

• it depends on whether the iba is open to renegotiation to see if the unseen impacts can be accounted for

parallel-EA Negotiation

• both parties have information and input

• In principle, the processes should be mutually supportive. In practice, the confidential nature of agreements may prevent the open flow of information such that each process equally benefits from the other.

post-EA Negotiation

• much more certainty within the agreements

• less opportunity for communities to leverage benefits

• ea can’t also benefit from this discussion as it is already written.

Environmental protection plans

Mandatory management plans that result from project-based EAs; these management plans are tailored to the project as a result of the identification of key impacts and issues and management measures through the environmental assessment process.

what are the basic principles to characterize significance?

• Significance determination is not solely a scientific exercise

• What is significant is subjective and varies based on the values and perceptions of different stakeholders

• What is significant in one context or at one place and time may not be so at another.

• Significance determinations are made based on incomplete information and under uncertain conditions.

• There is no standard method for significance determination that will work for all projects or for all impacts.

• A determination of a significant adverse impact does not mean that a project should be rejected, but if the project is approved, then the impacts must be justified.

• Significance determinations and the justification of projects with significant adverse impacts must be transparent.

What is the difference between impact measurement characteristics and impact meaning characteristics?

impact measurement: characteristic of the impact: reversibility, spatial extent, important magnitude and duration.

Impact means characteristics: cultural impacts, expressed rights, social values and accessibility, political context and public interest.

impact measurement may measure with analytical skill how the proponent will be impacted, however, it cannot be determined significant or not without understanding how humans view the topic. (impact meaning)

ccme

Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment

what are the three types of standards or regulatory limits used for significance determinations.

• Exclusionary – leads to automatic rejection of a proposal

• Mandatory – leads to a mandatory finding of significance

• Probable – normally significant but subject to confirmation

what are benchmarks and limits and why are they important?

to create a proper baseline for the impact, and if this baseline is exceeded how will it be handled?

Traditionally, limits have not been based on ecological limits per se but more commonly on public perceptions of risk

range of natural variability (RNV)

The notion that ecosystems are dynamic and fluctuate within a certain range of normalcy beyond which, when disturbed, adverse effects occur.

changes that occur outside this range may be considered significant impacts

what is vulnerability

some groups are unable to adapt and change quickly enough to the impacts of a project. this will make them vulnerable to the change.

some ecosystems have animals that play crucial roles within them. this also brings in the idea of irreplaceability. if a species has an important role and cannot be replaced when damaged, then this should be considered a significant impact.

social values and acceptability

social values will be set out before the project starts. it is based on what people will find acceptable as well as the probability of ti happening. Ex: if the crime rate rises by 1% then it will be unacceptable. The breaking of a damn will be unacceptable, but because the chances of it happening are low, it will then be okay.

political context and public interest.

EX: a community that has a low employment rate may be more open to a risky project than one with a high employment rate with the hope of more jobs.

political things that must be considered: does it affect national security (energy/water security), does it interfere with treaty rights, does it go along with environmental policies or strategies?

evaluation of significant impacts, technical approach.

quantitative approaches.

ex; cost-benefit analysis, impact magnitude matrices, multiy-criteria evaluation and fuzzy sets.

factors such as habitat value, species value, and community value are given weight to determine significance.

evaluation of significant impacts, collaborative approach.

the premise that subjective, value-based judgments about what is important should result from interactions among interested and affected parties

issues arise solely from consultation with the public

evaluation of significant impacts, reasoned argumentation.

evaluation of significant impacts, composite approach.

a composite model consisting of various combinations of technical, collaborative, and argumentative approaches is desirable. Such a model may consist of technical analysis using conventional significance determination methods, supported by public consultation or traditional knowledge systems, which together, based on existing EA regulation or land-use plans, comprise a reasoned argument for significance

Range of acceptability:

is the impact within the range of acceptability, and if it is not, how can it be made so.

what areh the three key principles about determining significance?

1. transparency on howe it is determined

2. inclusiveness of all parties

3. consideration of uncertainty

cost-benefit analysis

An assessment method that expresses project impacts in monetary terms, measuring the relative costs of a project against its potential or total benefits

fuzzy sets

a class of objects with a continuum of grades of membership or a mathematical model of qualitative or qualitative data

impact magnitude matrices

Impact matrices that provide some indication of the relative importance or significance of the affected components

impact meaning

In the context of significance determination, the context within which impact characteristics are viewed and interpreted (e.g., regulatory, social, ecological, sustainability)

impact measurement

In the context of significance determination, the characteristics of the impact (e.g., magnitude, spatial extent, duration).

impact significance

The degree of importance of an impact based on the characteristics of the impact, the receiving environment, and societal values.

reasoned argumentation

Sifting through information, data, perspectives, and expressed values using structured methods (e.g., decision support aids, matrices, network diagrams) to focus on matters of most importance to decision-making and to build reasoned arguments that support a claim or position

residual effects

Effects that remain after all management and mitigation measures have been implemented.

statistical significance

In statistical hypothesis testing, helps to quantify whether a result is likely to have occurred because of chance or because of some factor or variable of interest

what are the three components of a follow up?

