Evaluating the environmental impact of a major transport infrastructure project: the Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link

Effectiveness of the legal framework for natural areas protection relative to French road projects

“…Environmental assessments are now a recognized approach in France but also internationally to assess the environmental impacts of major projects such as highway projects (Goodenough and Page, 1994;Fernandes, 2000;Bassi et al, 2012). Since its inception 30 years ago, the EIA has become a widely accepted tool in environmental management for both planning and decision making.…”

The formulation and evaluation of transport route planning alternatives: a spatial decision support system for the Via Baltica project, Poland

“…The themes that have been selected in this project are (1) transport efficiency, (2) ecology, (3) social impact and safety and (4) economic costs and benefits. Such themes are typically considered in an EIA process for transport, as listed in for example Goodenough and Page (1994), Fischer (1999) and UN ESCAP (2001). For each criterion within a theme a corresponding criterion score has to be defined, which is associated with a (raster) map in the SMCA process within with each pixel has a suitability value.…”

Moving Towards Integrated Policy Formulation and Evaluation: The Green Economy Model

“…Starting from the highest level of policy framework, the report by the United Nations Environment Management Group's [1] points out that, at the operational level, the green economy is seen as one whose growth in income and employment is driven by investments that (1) reduce carbon emissions and pollution; (2) enhance energy and resource efficiency; (3) prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These investments need to be catalysed and supported by targeted public expenditure, policy reforms and regulation changes to create the so-called "enabling conditions" for an inclusive green economy.…”

“…This being said, large-scale and interconnected infrastructure projects (as enablers of economic development [2]) are shown to profoundly influence the integrity of natural systems [3], [4]. The benefits for society and economies -national and regional-of infrastructure investment are analysed to assess whether the project will lead to the desired economic outcomes, whatever these may be [5].…”