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Environmental Assessment
From TipThePlanet
Contents |
[edit] State of the Environment Reporting
- Build national, regional and local capacity in integrated environmental assessment and reporting with GEOkit. This toolkit serves both as a resource for trainers when organising workshops, as well as a toolkit for people running an assessment process. The kit provides guidance, case studies, papers and production tools relevant to all steps in an assessment process. This ranges from the very first question of why to do an assessment, to tracing impact of the assessment process. GEOkit is distributed on a CD-ROM, and updates will be available through the Internet. For more information about GEOkit, please send an e-mail to geokit@grida.no
- The GRID-Arendal's Cookbook for State of the Environment Reporting on the Internet provides easy-to-use methodological guidance for the development of electronic environmental status reports. Available online in English, Japanese and Russian.
- See here for state of the environment reports for different regions.
[edit] Environmental Impact Assessment
An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an assessment of the likely human environmental health impact, risk to ecological health, and changes to nature's services that a project may have. The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision-makers consider environmental impacts before deciding whether to proceed with new projects.
- The Global Reporting Initiative is an international network linking business, civil society, labor, and professional institutions to create the content of the Reporting Framework in a consensus-seeking process. The Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) vision is that reporting on economic, environmental, and social performance by all organizations becomes as routine and comparable as financial reporting. GRI accomplishes this vision by developing, continually improving, and building capacity around the use of its Sustainability Reporting Framework. View the 2006 guidelines here.
- The Environmental Assessment Resource Guide by the US Environmental Protection Agency is a generic source of information to help one conduct environmental assessments of virtually any type of project. Topics covered include scoping, generation of alternatives, impact identification and analysis, mitigation, decision making and post-decision analysis. Of particular interest are the World Bank Mitigation Tables which treat a variety of project types. SVGA photos enhance and illustrate this landmark program.
- Comparative Risk Assessment is a methodology which uses sound science, policy, economic analysis and stakeholder participation to identify and address the areas of greatest environmental risks and provide a framework for prioritizing environmental problems. The results of a comparative risk analysis can be used to provide a technical basis for targeting activities, management priorities and resources. This program contains the history and methodology of comparative risk, as well as many case studies and information sources.
[edit] Relevant links
- European Commission - EIA website
- Guide to Environmental Impact Assessment and Design
- International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA)
[edit] Specific Areas of Assessment
- SustainLane's 2006 U.S. City Rankings of the nation’s 50 largest cities are the nation’s most complete report card on urban sustainability. The rankings explain how people’s quality of life and city economic and management preparedness are likely to fare in the face of an uncertain future. These indicators gauge, for instance, which cities’ public transit, renewable energy, local food, and development approaches are more likely to either limit or intensify the negative economic and environmental impacts of fossil fuel dependence. See also Fossil Fuels.
- The US Environmental Protection Agency's RadNet is a national network of monitoring stations that regularly collect air, precipitation, drinking water, and milk samples for analysis of radioactivity.
- The EPA's 2007 Beach Act Grants are awarded to eligible coastal and Great Lakes states, territories, and tribes to develop and implement beach water quality monitoring and public notification programs.
- See the U.S. National Defence of National Resources Drinking Water Quality Report for an assessment of 19 U.S. cities