Follow-up consists of three interrelated components: monitoring, auditing, and ex-post evaluation

what are the three reasons for monitoring?

compliance monitoring

understanding monitoring

monitoring for management

continuity in data collection

data collection needs to be consistent and comparable in order to make connections overtime. when regulations and practices are changed often it makes it hard for the analyzers to make connections from project actions to environmental change.

tmx

The Trans Mountain Expansion

ambient environmental quality monitoring

A pre-project assessment of the surrounding environment inclusive of biophysical and socio-economic factors; collected information is used as a baseline in comparing a project’s environment during development, operation, and post-operation against unaffected control sites in order to monitor the impact of a project

auditing

An objective examination or comparison of observations with predetermined criteria.

compliance monitoring

Monitoring to ensure that all project regulations, agreements, laws, and specific guidelines have been adhered to.

control-impact design

A monitoring design for comparing project-exposed sites to reference or control sites

control sites

A reference point where the environment is not affected by the project, used to monitor the nature and extent of project-induced change in areas that are affected by the project.

cumulative effects monitoring

Monitoring the accumulated state of environmental conditions or indicators of cumulative stress associated with developments or other disturbances in a region

draft EIS audit

Review of the project environmental impact statement according to its terms of reference.

early warning indicators

Indicators that can be measured to detect the possibility of adverse stress on valued components before they are adversely affected

effectiveness monitoring

Monitoring of mitigation actions implemented to manage anticipated impacts and whether those actions are working to hold impacts to acceptable levels

effects-based monitoring

Monitoring the condition or performance of the receiving environment, based on the premise that measuring change in environmental indicators, or early warning indicators of potentially affected valued components, is the most direct and relevant means of assessing change

experimental monitoring

Research into environmental systems and their impacts for the purpose ofgathering information and knowledge and testing hypotheses.

ex-post evaluation

Acting and making decisions based on the result of structure, analysis, and appraisal of information concerning project impacts.

follow-up

The monitoring, auditing, and ex-post evaluation activities that occur after a project’s approval, focused on whether a project has had or is continuing to have environmental effects

gradient-to-background monitoring

Monitoring system that measures the effects caused by the impact source at an increasing distance from the impact origin to the point of background assimilation; an “artificial" control point is established

implementation monitoring

An evaluation of whether or not the recommendations presented in a projects environmental impact statement were actually put into practice.

life-cycle assessment

The cradle-to-grave assessment of projects from their inception and start-up to post-operation

monitoring

A systematic process of data collection or observations used to identify the cause and nature of environmental change

monitoring for knowledge

The monitoring used after impacts occur; data are collected and used for future impact prediction and project management

monitoring of agreements

monitoring and auditing of agreements between project proponents and affected groups to ensure compliance

performance audit

An assessment of a proponent’s capability to respond to environmental incidents and ofits management performance

predictive technique audit

A type of environmental audit in which a project's predicted effects are compared to the actual effects

project impact audit

A type of auditing that focuses on determining whether the actual project impacts were predicted in the environmental impact statement

regulatory permit monitoring

Site-specific monitoring that includes regular documentation of requirements necessary for permit renewal or maintenance

stress-based monitoring

Monitoring project actions or stress, such as the concentration and volume of water discharged from an operation

what is the difference between indigenous engagement and the duty to consult?

engagement of Indigenous peoples in EA is one means to find balance among competing values and to facilitate reconciliation between development actions and environmental protection; the duty to consult is about reconciliation of the pre-existence of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous rights with the sovereignty of the Crown

concerns for Aboriginal people engagement: late timing of engagement.

when impact communities are not included until later in the planning phases, the important decisions about project design and mitigation factors are already made without the input of Aboriginal people.

concerns for Aboriginal people engagement: misaligned expectations about the scope of the EA

when consulting, indigenous people and bringing up issues that fall under federal regulation rather than EA regulations, leading to tense situations.

concerns for Aboriginal people engagement: limited financial and human resource capacity

Many Indigenous communities, especially those located in remote locations, do not have the human resources or financial or technical capacity to engage in EA.

concerns for Aboriginal people engagement; participation fatigue in resource intense development regions

report that the capacity constraints to engage in EA are exacerbated in regions subject to major resource developments, such mining or energy resource–rich regions, where increasing numbers of EA applications and project developments mean ongoing demands for consultation as proponents and governments meet their consultation obligations

Practices for meaningful indigenous engagement: Governments Take Leadership to Address Strategic Issues Pre-EA

This means that governments also take responsibility for shaping expectations about engagement—including clarifying the roles of government and the proponent in consultation processes. Government must consult potentially affected Indigenous communities before land is opened for development (Cooney, 2013) and before EA applications are accepted from project proponents

Practices for meaningful indigenous engagement: Proponents Engage Communities in the EA Planning Process

Good practice means that Indigenous communities are engaged early in the EA planning process and in jointly setting the scoping requirements or terms of reference for the EA

Practices for meaningful indigenous engagement: Communities Have Access to Capacity-Building and Financial Support

Government agencies, and project proponents, sometimes provide Indigenous communities with participant funding to engage in EA—at different stages of the process.

Practices for meaningful indigenous engagement: Communities Have Access to Information

Access to information about a proposed project, including information about its location, design, baseline conditions and impacts, and any monitoring results, is necessary for informed engagement

Practices for meaningful indigenous engagement: engagement continues after the EA approval

Meaningful engagement means that Indigenous communities are involved beyond project reviews and play a meaningful role post–EA approval.

bridging knowledge systems

Maintaining the integrity of Indigenous and Western science knowledge systems while creating settings to ensure the two-way exchange of understanding and learning.

duty to consult

A formal, legal obligation in Canada for governments to consult with Indigenous people in cases where Indigenous rights, claims, or titles are known and may be affected by a development or decision, even in cases where those rights, claims, or titles have not yet been proven in court.

Indigenous and local knowledge

A cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment.

ILK

Indigenous-led impact assessment

Environmental assessment processes governed by, designed by, and implemented by an Indigenous group.

intervenors

An individual or formal group or interest who formally intervenes or participates as a third party in a legal or public hearing proceeding.

social licence

The ongoing acceptance of a company or industry’s business practices and operations by communities or the general public